The portable monitor is USB-C 3.1, 2k 60Hz display (2160*1400)
Troubleshooting steps so far (in order):
I have tried all 3x USB-C ports (top-left, both on right). I get power delivery, but no picture. Laptop does not detect in AMD Adrenalin or Windows Display Properties.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled drivers.
I tried step 1 with a USB-C 3.1 cable, a Thunderbolt 4 cable, and a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 cable.
I tried dropping down resolution and refresh rate to see if the monitor would get a signal, no luck.
Context:
When I plug in the portable monitor it says “No signal detected”, so it gets power but not picture. If I then plug in the HDMI signal then it provides picture. And HDMI works via traditional displays as well (monitor has own power delivery).
I know this portable display works, as it works via Thunderbolt 3 with a Dell XPS (10th gen Intel i7) and via USB 3.1 with a Lenovo Thinkpad (AMD R7 5850u).
I need this to work via USB-C only.
Am I missing something here? I believe there shouldn’t be an issue.
Do you get any sort of notification sound when the display is plugged in? Windows plays notification sounds whenever a peripheral is plugged in. Check if windows is actually detecting the display.
Also, which USB C port are you using to plug the display in? I believe display out only works in the top row of ports.
That is very odd. If you are willing to, you can try using a Linux Live USB and check the log messages once you plug in the display cables to see if anything gets detected. I don’t know if Windows has a similar log to check for any display updates.
If you aren’t willing to, I would recommend you contact support and request a replacement mainboard.
Unfortunately not all portable USB-C monitors work with Framework laptops. Particularly the AMD processor models. We have seen posts from other people in similar situations where the portable monitor works with a Dell/HP,Lenovo but not Framework.
(My opinion) I suspect there is a communication breakdown between the Framework Laptop and the portable monitor. This is probably at the firmware level of the chipset and the root cause has not been discovered.
Sadly, the promise of USB-C everything is not as clean as it is promoted to be once you start to get into the details of how everything communicates. Even power delivery (PD) signaling is complicated where it would seem fairly straight forward.
Hmmm yeah, I’ve had no luck so far, and no response from FW support at this time either. My guess more or less was that it would be something obscure as I tried everything obvious already, and I have a decent amount of experience with diagnosing these types of issues.
I’d like to think that stating supported standards DP, HDMI, PD, etc means FW devices would be capable. But I understand these things are not always that straightforward. Overall I really like the laptop, but this is disappointing as it does affect how I would normally use the device.
I will update this thread if FW support gets back to me with a result.
If your portable display supports DisplayPort as an input, you could try this USB-C to DisplayPort cable which worked for me on my Framework 16 when using external displays and VR headsets connected to the dGPU on my Laptop via the back USB-C port. You could still use a standard USB-C cable to power the display in addition to this cable since DisplayPort obviously isn’t going to carry any power with it. I can’t speak for the Framework 13 however I do know this cable works perfectly with the Framework 16 and perfectly utilizes the dGPU when plugged into the rear USB-C port and if I plug it into a USB-C module on the side of the laptop then it will use the iGPU. It seems like the Framework 13 doesn’t have a dedicated dGPU out like the Framework 16 GPU module does but this cable might still help since it would be doing the conversion from USB-C to DisplayPort which is something the screen should be able to speak no matter who the sources is where the thunderbolt stuff can be a whole different can of worms. Also, this cable will let you easily attach bigger screens to your laptop when you’re at a desktop where you have access to a bigger screen since DP is pretty standard input on PC displays and if you get the HDMI version of the cable it will work with TV’s as well which is nice when sitting in a hotel room not wanting to have to pay to rent movies!
