I’ll throw some specs at y’all first:
System: Framework 16 with AMD Radeon RX 7700S
OS: Windows 11 Pro 24H2
Monitor: iiyama G-Master GCB4580DQSN
When I connect the FW16 to the monitor, I see the desktop shrink briefly, but then things stutter a bit, and eventually nothing happens. It’s like it detected the monitor, tried to send the display information, but failed.
I have tried this with HDMI, DisplayPort, the USB-C cable that came with the monitor, the official USB-C cable from my Nothing Phone, and a rather expensive new USB4 Gen 3x2 USB-C cable to ensure the highest standards are available. Unfortunately, none of these options work. On the monitor side, I see it turns on, but then states there no signal found, and turns off again, no matter which input is selected. I would like to make use of the built-in USB-C dock that is in the monitor, which was one of the main reasons I chose this one.
The strange thing is: when I connect to a HP USB-C G2 dock, and then connect the monitor to the dock, the setup works! When I then take a peek in device manager, I see the screen is detected as “Generic Monitor (PL4580DQ)”, and it’s driven by the AMD Radeon 780M. In display settings, its resolution has 5120x1440, and supports up to 120 Hz (it’s advertised as 165 Hz).
I don’t really care for the refresh rate difference, but I would like to eliminate the need for the HP Dock. Why is it working via the dock, but not when the Framework is connected directly? The monitor does work when connecting a HP Zbook directly. Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you for your time.
I did some more troubleshooting on this, and discovered that when I use the USB-C port on the back of the laptop, the monitor works! There are a few limitations, however:
The FW16 isn’t charging. The USB-C dock within the monitor is rated at 90W, is this insufficient? I’d be surprised. When I’m using a UGREEN Uno USB C-charger rated at 65W, it charges without any problem. The ‘USB BC’ feature of the monitor is enabled.
Network isn’t relaying. The ethernet port of the dock is showing lights when connected, but this isn’t being made available to the laptop. When I connect a USB-to-LAN adapter in one of the USB-A interfaces of the dock, it also doesn’t provide any connection. A keyboard connected to the same USB-A port works.
Refresh rate is now limited to 85 Hz, while the monitor supports 165 Hz, and the HP dock provided 120 Hz. The resolution is also limited to 3840 x 1080.
Are there hardware limitations in this laptop I should be aware of? I’m still confused why the FW16 isn’t accepting HDMI or DP for this monitor. How can I troubleshoot this any further?
Oh, wow, fixed the ethernet, refresh rate and resolution issue with one silly setting! I needed to set USB-C mode to 2.0 instead of 3.0. That was a RTFM issue on my part
The FW16 still isn’t charging via the USB-C connection to the monitor dock.
Hey! Thanks. Displayport now works when I connect it to slot 2. It wasn’t working before, but I’ve updated the BIOS and Adrenalin software (as default driver package doesn’t do that) since.
Okay, so there’s no charging possible via the graphics module. That’s a darn shame, as it would’ve solved my problem.
The biggest problem remains: USB-C modules on the side still don’t support my monitor. An additional problem is that, when Displayport is connected, the USB-C dock stops working, which rules out the possibility of just plugging in a Displayport and USB-C cable. So, my options currently are:
Connect monitor to the back of the laptop and connect an additional power cable.
Connect all peripherals to the laptop directly.
Go back to using the HP dock.
But the ideal solution is:
Connect the monitor via USB-C to the side, which makes power, monitor, network and keyboard work.
The main problem appears to be the automatic selection between the 780M and discrete 7700S. When the ultrawide monitor is connected, it should select the 7700S, but instead tries to run this using the 780M (and fails). Is there a way to force the system to always use the 7700S when this/an external monitor is connected? I couldn’t find any setting in BIOS or Adrenalin to achieve this. I also tried disabling the 780M in Device Manager (+ reboot), but that doesn’t work and yields even weirder results (e.g. laptop monitor not turning off when closing the lid).
