Usb-C Monitors work but do not charge

I have two LG 24" monitors I use at home and they are working with the Framework laptop, although they do flicker off every now and then, but for the most part they work.

These monitors supply power over the USB-C thunderbolt 3 cable and work with my Macbook Pro flawlessly. The Framework will not charge. One of the reasons I bought this was because it would work with my current setup.

Does anybody have any fixes for this?

Interesting. I have 2 LG 27" USB monitors. Both work and charge the laptop. I assume a running single one doesn’t work? Also, are they daisy chained or both plugged directly in? Let me know what ports you are plugged in to and I can try to replicate it on my setup.

Does this ever work for you? Which OS? Also, do you plug it in, and then start the laptop or is the laptop already logged in and then you attach via USB-C? Sometimes there are options in the monitor’s menu to enable USB-C PD as well.

I sometimes notice that my laptop is not charging as well, but after reconnecting it seems to detect being plugged in.

@Dane_Hanrahan the monitor I use is 24MD4KL-B. I have tried single or double plugged in individually, not daisy chained. This setup works just fine on my macbook pro just fine.

I am running Ubuntu Linux 21.10 on the framework laptop.

@Somebody No I just bought the framework laptop, but I do use this monitor setup to charge and run my macbook pro everyday. Ubuntu 21.10. I was already logged in when I plugged it in.

@Justin_Clay Ok, just booted Ubuntu 21.10 with both my LG monitors plugged in on the left side of the laptop via USB-C and it worked no issues. Also, as soon as I plugged the first in with the laptop off, the laptop charge indicator lit meaning the power off charging was already working. So this probably doesn’t help you much. I would check the power delivery settings on your monitors, maybe turn one USB-C PD on and one off? Not sure if @FrameworkSupport can comment on if there is a setting for this in the BIOS?

@Dane_Hanrahan Thank you for trying to help me with this. I was afraid it was going to be too niche and I would be on an island with this.

I will take a look when I get home from work and see if I can adjust settings anywhere. The only way I can think of would be on my Mac I think I have management software for them, but I think it’s pretty simple.

Do you know what model number your models are off-hand?
Did you download any special drivers for the LG monitors?
Are you using Thunderbolt 3 ports on your monitors?

Also, as far as the dual-monitor thing, this happens with just one monitor too. I did try that yesterday.

@Justin_Clay My LG are 27BL650C-B. Mine have small joystick buttons on the back to access/navigate the monitor menu. Try this: remove the USB-C modules and plug directly into the passthrough ports off the mainboard. Do you know if the cables you are using are the original ones that came with the monitors?

The reason I ask about the cables is that the laptop uses DP over USB-C which, although I am unsure the DP standard, I am sure uses a fair amount of bandwidth. I am also sure that @Framework has engineered the modules to be within engineering spec for signal degradation but USB-C and DP cables are notorious for being of poor quality and not verified. Taking the middle-man module out may improve the signal quality slightly (insert the I am not an engineer shrug here) and it can’t hurt (again, I am not an engineer) to try.

@Dane_Hanrahan Yes… and it’s PD not… it actually stands for Power Delivery protocol. I am a USB-C/Thunderbolt/PD nerd so yes these are all valid questions you just asked here.

So I just compared my model to yours and it looks there are some key differences. yours has HDMI/DP DISPLAY PORT/USB-C/USB-C (45W PD)

Mine has ONLY 5 usb-c connectors and a power cable that’s it. But, USB-C is just a connector and there are many different connection protocols that could be running behind it.

Of my 5 connectors, 2 of them are Thunderbolt 3 with 85 PD and the other three are just USB-C with either usb 3.0 or 3.2 protocol behind it. Thunderbolt 3 provides the largest bandwidth at 40Gbps and highest PD output if you have aThunderbolt capable device. I have a mackbook Pro with 4 thunderbolt 3 ports on it and thats it. These work as regular usb 3.2 ports if device plugged in is not thunderbolt.

That is why the new USB4 should be so much better is because Intel finally gave the spec to the USB committee and they baked Thunderbolt 4 right into the usb spec, so no more thunderbolt only devices. This should be should be backwards compatible but I have read that USB4 can be compatible with TB3 but not all manufacturers may include that in their implementation. I hope this is not the case because TB3 was the leading tech at the time why would framework make their USB4 TB3 compatible. IDK. So I need to see if anyone else is using Thunderbolt 3 monitors.

@Dane_Hanrahan and yes these monitors came with regular usb-c and also thunderbolt 3 rated cables. I am using the original Thunderbolt 3 cables and these cable work with my mackbook pro just fine.

I also did remove a module as you stated… that was a good idea; however, still does not work. Thank you for the idea though.