MacBook Pro 15" (Late-2016) hooked onto a Dell WD15 Dock with multiple monitors

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MacBook Pro 15" (Late-2016) hooked onto a Dell WD15 Dock with multiple monitors

Hi,

I recently purchased a USB-C Dell WD15 Dock for my MacBook Pro 15" (Late 2016) with the Discrete AMD Video Card (Radeon Pro 460) that supports 3 displays on the three ports available, i.e. VGA, miniDP and HDMI. The dock does have a restriction on the resolution that it can drive, but does support 3 displays running at Full HD (i.e. 1920x1080 at 30Hz). The dock works great, however, I'm having a few issues while using the dock with macOS Sierra 10.12.1:

1) When I connect two displays, one on VGA and another on HDMI, the two monitors aren't detected as separate monitors and only one of the two is detected by macOS. macOS is able to extend the displays, but rather than extending it as two different screens, I see a screen on my laptop, and the two monitors have a cloned display. I attempted connecting the monitors in the miniDP port and the HDMI port and this didn't help and I had the same experience. Does macOS restrict each USB-C port on the MBP 15" to just one display monitor or am I missing some configuration on my macOS that prevents it from treating the two displays as separate monitors?

2) Although initially my Mac was using RGB as the display output, of late the output from the macOS picks the YCbCr color profile instead of RGB for my monitor. I prefer using RGB over YCbCr but I'm unable to pick an option on macOS to use RGB over YCbCr. My monitor defaults to RGB at all times and I end up going through pesky menus to switch color profiles.

Is this a problem unique to me or is there known issues with the Dell WD15 Dock and 15" MBP with Touch bar (Late 2016)?

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2016), macOS Sierra (10.12.1), null

Posted on Nov 22, 2016 10:47 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

camcancook

Level 1

4 points

Feb 13, 2017 4:15 PM in response to syngress

I have the 13" 2016 Macbook pro w. touchbar and Dell WD15 dock. I did update the dock's firmware to 1.0.0.8 via a dell xps device. I'm still only able to extend my desktop to one addl. display, using VGA or mini-display port. Unable to test HDMI unless it's through a displayport adapter.

Additionally the audio output of the dock does not work when connected to the macbook, however when connected to the xps laptop, the audio works fine. I too wish I could have all my peripherals working through one thunderbolt connection. Anyone have a solution for the audio?

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Answer 2

Wayneham

Level 1

16 points

Jan 9, 2017 2:39 PM in response to shanim

I have the same issue, though I am running both macOS 10.12 and Windows 10 (via Parallels) on my MBP 15" w/Touchbar. There appears to be a known fix but so far it looks like it requires a firmware update to the Dell dock, and the firmware update (of course) has to run on Windows. The instructions for the dock list SEVEN driver and firmware updates that must be installed on the hardware right out of the box. Classic Wintel/Dell. There is also a separate "DisplayPort over USB Type-C Dock Cable" referenced on Dell support pages. This may have to be swapped in for your existing cable, which is removable with a couple of screws. I will respond with a better update as I make progress on this.

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Answer 3

moketor

Level 1

8 points

Jan 16, 2017 10:06 AM in response to Wayneham

Any Luck? Same issue here with the WD 15 from Dell. Tried with one screen on DP and another one with HDMI. My mac only sees one additional screen - thus only does mirroring on both external screens -. Tried daisy chaining and in that case the mac doesn't see any screen at all anymore - however still shows the "arrangement"settings with the additional desktop. Tried it with a Dell XPS 13' works like a charm in any of above situation. It's my first mac and was about to get a Dell XPS, starting to regret my choice. If anyone has any tricks. I want to avoid the use a bunch of cables. Want to have one dock with one cable to my laptop. So far looks like multi screen on a mac is not as easy as on Windows or Linux.

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Answer 4

Mar 27, 2017 10:31 AM in response to camcancook

Hi, have the same issues pre-firmware update. Would appreciate it if you couled tell me if the USB ports work? Been reading about the video n sound, MacOS allows 1 monitor on 1 USB and can you see if you can select the sound output to reflect the dock.

Look forward to hearing back.

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Answer 5

shanim Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 24, 2016 8:02 PM in response to shanim

I guess I found the answer when researching for alternate options for a dock. According to the CalDigit dock's compatibility page (http://www.caldigit.com/usb-3-1-usb-c-dock/), MacBook Pro does not support MST on the USB-C Thunderbolt 3.1 ports and hence won't allow you to extend monitors on a single port.

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Answer 6

syngress

Level 1

5 points

Dec 21, 2016 12:54 PM in response to shanim

Well, I purchased MBPro 2016 13" i7 16GB 256SSD and USB-C Dell WD15 Dock.

I have similar problems, in my case USB ports and network interface does not work.

I have 2 monitors LG 24" detected by macOS as one :-| (Something like mirroring) ?

I try to update firmware on some Dell laptop, and see what difference does it make ..

For now, this little black box is piece of trash for me..

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Answer 7

tadj55

Level 1

4 points

Feb 6, 2017 4:26 PM in response to Wayneham

Hi

I am experiencing the same problem, but do not have a Dell laptop to help with updating the firmware. Before I go seeking to update the firmware, I am keen to see if you have solved the issue.

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Answer 8

Apr 12, 2017 1:12 PM in response to shanim

This is a quick related question: Has anyone had any success connecting a Thunderbolt monitor to the new USB-C MacBook Pro via the Dell WD15 dock?

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