MBP Touchbar Lenovo USB-C dock dual displays

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22 points

MBP Touchbar Lenovo USB-C dock dual displays

I have a 13" MBP Touchbar model and have bought the new Lenovo USB-C dock in the hope of using 2 external monitors.

Everything arrived and I plugged it in only to discover nothing worked only charging. After a bit of googling I discover the USB-C cable supplied is only good for charging and USB 2.0 speeds. I purchased the 3.1 Belkin cable from the apple store and plugged everything in. Both displays are now powering up (these are connected through displayport) however they are displaying the same thing.

I turned mirroring off in the settings and I now have an extended display however the MBP is treating both external monitors as the same display. So if I call them MBP DS1 and DS2, MBP has the standard 'desktop' screen DS1 has a different 'extended screen' DS2 is a mirror of DS1. In the settings it only shows as 2 displays. I have tried shutting the lid but no difference.

Any advice or ideas to try?

I see people using the older USB 3.0 docks with displayport drivers is there anyway to determine which drivers I need to use?

Also by way of introduction I'm new to Apple and still adjusting. The reason for the Lenovo dock is my monitors are Lenovo and I still have a X1 Carbon I'm hoping to use with the dock.

MacBook Pro TouchBar and Touch ID

Posted on Apr 11, 2017 8:10 AM

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Answer 1

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Umiq88 Author

Level 1

22 points

Apr 25, 2017 1:49 PM in response to John_Pitta

I've installed windows 10 through bootcamp and can confirm that everything works perfectly after installing the win10 drivers from the lenovo site. I can have dual monitors with or without the laptop display as a 3rd. Sound, Network, USB etc are all working and the laptop is being charged through the same cable.

So this confirms its not a hardware issue only software.

To me the dock seems to be based on an intel chipset so I might try and see if I can find some generic intel Dock drivers.

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Answer 2

May 4, 2017 11:50 AM in response to Umiq88

Worked with people and answer is basically this. The dock has monitor support implemented as Multi-Stream Transport (MST) Displays. The new Macs do not support this.

Using 4K displays, 5K displays, and Ultra HD TVs with your Mac - Apple Support

https://www.startech.com/faq/mst-hubs-mac-osx-support(article from other vendor that relates to it)

So because of how the multi display is implemented in the dock it will not work with these. Supposedly in the other option where there is the Thunderbolt 3 version it has a better chance to work.

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Answer 3

Jul 23, 2017 4:52 PM in response to Umiq88

hi, did you use the following usb-c cable to connect and the DP ports working? I tried different brand cygnett usb-c 3.1 (10gbps) but didn't work with my MBP 2016 at all. Neither the apple usb-c charging cable and the lenovo cable works.

Belkin USB-C to USB-C Cable (USB 3.1) - Apple (AU)

Also, do we need any additional driver like the following?

http://www.displaylink.com/downloads/file?id=776

This lenovo usb-c dock is really a prob as lenovo doesn't provide any support on Mac.

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Answer 4

Apr 24, 2017 12:36 PM in response to Umiq88

No ideas but confirming the problem. Just received my eval unit today and tested with the same results. The external displays both connected with their own display port cable are clones of each other. Going to try a few more items out but this unit may just have a flaw with Mac systems. Marking this in case others find a solution as otherwise this will solve so many issues for me if I can get it to work.

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Answer 5

Umiq88 Author

Level 1

22 points

Jun 9, 2017 4:17 AM in response to Umiq88

For anyone else trying this I have found a solution

Lenovo USB-C Dock with MacBook Pro 13" Touchbar works find with Win10 through Bootcamp using Lenovo Drivers

Lenovo USB-C Dock with MacBook Pro 13" Touchbar with OSX works ok but outputs same screen to both monitors.

In order to have dual displays in OSX I have added a Pluggable USB 3.0 to DisplayPort 4K adapter and everything works fine. It also works fine for Win10 through bootcamp.

There may be better docks coming available but this works for me.

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Answer 6

Jradams3

Level 1

4 points

Jun 27, 2017 9:49 AM in response to Umiq88

Plug in one monitor via Display Port and one via USB-C

From what I have seen in the Thunderbolt 3 Dock documentation.

Two external monitors simultaneous:

- DP1 and DP2 / HDMI: DP1 3840 x 2160 pixels / 30 Hz; DP2 / HDMI 3840 x 2160 pixels / 30 Hz

- DP1 and Thunderbolt 3 DP1 3840 x 2160 pixels / 60Hz; Thunderbolt 3 3840 x 2160 pixels / 60 Hz

I believe the refresh rate may be the issue but I do not know of a way to force the refresh rate to be lower on a mac. I think it's issue is that the mac does not believe it can support the dual displays extended so it just mirrors them. I have encountered an issue on the lenovos where it would put one monitor at 4K and one at 1080p and I had to lower the refresh rate to 30Hz for both to operate at 4K because it defaults the one to 4K 60Hz.

However, By plugging one display into the 1st display port and the other display into a USB-C port, dual displays works perfectly on our macbook pros. Assuming you have a monitor with a USB-C port you should be able to make it work just fine.

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Answer 7

yujin777

Level 1

4 points

Jul 9, 2017 3:11 AM in response to Umiq88

I have same issue - "Lenovo thunderbolt 3 dock" with "MacBook Pro 2016" doesn't work correctly with 2 DP - MAC recognise 2 displays as a single display. I guess problem with drivers.
But it works when connect 1 display via DP, and 2-nd display with thunderbolt 2 DP cable.

And does "Lenovo thunderbolt 3 dock" charge your mac ? My not - it display charging - but battery power percentage going down, seems not enough power to charge Mac Book Pro 2016.

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Answer 8

Jul 23, 2017 4:47 PM in response to John_Pitta

Hi John, did you use a special usb-c cable to connect the lenovo usb-c dock with you mac systems? is it a MBP?

I connected with the usb-c cable from the lenovo package and apple usb-c charging cable, neither one works. I also bought a cygnett usb-c 3.1 cable (10gbps) which didn't work either. I tried to find belkin usb-c 3.1 but didn't find one unfortunately.

Cheers,

Kurt

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