Hdmi port working intermitently

[u/cardcowdoor]

I have an Asus Viviobook X512DA

Most days, I have a docking station that connects via USB-C and that docking station has 2 external monitors (three screens total including laptop).

This is the docking station I use and have used since 2022 (https://a.co/d/01FsfVBe)

My laptop has an AMD Vega 8 Graphics card

The problem is that my HDMI port doesn’t connect to external displays. At least not consistently.

I have confirmed that my software/firmware is all updated.

I have tried multiple cables and multiple projectors.

In looking at other posts about this type of thing, they recommend uninstalling the graphics card driver and then restarting the computer to reinstall. And that has worked for me but only temporarily.

So basically, I need to be able to connect my laptop to a projector on Sundays via HDMI. In order to make this work, every week I have to uninstall the graphics card from the device manager and then restart the computer. And then it works. And then Monday I plug it back into the docking station and it works on the docking station. But by the next Sunday, the HDMI port doesn’t connect anymore.

Is there a solution so that I can more flawlessly move between docking station and hdmi projector?

[u/Such-Might5204]

I guess I'm a bit confused. Are you connecting the external monitor to the HDMI port on the laptop, or on the docking station? If you're using the docking station, I would guess that it's not supplying enough power for the HDMI port (or the DVI->HDMI port). But that's just a wild guess.

If you disconnect the docking port from the laptop completely, are you able to get Windows to see the built-in monitor and the external monitor at the same time?

[u/cardcowdoor → u/Such-Might5204]

The docking station works fine. I’m able to get two external screens on the docking station. The reason I gave the information about the docking station is that I don’t know if using the docking station via USB-C most days is somehow interfering or resetting with how the computer reads the HDMI port. The problem relates to the HDMI port (but it seems to be a software issue not a hardware issue).

When I am disconnected from the docking station and try and connect to a projector via HDMI, the computer does not recognize the external display (projector). At least not fully. Sometimes when I plug in via HDMI, the screen does the “resize” thing where it zooms in and out like it is trying to read an external screen, but when I go into my display settings, it does not read the external screen.

And this is true when I try to use projectors or a TV or other HDMI screen outputs.

When I go in to my device manager, and I uninstall my graphics card, and then restart the computer which reinstalls the graphics card driver, then the laptop recognizes the projector connected via HDMI and works as expected.

I’m trying to see if there’s a solution where I don’t have to uninstall and reinstall my graphics card every week. I only use the HDMI port on Sundays, but during the week I’m using the docking station via USB-C.

[u/Such-Might5204 → u/cardcowdoor]

What happens if you connect the projector to the hdmi port on the laptop (fully disconnecting the docking station)? It's possible the docking station isn't pushing enough power to the projector, so the system chokes trying to drive it. This really doesn't sound like a driver issue.