How make NUC behave like a loptop with the lid closed

[mvl]

Hello and thank you taking the time to read about my situation. I hope I have selected the correct board for my inquiry.  The list was kinda long to choose from ... so I picked Graphics since my issue would be related to graphics delivery.

I am migrating from a 2 HDMI docking station to a four HDMI port docking station.  I am intending to start using the new device with 3 HDMI ports and not use the HDMI port from the NUC.  At some point I will add the fourth monitor to off office setup.

When I connect the new docking station to my NUC via usb-c and then the three HDMI ports from it to my three monitors, and no HDMI cable connected to the NUC HDMI port, the results are similar to how a laptop responds with connecting to this 4 HDMI port device ... except the NUC isn't a laptop. 

There is a phantom display now that I only know is there because the mouse moves off screen from my left most display.  If I click on any taskbar application, it is opened off screen on that phantom display that that I cannot see or get to.

For example, I have an HP personal laptop and work Dell laptop and both connected immediately to all 3 monitors to the new four HDMI port docking station.  Initially, each showed 4 displays in Windows Display Settings on the laptop screen, but when I closed the laptop, control from the laptop screen transferred to one of the other remaining three displays ... like it should.  That's the same behavior I want my NUC to enable.

I've tried looking into the Windows Power Settings but the option for what to do for a laptop isn't available for the NUC.  I did try to set Do Nothing for pressing power off and sleep but that didn't seem to change anything.

For your reference, the four HDMI port device is a Wave Link WL-UG75PD1-4H2 rev b 16G.

I appreciate your time and any suggestions that you might provide.  Thanks!

Michael

[n_scott_pearson]

I find your post very confusing. NUCs are Desktop PCs. They are not intended to work like laptops. There's no internal display lid to open/close on a NUC. How would you ever want to emulate this kind of feature on a Desktop?

What NUC are we talking about? Please provide its full model name string (it's on the bottom of the NUC). I ask because we need to understand what processor is present and then take its limitations into account. It is only in recent generations that support for 4 displays was present. Prior to that, 3 displays was the limit (regardless of how connected). Secondly, we need to understand what version of DisplayPort is supported by this processor so we have an understanding of the limits of a single DisplayPort channel.

Speaking of which, what monitors (full model numbers please) are you connecting to this dock? You understand that the (single!) DisplayPort channel contained within the USB-C connection has to be shared by the set of downstream displays. If these monitors are basic 1920x1080@60Hz displays, it might work fine. If higher resolutions or frequencies (or just plain crappy cables) are utilized, then the DisplayPort is going to become bottlenecked. I have seen cases where this results in a phantom display appearing. Whether or not this is a bug of some sort in the graphics driver is a separate issue; what is important here is that it points to a higher-than-supportable configuration.

...S

[mvl]

I apologize for not being more clear for you to interpret what I noted about my challenges.

My NUC:  2022 NUC 11 Performance Kit NUC11PAHi7 (purchased Sept 2022)

I’m utilizing three monitors in 1920 x 1080 resolution. One newer Acer gaming monitor and two older but are the same model Acer monitors.

Apart from the inconvenient sleep mode issue (see Background below) I have been very pleased and otherwise very satisfied with my NUC!

Background:

The reason for me to go down the path of buying a new docking station was to eliminate the hdmi connection from my NUC.  With my previous KVM setup and a WaveLink 2 HDMI docking station … the NUC would timeout its monitor with a “monitor disconnected” kind of message showing on the monitor that was connected to the NUC via the KVM.  The NUC didn’t respond to the mouse or keyboard when that happens. So I have to toggle to/from the other KVM connection … sometimes multiple times … to get the NUC to wake up.  Sometimes that didn’t work and I had to reboot my NUC. 

I postulated that if I had a docking station that had three (or four) monitors sourced from a single docking station via USB … that whatever sleep cycle had come about, that all three monitors would behave together thereby eliminating the rouge sleep mode of the NUC display port.

My Suggestion:

With regard to suggesting the NUC to have the ability to operate like a laptop came to mind when I tried setting up the WaveLink Quad HDMI docking station on my laptop and noticed it’s behavior. I have the most current DisplayLink version installed on my laptop and NUC.

Simply, the laptop has dedicated HDMI port that is connected to a monitor.  The NUC has a similar but different connection to its primary HDMI port.  The difference is, whatever action takes place on a laptop to turn off or disconnect the laptop monitor … the laptop monitor is closed to the OS and yet continues to operate through USB ports that are attached HDMI monitors.  I figured this “option” would already be implemented within laptop BIOS and could be brought over to the NUC as a BIOS option or possibly a windows configuration option.

This same functionality was what I was looking for with my NUC.  I didn’t want to connect directly to its dedicated HDMI on a daily basis.  I primarily only want to use docking station supplied HDMI monitors.

Since my last communication:

I found a setup option in the NUC BIOS that transferred the graphics output from the HDMI port to USB (I can’t remember the actual BIOS name). 

If I encounter the same monitor disconnected issue and have to reboot my NUC … I’ll let you know … probably within the next couple of days or so.  If you don't hear back from me within this next week, please feel free to close this ticket. 

Thank you!

[mvl · Accepted solution]

I did encounter the monitor not connected text ... but this time the NUC responded with a mouse click to allow me log back into Windows so I am all set!  The BIOS change seems to have fixed my original issue!