Official Dock as general purpose USB-C hub for a PC?

[spock014]

Is it possible to use the official steam deck dock as a generic USB-C hub for a PC running Windows, ChromeOS or Linux?

Before anyone suggests to just buy an Anker USB-C hub, I already own the Official Dock and I'd prefer not to buy another dock.

[Mymarid]

I am using the official dock as a usb-c dock for my microsoft surface laptop 4 and 2 external monitors (a 24 inch 1920x1080 LG Ultragear, and a 34 inch 3440 x 1440 Samsung ultrawide). I just figured out I could do this a couple of days ago, and it has been a temperamental experience thus far, but when it's working it works well.

Biggest issue is that once I get it working, if I leave the computer and it locks/goes to sleep, when I log back in, there's a change that the displays on all three screens will be messed up and not render properly (black patches, missing icons, menus not rendering. Usually a restart with the dock and monitors plugged in corrects the issue.

I'm going to continue to play around with it to see if there's an approach that gets it working consistently. My employer is sending me a microsoft dock 2 for my work laptop, but the steam deck dock would be a great utility for my personal laptop.

[Minneyar]

It is possible, but there are two things to be aware of:
1. The dock's USB-C plug has some plastic molding around it that is designed to fit perfectly around the Deck, but may not fit into a PC's USB-C port depending on how your case is shaped. You can probably work around that by just getting a USB-C extension cable.
2. The dock is a Thunderbolt 4 dock, and you'll be lacking some features if you plug it into a PC that doesn't support TB4, such as DisplayPort and power delivery functionality.

[Mymarid]

Originally posted by Minneyar:

It is possible, but there are two things to be aware of:
1. The dock's USB-C plug has some plastic molding around it that is designed to fit perfectly around the Deck, but may not fit into a PC's USB-C port depending on how your case is shaped. You can probably work around that by just getting a USB-C extension cable.
2. The dock is a Thunderbolt 4 dock, and you'll be lacking some features if you plug it into a PC that doesn't support TB4, such as DisplayPort and power delivery functionality.

It will provide DisplayPort and power delivery if your computer’s USB-C port supports DisplayPort alt mode. Doesn’t have to be Thunderbolt 4.

I was able to get my surface laptop 4 with a single USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 and DisplayPort alt mode support to work consistently by providing power to the dock. I wasn’t using the power supply before and was getting reduced video bandwidth.

Microsoft quotes a 65W power supply for usb-c charging on the surface laptop 4, but I’ve had no issues with the 45W steam deck charger passing through the dock.

I’m running the 1080p monitor at 165 hz through DisplayPort and the 1440p Ultrawide at 60hz through the hdmi.

It’s been working great since plugging in the power supply.

[Evolution]

This official dock cannot use external dual-screen output on windows.

[Drak3]

Originally posted by Minneyar:

The dock is a Thunderbolt 4 dock, and you'll be lacking some features if you plug it into a PC that doesn't support TB4, such as DisplayPort and power delivery functionality.

Um, no it's not. The Deck itself is USB 3.2 Gen 2, with DisplayPort 1.4 Alt mode and PD3.0 support. It would make no sense to spend more on a thunderbolt controller in the dock that couldn't even be used with the product that it's an accessory for.

[Beta Ray Bill]

This worked for me for a while but now the Deck has decided its HDMI output is dead. USB inputs are fine, though kind of useless by themselves.

[Mymarid]

Originally posted by Evolution:

This official dock cannot use external dual-screen output on windows.

Probably depends on your specific computer and version of windows. I use the official dock for my surface laptop 4 everyday for work. I have 2 external monitors, one using HDMI and one using DP. With the power supply plugged into the dock, it works consistently.