No video with slimport in convergence test

[Capsia]

@ubuntoutou Hi,
did you also plug the charger in the microUSB port? It is necessary to use a power supply connected to the adapter because the convergence is very energy expensive.

[poVoq]

I think I have the same (or nearly the same, it has the orange band at least) Slimport adapter.

A few months back I tried it successfully, but the Nexus5 seems to work quite unreliably with Slimport and I got a lot of display errors etc.

Maybe the cable is low quality, or the usb port of the Nexus5 is degrading over time. Not sure... but my conclusion was that while it worked it was not something actually usable (sadly).

[ubuntoutou]

@Capsia Thanks Capsia and yes I have plugged a micro-USB cable to the SlimPort with the USB-A end of the cable plugged to my PC. I have even tried several micro-USB cables since I know that all micro-USB cables are not the same - (what a mess for the USB "standard"!).

@poVoq Has your SlimPort the inscription SunshineTronic like mine? I got mine from eBay. I hope it isn't a fake adapter. I don't think it is because when I plug the micro-USB to it while the phone is off the battery appears on screen indicating charging. That's unless the HDMI part of the adapter is fake...? Or as you say, the USB port of the phone is degraded. But in that case, I would probably not have been able to install UT in the first place.

[poVoq]

@ubuntoutou No it looks exactly the same but doesn't have the writing. Most likely it is the same Chinese OEM product that is sold under various company names.

But as I said it has been a while since I last tried and in between AFAIK convergence broke for a time with the Unity upgrade. Not sure what the current status is, but it should be working again I guess?

[dobey]

@ubuntoutou said in No video with slimport in convergence test:

I have enabled External display in the Brightness & Display section of UT settings. Have I missed any other setting?

This is only for Wireless Display I think. When you plug in a Slimport adapter on a Nexus 4 or 5, the phone screen should switch to a "virtual touchpad" and the apps and shell should be displayed on the external display.

[ubuntoutou]

@dobey I have just tried again without selecting External Display and the result is the same: no result.

[kugiigi]

If you are sure that is a slimport adapter, your last bets are the following:

• Supply power to the adapter
• Use shorter HDMI cable
• Try different positions or the way you insert microUSB to the port (this sounds bad :face_with_tears_of_joy: )
• Try another slimport adapter

Sadly, Nexus 5's port and slimport adapters are unreliable mist of the time, at least in my experience.
I have like a dozen of slimport adapters and 2 Nexus 5 and I can't make them work in one try
Sometimes it also depends on the monitor you use.

[nontrivial]

I just bought a Slimport Adapter on eBay and it mostly works pretty well with my Nexus 5. It does not say SunshineTronic, so you might have a bum adapter.

My only complaint is that after unplugging the adapter all the apps are still windowed, and I have to reboot the phone to get it to behave. I have to reboot the phone a lot to get it to behave, actually, like after using a bluetooth keyboard to get the soft keyboard to show up again.

[ubuntoutou]

@kugiigi Thanks Kugiigi. I have used a power supply, two different HDMI cables (the one on my PC with DVI adapter and the one on my TV). I have plugged unplugged and plugged the SlimPort to the phone a number of times. I haven't tried another SlimPort adapter since I am not too keen on buying another one.

If anyone has exactly the same adapter with the same SunshineTronic brand, I would like to know how it performs.

If anyone is aware of the existence of fake SlimPort adapters, whatever the brand, I would like to know as well.

[ubuntoutou]

It turns out that the SunshineTronic SlimPort adapter is not fake. It does works... on the Nexus 7 but not on the Nexus 5, at least not on my monitor and TV.

However the resolution sent by the phone to my PC monitor does not match the resolution of the monitor itself, leading to a strange horizontally stretched rendering that is not very usable.

[gwengui]

Hi,

I am answering this old post because people here faced the same issue that I am facing today.

• I bought a chinese slimport adapter and tried it with a Nexus 7 tablet => ok
• I tried the same adapter with my Nexus 5 at work => display errors, convergence was unusable
• I bought a good quality adapter => same results
• I tried both adapters with my Nexus 5 at home => ok, convergence fully usable

So what works at home does not at work. The screen, the phone, the adapters, the power supply are the same. The ONLY difference is the network : wifi at home, 4G at work.

I decided to switch off 4G => convergence is now fully usable. If I turn it on again, the crashes come back immediately. Cellular data seem to be ok until 3G.

When I use an external display AND a bluetooth keyboard AND a bluetooth mouse AND 3G, the battery can not charge anymore. I drain more power than I can bring to the phone. So I wonder if the crashes in 4G are caused by the power consumption.

Could anyone perform the same tests and confirm that external display instability is highly linked to the use of cellular data in 4G ?

Thank you.

[kugiigi]

I think it's possible that it's related to power consumption. If I am not mistaken, using external display needs extra power and I think it's one of the main causes of instability and compatibility issues. As I mentioned before, I've had many slimport adapters and the experience varies. The current one I have now works on both my TV and PC monitor. However, it's a lot more stable on monitor. Sometimes, I have to fiddle a bit to make it work on my TV.

[gwengui]

I made a few more tests :

• changed the SIM card for a different operator => instability as soon as I activate 4G (LTE)
• changed the phone for another Nexus 5 with a brand new battery (replaced this week) => same result
• changed the power supply for a bigger one (5A) => same result

So in my case, the problem is independant of :

• the phone,
• the Slimport hdmi adapter,
• the power supply,
• the power cables,
• the cell phone operator,
• the monitor.

I just have to switch on/off 4G data to see the issue appear/disappear. If I am connected to a wifi network, the problem disappears as data is handled through wifi.