Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumMobile Device Ports and Accessories

An enterprise sales team uses corporate-issued tablets featuring a single USB Type-C port for client demonstrations. When connecting an external monitor via a USB Type-C to HDMI adapter, the tablet successfully charges and transfers data to connected flash drives, but fails to transmit any video signal to the display. Which of the following best explains why the video output is non-functional?

  1. The physical USB Type-C connector is a universal form factor, but video transmission requires the tablet host hardware to support DisplayPort Alternate Mode.Answer
  2. B
    The physical USB Type-C port on mobile devices only outputs video signals when communicating over an active Thunderbolt protocol connection.
  3. C
    Display mirroring over physical port connections is blocked unless a corporate Mobile Device Management (MDM) profile permits screen projection.
  4. D
    Video output over mobile ports requires an active Exchange ActiveSync session to authorize hardware display drivers.

Answer

The physical USB Type-C connector is a universal form factor, but video transmission requires the tablet host hardware to support DisplayPort Alternate Mode.
USB Type-C is a physical connector standard, whereas capabilities such as power delivery, high-speed data, and video output depend on the underlying hardware controller. DisplayPort Alternate Mode (Alt Mode) allows non-USB signals like native DisplayPort/HDMI video to pass through dedicated pins on the USB Type-C connector. If the tablet controller does not implement Alt Mode, video adapters will not function even though charging and standard USB data transfer work properly.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the physical connector versus protocol capabilities.
Recognize that while USB Type-C provides a standardized 24-pin physical interface across modern mobile devices, the features implemented on the port vary by host controller.
Physical port shape does not guarantee that all optional protocols (such as video output or high-speed data) are wired into the device motherboard.
2
Evaluate the functional symptoms provided in the scenario.
The port supports power delivery (charging) and basic data transmission (USB drives), but fails specifically at video transport.
Video transport over USB Type-C requires hardware pins wired for Alternate Mode (most commonly DisplayPort Alt Mode).
3
Identify the underlying cause.
The tablet lacks DisplayPort Alternate Mode hardware support on its USB Type-C port.
Without Alt Mode support on the host device, pass-through passive or simple signal-converting adapters cannot transmit video signals.

Key Concept

USB Type-C Alternate Mode and Port Feature Capabilities
Rate this question

Topics

Mobile Device Ports and Accessories

More questions from this topic