Bad Video Cable or Laptop?? - USB Type C->DP Issue

[Papa Geo]

I'm troubleshooting an issue I've run into with my recently purchased Dell XPS 9350, which has the new skylake processor and USB Type C connector for video-out instead of mini DP.

When connecting the USB Type C -> Displayport cable from my laptop to my external monitor, I get all kinds of flickering, flashing, screen tearing, and snow on the monitor. It is completely unusable. It doesn't matter what resolution or refresh rate is selected. (All drivers are updated, thunderbolt firmware is updated, and bios is updated; also tried a clean install)

My question is: Does this sound like a cable issue or a laptop issue?

I have another cable arriving tomorrow so that should confirm it either way, but I'm curious if others have had this problem.

The USB Type C connector is reversible, and one small quirk is that if I plug it into the laptop in one direction the display has much reduced flickering, tearing, and snow (though still present). If I reverse the connector, the problem is an order-of-magnitude worse.

Any feedback is appreciated!!

 

[Quix]

It sounds like a laptop issue, although it could very well be software. I know people were having a problem like that with the XPS 9550 (which I have, but it don't have this cable) that was solved by updating the firmware AND Thunderbolt software package. It seems like Intel's Thunderbolt 3 drivers are really immature right now and a lot of people are having various issues with them. If you don't have the updated Thunderbolt driver it's available from Dell's support site.