Issues with displays on Kensington SD5700T dock and Macbook M1 Pro

Hello lucas.beier,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We'd recommend using the guidance from Connect a display to your Mac - Apple Support below which can help you to check your setup.

If you use an external keyboard and mouse with your Mac notebook, you can close the built-in display after you connect your external display. You might have to press a key or click your mouse to wake the external display. To use your Mac with the display closed, you need to connect your power adapter or connect an external display that also charges your Mac, such as the Apple Studio Display or 23.7-inch LG UltraFine 4K Display.

If your external display doesn't turn on after you connect it to your Mac, connect your display while your Mac is off, then wake or turn on your Mac.

The following from If you can’t see your Mac desktop on an external display - Apple Support might help as well.

1. Close the lid on your Mac notebook computer to put it to sleep.

2. Connect the power adapter to your Mac and a power outlet.

3. Reconnect your Mac to an external display.

4. Connect a USB keyboard, mouse, or trackpad to your Mac.

If you’re using a wireless keyboard, mouse, or trackpad, make sure it’s turned on.

5. Wait a few seconds, then press any key on the external keyboard, or use the mouse or trackpad, to wake your Mac.

If your wireless keyboard, mouse, or trackpad isn’t connected (paired) with your Mac, Bluetooth Setup Assistant opens so you can connect them.

Cheers!

Did you have any luck resolving this?

I’m experiencing the same issue. The only way I can resolve it is shutting down the computer (restart doesn’t work sometime).

The tips provided by @faith185 are not relevant to this issue, as the machine doesn’t recognize the external displays at all when this happens.

There have been reported issues with the displays connected to the Kensington SD5700T dock when used with Macbook M1 Pro and Macbook 12 in M7. Some users have reported flickering, blank screens, or unstable connections. It is recommended to check for firmware updates for the dock and Macbook, use high-quality cables, and try different display settings.

It seems like the issue you're facing is that your displays are not recognizing any input signal when your Macbook sleeps or is disconnected from the dock. Although the blue light from the dock does turn on, indicating a connection was detected, your monitors do not show up in the Displays sections under System Settings, and the monitors display that no signal is found. However, the Mac recognizes the ethernet connection, webcam, and mic, and you're able to use them normally.

From what you've described, it seems like you've already tried power cycling the dock and restarting your Macbook to make the monitors work. You also tested connecting your iPad Pro M1 11' and found that the result was very similar. The iPad recognized the ethernet every single time, but it took a couple of power cycling or iPad reboot to get the display to work. Recently I read some reviews about the MacBook M7 12in and got answers to my questions.

It's unfortunate that you couldn't find any firmware updates for the dock, but there might be some other troubleshooting steps you can take before requesting a refund. One thing you might try is resetting your Macbook's System Management Controller (SMC) and see if that helps. You can also try resetting the NVRAM/PRAM. If those steps don't help, you might want to try contacting Kensington support for further assistance.