A friend has a Thinkpad that if the battery is fully charged when the machine is turned on with the monitor out plugged in then the monitor works perfectly from

A friend has a Thinkpad that if the battery is fully charged when the machine is turned on with the monitor out plugged in then the monitor works perfectly from the USB 3, if however the battery is not entirely full then the display gets no signal. It requires a reboot once the battery is completely full. It is reliable in producing an image or not depending on battery status. I have no idea why though and neither does support, they haven't fixed it for a year at this point so I doubt they ever will.