Can I simply plug the USB-C cable of a UltraSharp 27 4K USB-C Monitor: U2720Q into a Insprion 5579 USB 3.0 Type A port with and adapter and use all of the display features except PD? Or alternatively Just use the connected USB Devices and connect video over HDMI?
2 Answers
No, you cannot. USB-C DisplayPort Alt Mode output is only possible with USB-C. You indicate you have a type A connector. Of course, a USB-C port still has to support it. The port being USB-C is not enough.
USB should work though, since the monitor has no other USB upstream port.
For passing display through USB you need USB Alternate Mode.
This is defined by Wikipediaas:
An Alternate Mode dedicates some of the physical wires in a USB-C 3.1 cable for direct device-to-host transmission of alternate data protocols.
The answer is negative : You need USB-C 3.1 on both ends, but you don't have it on even one of the two.