That was it!  Thanks!  Swapped to a 2.0 and it's fine.     Happy Holidays!
Any idea why the screens flicker with one of them going to sleep mode when I don't use it constantly. I have one monitor routed to the Dell docking station and one routed via HDMI to the back of the laptop. The one plugged into the back of the laptop is the one I use for gaming and also the one that shuts off (but power is still going to it). Thanks for any help and apologies for any vagueness.
Area-51m R1, not sustaining dual 35" monitors