Surface Dock Keeps Disconnecting Intermittently

Try this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/hr7jp3/surface_dock_usb_ports_and_sound_stop_working/

SAME PROBLEM!!!!!

Customer support is terrible!!!!

This was the absolute worst experience I have ever had with any customer support related interaction.

First let’s start with the problem.

Every day.... and I mean every day, my surface dock disconnects itself from my Surface Book, my monitor goes black, my usb peripherals disconnect, and my network goes down... and then in one second everything magically reconnects. I have two docks (work and home) and the problem persists at both locations.

Now to the customer support experience.

For starters, the Microsoft representative started the interaction pleasantly and seemed competent in her customer service abilities. As we progressed towards her problem comprehension and technical troubleshooting ability, she seemed completely inept and lacked any competency. After trying to explain the problem multiple times, she often went off on a tangent trying to create a problem that didn’t exist or point the blame on a third party device that I owned (wireless usb keyboard). I simply disconnected it and told her the problem still persists. At this point she seemed to just regurgitate whatever documents were in front of her without a tactful or thoughtful troubleshooting thought process. After trying to explain to her that the problem exists between the dock and the PC (driver/firmware/handshake issues), she has the gull to tell me that I seem to know what the problem is and what the solution is. She then asks me to confirm if I was requesting updated firmware for my devices. This is when I lost all patients. I replied, “I’m asking for your technical guidance to tell me based on the information I gave you leads to the road of updating these areas (driver/firmware/updates)?

At this point I requested another person or manager as had already wasted 1 hour and 10 mins spinning my wheels. After the manager wasn’t available, I lost my cool and she disconnected us.

Microsoft, I was on the fence about moving my systems to an Apple based home, but after this experience, I will definitely be leaving Microsoft. I have been team Microsoft my entire life but this one interaction has made me very sour and I will never give any more of my money to your company.

I had a similar issue I've managed to fix it and it may be worth trying for yours. I've put a detailed overview of what my problem, configuration, troubleshooting and solution was. Its abit long winded - so you can just skip to the solution at the bottom of my text if you want.

PROBLEM:

Surface Pro external screens suddenly stopped working.

BACKGROUND / CONFIGURATION:

I had my Surface Pro 6 connected to a Surface Dock, which was connected to 2 external LG Monitors (both via a Mini DP to HDMI, then the monitor lead which was HDMI to HDMI to the monitor). I had been using this configuration for approximately 6 months without issue, when the external monitors suddenly stopped working.

DETAILED ISSUE DESCRIPTION:

When the external monitors suddenly stopped working I could see the Surface Pro, the Dock and the monitors were still on and receiving power. My Surface Pro was working fine by itself (eg: screen or usage wasn't altered or impacted). In the Display settings, it still showed the 2 external monitors as connected, however they were not receiving any image (this did not change whether "extend" or "duplicate" was selected) and they were unable to be repositioned. Upon clicking "Identify", no number appeared on the external monitors.

TROUBLESHOOTING PERFORMED:

• disconnected and reconnected all leads / connections (monitors, Surface Dock, Surface Pro)
• restarted my Surface Pro 6 (hard & soft restart)
• restarted my Surface Dock (power off and power on)
• restarted my monitors (power off and power on)
• ensured the monitors were (still) on the correct input setting (HDMI)
• ensured all current updates had been installed
• performed a Windows key sequence (windows logo + Ctrl + Shift + B)
• confirmed Surface Pro works & powers on
• confirmed monitors work & power on
• confirmed Surface Dock powers on
• confirmed I could hear the connect sound when connecting my Surface Dock to the Surface Pro
• confirmed I could see the white light indicator on the Surface Dock lead when connected to the Surface Pro
• confirmed the Surface Pro is charging when connected to the Surface Dock
• disconnected, turned 180degrees and reconnected the Surface Dock lead to the Surface Pro
• confirmed a single monitor will work with a direct connection to the laptop (without Surface Dock)

No change

!!! SOLUTION !!!

I was FINALLY able to fix the issue by installing a Surface Dock firmware Update!

• Go to Download Surface Tools for IT (https://www.microsoft.com/download/details.aspx?id=46703).
• Select "Download".
• You don't need all the files - only select the "Surface_Dock_FwUpdate" file (when I did this, the file name was Surface_Dock_FwUpdate_1.42.139_Win10_17134_19.084.31680_0.msi) It may be different for you depending on the latest file at the time you do this, but the file name will start with Surface_Dock_FWUpdate_ and a version number, and it will have a .msi file name extension at the end).
• Click "Next".
• Click "Run".
• Follow the prompts. It prompted me to restart which I did.
• NOW - when it restarted, there was no change and the monitors were still black. But I disconnected and then reconnected the Surface Dock lead to the Surface Pro and BINGO! My 2 external monitors came back up with the display again.

I hope this helps!

Although I am having this problem, indeed I am running the latest firmware update. But, just to be sure I uninstalled the update and then did a clean install of the latest firmware update, and within minutes I was having the same problem.

Thank you for taking the time to post your solution. Wish it worked for me!

I had a similar issue I've managed to fix it and it may be worth trying for yours. I've put a detailed overview of what my problem, configuration, troubleshooting and solution was. Its abit long winded - so you can just skip to the solution at the bottom of my text if you want.

PROBLEM:

Surface Pro external screens suddenly stopped working.

BACKGROUND / CONFIGURATION:

I had my Surface Pro 6 connected to a Surface Dock, which was connected to 2 external LG Monitors (both via a Mini DP to HDMI, then the monitor lead which was HDMI to HDMI to the monitor). I had been using this configuration for approximately 6 months without issue, when the external monitors suddenly stopped working.

DETAILED ISSUE DESCRIPTION:

When the external monitors suddenly stopped working I could see the Surface Pro, the Dock and the monitors were still on and receiving power. My Surface Pro was working fine by itself (eg: screen or usage wasn't altered or impacted). In the Display settings, it still showed the 2 external monitors as connected, however they were not receiving any image (this did not change whether "extend" or "duplicate" was selected) and they were unable to be repositioned. Upon clicking "Identify", no number appeared on the external monitors.

TROUBLESHOOTING PERFORMED:

• disconnected and reconnected all leads / connections (monitors, Surface Dock, Surface Pro)
• restarted my Surface Pro 6 (hard & soft restart)
• restarted my Surface Dock (power off and power on)
• restarted my monitors (power off and power on)
• ensured the monitors were (still) on the correct input setting (HDMI)
• ensured all current updates had been installed
• performed a Windows key sequence (windows logo + Ctrl + Shift + B)
• confirmed Surface Pro works & powers on
• confirmed monitors work & power on
• confirmed Surface Dock powers on
• confirmed I could hear the connect sound when connecting my Surface Dock to the Surface Pro
• confirmed I could see the white light indicator on the Surface Dock lead when connected to the Surface Pro
• confirmed the Surface Pro is charging when connected to the Surface Dock
• disconnected, turned 180degrees and reconnected the Surface Dock lead to the Surface Pro
• confirmed a single monitor will work with a direct connection to the laptop (without Surface Dock)

No change

!!! SOLUTION !!!

I was FINALLY able to fix the issue by installing a Surface Dock firmware Update!

• Go to Download Surface Tools for IT (https://www.microsoft.com/download/details.aspx?id=46703).
• Select "Download".
• You don't need all the files - only select the "Surface_Dock_FwUpdate" file (when I did this, the file name was Surface_Dock_FwUpdate_1.42.139_Win10_17134_19.084.31680_0.msi) It may be different for you depending on the latest file at the time you do this, but the file name will start with Surface_Dock_FWUpdate_ and a version number, and it will have a .msi file name extension at the end).
• Click "Next".
• Click "Run".
• Follow the prompts. It prompted me to restart which I did.
• NOW - when it restarted, there was no change and the monitors were still black. But I disconnected and then reconnected the Surface Dock lead to the Surface Pro and BINGO! My 2 external monitors came back up with the display again.

I hope this helps!

No I am not