Surface Dock Keeps Disconnecting Intermittently

Anonymous
2020-01-10T16:44:40+00:00

Microsoft,

What is going on with this thing?

I have had the Surface Dock for two months now. Purchased it to go with my Surface Laptop 1. 

Every day.... and I mean every day, this thing disconnects itself from my Surface Laptop, my monitor goes black, my usb peripherals disconnect, and my network goes down... and then in one second everything magically reconnects. 

Sometimes it only happens 5 times a day. Other days it happens like a gazillion.

Once it first started happening, I scoured the internet looking for a solution. I replaced the dock, I updated the firmware, I connected it to a different power source, I've power cycled, I've turned the cord around - etc. No matter what I do it keeps happening. 

And there is no good answers on this message board that seems to fix this issue. I have read them all. 

What is going on with this thing?

Right now, just so y'all know, this thing is only acting as a power source for my laptop. I am plugging the monitor directly into the Surface Laptop, I have upgraded to a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and my Ethernet is going into the system over usb. Even with NOTHING else plugged into the Surface Dock.... nothing. Just power. It is STILL disconnecting and reconnecting intermittently. What the H?!?

This is unacceptable and you guys really need to figure out a solution for this. My boss has a Surface Book 1 and he also experiences these issues daily, as well. Since he's using dual monitors, he just puts up with them going out and turning back on five to twenty times a day. The only ones in the office with the dock that aren't experiencing these issues are the two that have Surface Pro 4's...

What can we do to fix this? The Surface Dock is currently the most expensive laptop charger I've ever purchased (since that's all it seems to be decent at). 

Sincerely, 

Microsoft Enthusiast

Surface | Accessories | Surface Dock

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-02-27T16:41:42+00:00

    seems that I am not alone, I have been suffering from the surface dock station 2 USB intermittent disconnection for almost a whole year, the problem clearly points to the dock station because if I use a USB Hub connected directly from the laptop. The problem gone. I did quite a lot of online research, not find a good solution until recently. The USB selective power suspension may be the culprit, just go to device manager>USB root hubs>power management>de-select "allow the computer to turn off device to save power" so far so good, I will report if this finally solve the problem.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-03-02T19:01:01+00:00

    I have used the power management thing, and it worked for about two weeks before the cutting in and out started up again. Reinstalling firmware also works for only a couple days at a time...its bizarre.

    I think that the dock is simply incapable of handling whatever power it is required to have, because the severity of my intermittent disconnections seems to at least correlate with the number of devices plugged into it. if i have a USB drive, a keyboard a mouse and a headset plugged in (so all 4 ports occupied), its unusable...if you get rid of the mouse its barely enough for typing, and if you only have a headset plugged in you can get yourself some inconsistent quality time (sometimes you'll go your entire day without a single disconnect, other times you'll be raging and tilting off the face of the earth as your monitor, ethernet, and keyboard blink in and out multiple times every 30 seconds like an epileptic child in a strobelight).

    Its really infuriating to me that Microsoft would push out such a product that can't even function properly at a quarter of its advertised capacity

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-03-09T14:52:42+00:00

    I have a wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, external USB hard drive, external DVD drive, webcam, 7 channel surround sound and two 27" 1440 monitors. They all work....but I have to clean up the power connector from the dock to the surface pro from time-to-time.

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-03-12T11:33:10+00:00

    I have the same problem. I have to connect to my company VPN through the dock. It keeps disconnecting often. Wireless is not an option for me, as we are using the hardware based SOHO firewall.

    I figured it is related to CPU utilization. When the CPU is utilized 100% for more than few seconds continuously, then the disconnect happens. I still couldn't figure out the fix though. I am able to prove this multiple times. Now I am planning to dump the process names that utilizes the CPU.

    Here is what I did, I installed cygwin and pinged it with timestamp using the following command.

    ping hostname | awk '{if($0 ~ /bytes from/){print strftime()"|"$0}else print}'

    In another windows, I displayed CPU utilization with timestamp using the command.

    typeperf "\processor(_total)% processor time"

    ===========

    PING

    ===========

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:04 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=472 ttl=59 time=275.212 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:05 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=473 ttl=59 time=274.938 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:06 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=474 ttl=59 time=274.379 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:07 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=475 ttl=59 time=274.488 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:08 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=476 ttl=59 time=274.565 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:09 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=477 ttl=59 time=275.034 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:10 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=478 ttl=59 time=276.996 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:19 MST 2021|92 bytes from **.***.***.***: Destination Host Unreachable

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:26 MST 2021|92 bytes from **.***.***.***: Destination Host Unreachable

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:26 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=485 ttl=59 time=273.836 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:27 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=486 ttl=59 time=275.684 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:28 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=487 ttl=59 time=274.435 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:29 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=488 ttl=59 time=273.934 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:30 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=489 ttl=59 time=276.334 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:31 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=490 ttl=59 time=274.747 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:32 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=491 ttl=59 time=273.984 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:33 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=492 ttl=59 time=275.294 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:34 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=493 ttl=59 time=273.680 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:35 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=494 ttl=59 time=274.148 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:36 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=495 ttl=59 time=274.047 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:37 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=496 ttl=59 time=274.682 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:38 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=497 ttl=59 time=274.013 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:39 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=498 ttl=59 time=274.197 ms

    Fri Mar 12 04:25:40 MST 2021|64 bytes from **.***.***.***: icmp_seq=499 ttl=59 time=275.143 ms

    ===========

    CPU %

    ===========

    "03/12/2021 04:24:52.810","73.836751"

    "03/12/2021 04:24:53.810","75.400531"

    "03/12/2021 04:24:54.880","100.000000"

    "03/12/2021 04:24:55.948","98.210812"

    "03/12/2021 04:24:57.179","99.478247"

    "03/12/2021 04:24:58.231","98.855878"

    "03/12/2021 04:24:59.237","92.018680"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:00.240","81.664908"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:01.241","90.611966"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:02.352","96.062766"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:03.435","84.509210"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:04.500","99.261699"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:05.502","97.661678"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:06.504","99.805142"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:07.523","99.617132"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:08.585","97.793417"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:09.601","99.620113"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:10.730","100.000000"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:11.802","100.000000"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:12.827","100.000000"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:13.915","99.805712"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:14.916","100.000000"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:15.920","100.000000"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:16.924","100.000000"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:17.935","100.000000"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:18.951","100.000000"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:20.040","100.000000"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:21.244","100.000000"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:22.300","100.000000"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:23.548","100.000000"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:24.549","100.000000"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:25.550","100.000000"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:26.550","100.000000"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:27.567","100.000000"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:28.576","96.882254"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:29.578","91.612717"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:30.586","81.210895"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:31.597","95.746974"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:32.598","95.711028"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:33.599","85.746941"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:34.599","78.913263"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:35.599","42.402013"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:36.600","8.325415"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:37.602","16.517157"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:38.603","15.852942"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:39.604","7.827160"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:40.606","12.902541"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:41.608","8.021962"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:42.611","31.799823"

    "03/12/2021 04:25:43.613","12.616220"

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-03-13T14:07:05+00:00

    I also get this issues sometimes and I can't understand why but this fixes the issue for weeks:

    • Shut Down the Surface
    • Boot and Enter BIOS (by holding volume +)
    • Don't change anything...
    • Exit bios and start windows.

    You will be out of issues for weeks.... Again, can't explain it but have read it somewhere and it does stop the issues for a while...

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