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
    2023-02-08T16:48:51+00:00

    I think I discovered something about this issue by chance yesterday. Here's the order of events:

    1. Came into work and plugged Surface Dock into Surface Book 2. Laptop was not charging. USB still worked though. (Great, another dock issue to troubleshoot)
    2. Cleaned Surface connector and port with alcohol wipe. Still not charging.
    3. Ran Furmark CPU stress test for hours. monitor temps with HWInfo.
    4. Plugged power supply from a Lenovo laptop into the USB-C port and Surface started charging again.
    5. Disconnected USB-C power, and the Dock was still charging. Strange.
    6. Ran Furmark CPU stress test again, almost immediately, USB peripherals on dock started disconnecting.

    After trying the CPU stress test multiple times, I figured out that there's a range of temperatures where the USB peripherals connect and disconnect over and over again. Above a certain temperature, USB won't work at all and there is no disconnecting and reconnecting; USB just doesn't work. Below a certain temperature, USB works as expected.

    From my experimenting, it seems to me it's clearly an overheating issue and somehow tied to the charging from the dock. I have USB selective suspend setting disabled. Surface Book 2 running Windows 10 and Surface Dock 2 on firmware 18.2830.368.0 DP 18.2165.368.0

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-01-30T15:19:51+00:00

    Hi, Nabiscuit!

    I am truly sorry for the delayed response. I dropped a private message and I hope you can respond.

    Thanks!

    Regards,

    Janette_Z

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-01-14T22:12:23+00:00

    I'm running 1909 as well.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-01-10T23:09:42+00:00

    Hi, Nabiscuit!

    Thanks for reaching Microsoft Community and letting us know the Surface Dock issue you have. We appreciate details you provided and we also apologize for the troubles you have to go through here in scouring for troubleshooting guides to no avail. This isn't the experience that we want you to have. 

    If I understand it correctly, this involves several Surface Docks and Surface devices. You mentioned there are Surface Pro 4 devices that don't have issues. Are they using their own docks? If yes, can you try to borrow it and use it on your Surface Laptop then observe it? 

    Let me know how it goes.

    Regards,

    Janette_Z

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