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
    2020-06-14T13:13:29+00:00

    I've got the same problem on my Surface Book (1st gen) and a dock connected to an external monitor, ethernet, and sometimes a removable hard drive. The constant disconnect and reconnect started after I installed an insider build of Windows 10 in the fast ring a few months ago. Like some (or maybe all) users in this thread, I can see a "surface dock integration" and USB devices appearing and disappearing frequently in the device manager.

    I believe this is a software issue and after suffering so long days I decided to do a system fresh install. I downloaded the original factory image from MS support site and installed it on my surface book using a flash drive, then upgraded to the latest Windows 10 ver 2004. The dock has since been working without any issue.

    Maybe this is not the best solution, but for those who's considering ordering a $200+ dock 2, perhaps you might want to try this. It won't take long. Just back up your files or necessary apps (this is IMPORTANT) and do a clean OS reinstallation. 

    Hope this helps~

    (BTW I did try the restore to factory option in the setting app, it did not help with the dock problem, although it has deleted all my personal files and apps. I think it still kept some wrong drivers or configurations or anything that caused the frequent dock disconnection. I'd suggest you do the same as I did, download the factory image from MS site and do a manual factory restoration.)

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-06-13T19:50:33+00:00

    Has anyone tried using these cables stated in Microsoft's website? I also posted a link to the amazon site below:

    https://www.amazon.ca/StarTech-com-Mini-DisplayPort-Adapter-Cable/dp/B002XVYZ82

    If anyone used these cables with the Surface dock, have you experienced any issues with them?

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-06-13T05:54:42+00:00

    Replaced it with an identical dock 1 - this has been running flawlessly for 2 months or so now. In my case, the issue was clearly hardware, not software.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-06-13T04:55:58+00:00

    Do you mean you changed your orig dock with another orig dock? 

    I have two (orig) docks that were behaving exactly the same.  So I don't think it was hardware specific.  Of course, now that I installed the dock 2, my surface laptop 2 just got the firmware update!  With Marvell Bluetooth update (which may have been my problem.  Argh..... I don't know if I have the energy to test everything again.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-06-11T20:12:45+00:00

    I did that too but the problem still persisted. It has to be the software that communicates between the Surface and monitor that is the issue. My monitor is compatible with the Surface Dock.

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