Surface Dock USB ports not working - Dock Updater repeatedly fails

Sorry to hear that you weren't as lucky.  I was happy not to have to use the USB ports on the Surface Book anymore.

Unsurprisingly, this did not work for me.

Hello! I found this over at http://www.surfaceforums.net/threads/docking-station-usb-ports-not-working.10313/ 

1). Remove all cables and dongles from surface dock.

2). Unplug Surface Dock from Surface Book (or Pro)

3). Shutdown Surface Book (or Pro)

4). Press and hold Power Button for 20-30 secs. Startup screen will go Black and stop starting up.

5). Plug all cables/dongles back into your Surface Dock

6). Plug Surface Dock back into your Surface Book (or Pro)

7). Press Power Button on Surface Book (or Pro) for standard start up.

I was told that the issue was with my device holding a static charge making it unable to connect to the USB hub on the Surface Dock. The long press on startup will drain the charge allowing it to reconnect properly on next startup. Hope this helps!

It worked great for me!

I've been using a Surface dock for just over two years, with no problems to speak of. The connector has been a bit temperamental (if I touch the connector the dock disconnects and reconnects) and for the sake of troubleshooting I ran the Dock Updater and upgraded its firmware. The USB ports began playing up virtually immediately! They'll often work for some length of time, and then they'll basically cycle between connected and disconnected (I've been listening to that "song" all morning). For me it's my keyboard and mouse, and I work on it all day. Which makes this an exceptionally frustrating problem. I have two monitors connected to the dock, and they keep working throughout.

I just tried "reversing the connector" (plugging it in upside down), and it worked for about 10 minutes. But the disconnect/reconnect noise has started again, once every 30-60s. I depend on my dock for work. I spoke to MS support a few days ago. We got as far as "try resetting your Surface" which is not an option. Especially given it seems highly unlikely that will resolve the problem.

I'm not sure what to do. I'm outside of warranty and we don't have MS stores in NZ. I was about ready to buy a new one, but it sounds like that won't solve the problem either if it's driver/firmware related? I have to do something quickly though...I need it for work.