Surface Pro 3 USB DVD/CD drives and getting them to work together

Anonymous

Have a Samsung USB DVD drive. My Surface Pro 3 will "see" the drive for purposes such as copying files and folder or photos. It will also play a much CD if placed in the drive. However, if I place a DVD or CD with software to install the Surface will just loop and cycle - making a little sort of beeping noise, and that's about it. The device also sort of disappears when this process is going on. I've fiddled around with the AutoPlay settings and nothing seems to make this happy.

I was able to install some of the software I needed by copying the CD info over to a USB hard drive and then running the Setup from there. But, just can't get the machine to run them from the DVD.

I'm new to Windows 8.1, so this probably isn't helping me figure this out. I get the feeling I just have something set wrong somewhere, but I sure can't figure out what it is.

Thanks

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous

Even with a powered USB hub the device can still not get enough power, depending on the device.

What I had to do for my LG DVD LG DVD drives is use a split USB cable. One connection to the device and two USB connections to the hub. The two connections are one for power and one for data. This works great and can be reasonably purchased from 'MONOPRICE.COM'. I don't remember if the SP3 charger has a USB on it, if not you will need a hub. If it does then put on USB port on the SP3 and one on the charger port.

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Anonymous

I have had the same issue. The USB3 port on the SP3 isn't providing enough power. Until a fix is provided in the form of a firmware updated, (maybe or maybe not) get yourself a usb3-y cable. Plug the secondary USB cable into the charging port on the AC power adapter.

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Anonymous

Is this happening with the SP3 plugged into an AC source?

Does the DVD have a separate power supply?

If it doesn't have an external power supply, the SP3 port might not produce enough power to run it.

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Anonymous

The drive does not have enough power for what you want it to do. It does for a few basics but when installing software, the drive has to maintain a fixed RPM level.

I had a Samsung USB DVD drive before and I think mine had an additional dongle on the end to hook up to another USB port for additional power.

I would basically suggest to just continue doing what you are doing by transferring the files onto a USB pendrive and install from there. No moving parts; no additional power needed to operate. It would be a one time function anyhow and not worth changing the drive for.

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Barb Bowman 80,810 MVP Volunteer Moderator

my LG external cd/dvd drive acts as if it is being disconnected and reconnected multiple times while i am trying to access files on the optical media. the surface will make its disconnect noise, the folder will close and then it will make the connected device noise and open the folder again. This will happen in the middle of trying to install a program and will error the installation out. I have tried two different drives and they both act the same way.

Try using a POWERED USB hub, or try a Y cable that can plug into the USB charging port on the SP3 power brick. There probably isn't enough power from the USB port on its own.

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Anonymous

You actually have a "powered" USB hub now. Look on your power brick for the Pro 3. You will see a USB port. If your DVD writer has a "Y" cable, plug the main plug into the tablet and the "branch" cable into that USB port on the power brick. That will give you the power you need.

Normally, DVD writers are USB 2.0 (Blu-Ray 3.0 only) but newer models are coming out with USB 3.0.

As for external powered USB hubs? Any model you want. They are not technical and are just normal hubs with an external power supply.

There is a chance that the problem you have is the drive does not have enough power to operate. Just use the power brick and try it out.

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Anonymous

I thought I'd reply that this problem now appears to be fixed, and I don't have any problem with the USB3 ports on my docking station.

The problem seemed to be resolved after I applied the several Microsoft firmware updates, so make sure you download them all!

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Anonymous

Hi all,

just made a discovery: the previously non-connecting external hard drive USB 3.0 now connects, but only when the Surface Pro 3 is connected to power with its power lead.

Although this may be annoying on the road, at least I can now use the drive when power is connected.

David

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Anonymous

I am having the same problem as everyone else: my external HDD won't work. It's a 750GB USB 2.0 WD. Even when I plug it into the Surface Pro 3's docking station it won't work.

Ah, finally got it to work: I connected the HDD to one of my monitors, which have powered USB ports, even though they are only USB 1.0.

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Anonymous

It will support external optical drives, BUT, the USB port is underpowered.

Make sure that the external drive has a "Y" cable and you will need a powered USB hub to provide the extra power to the drive. Once you do that, the tablet will support most drive models on the market.

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Anonymous

I purchased a Samsung Ultra Thin Portable DVD writer. I am trying to load a parts program to use on my surface Pro 3. The SP3 keep saying that it doesn't have enough power. It is plugged into the ac adapter. SE-218

I have the same USB writer. I purchased the following USB Y cable

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-USB2HABMY1-Cable-External-Drive/dp/B003WV5DMO/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1407412485&sr=1-1&keywords=USB2HABMY1

Note that it is USB A to mini B, since the Samsung SE-218 uses mini USB cable. Also note that my version is only 1 ft, which is relatively short, but I like it since there is less to carry. They have a 3 ft version. I plug the red one into power supply of the surface pro 3 and it works. I can read and write to DVDs.

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Anonymous

The DVD drive is what does not have enough power. On the DVD writer, is there a "Y" cable attached to it. One end goes into the tablet and the other can be plugged into a regular PC or laptop and it is designed to provide more power.

If the DVD writer does not have a "Y" cable, it won't work. There is no other way of boosting the power. The USB 3.0 port has a fixed power output to provide to devices. It cannot be increased.

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301 additional answers

Anonymous

2015-04-02T23:46:24+00:00

I definitely appreciate all of the extensive insight. As far as the USB port being underpowered, it will NOT run an external cd-dvd writer because of power issues -- period Amen. One can speculate endlessly what the problem might be, but the answer straight from the horse's mouth is that they know this is a problem and one that MS intentionally caused, because Marketing wanted an edge on battery life. I'm sure the suspend problem is yet another compromise. I say that because it lay at the bottom of the wi-fi problem with which I wrestled for nearly 2 months.

Regarding the external hard drive issue. No one and I will repeat this, so that there is no confusion here, NO ONE should have to trouble shoot a devise for a company (MS) that charges $1400.00 for a product worth perhaps half that much, that has an issue with interfacing with standard hardware that is designed to known industry standards. I'm glad that you have the expertise to troubleshoot this problem, and I am glad that you are willing to share your insights with the rest of us, but what about all the other poor suckers out there that purchased this mongrel only to find out that they can no longer access their files on cd-dvd or external hard drives? People who are not computer savvy or only marginally savvy. This whole thing may have been viewed as a challenge to you, but it was a huge inconvenience to me. I now have in excess of 14 hours of time on the phone with MS and continue to have an update problem (a firmware update will NOT go in and it is preventing other updates from loading also.) I have another callback from MS that is supposed to happen today, after they try and figure out what is going on. I don't hold out much hope to be honest with you.

We've become to forgiving of this monster called MS that feeds off its customer base to troubleshoot ill conceived products. We've had to put up with it on every OS they have ever released and several they have not even been able to fix (ME, Vista, Windows 8 and 8.1). And, just as soon as an OS becomes reasonable stable (XP) after 5 Service packs, they turn around and stop supporting it. God forbid we should be allowed to keep anything that actually works pretty good. It's time that this continuing problem is brought to head. They get rich off of their inadequacies while we get to foot the bill.

As things now stand I have found a workaround (a USB 2.0 powered hub) that appears to support everything. But, I shouldn't have had to devote my time to trying to find a fix and neither should you or all the others who have been unwilling to settle for this BS. In addition, I now have to drag this hub and charger around with me, along with a portable cd-dvd player, and a convertor to HDMI and several other work arounds just to have what a normal tablet would have supplied without all the hassle for half the price. The next thing I now have to do is to buy another case for it all, because everything will not fit in the one I originally bought. And, on top of it all, they have the audacity to list this problem as "resolved." I posted this link before, but it needs to be posted again, See: http://sharetext.org/2R9o
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