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Hi,
I recently bought the new Surface Pro 4 (i7, 512 GB SSD) along with the new docking station. I've experienced some of the general issues that various other people have mentioned (such as the power management/sleep issue) but I'm also seeing an issue that does not yet seem reported.
When I have the new docking station connected, if it's connected to a monitor, the network connectivity sometimes drops. I have been using it without any issues for about 2 weeks, but today I had a lot of trouble connecting to the office WiFi network. The network itself was definitely working properly as it was quick and reliable for several other users, including my own phone. Nonetheless, I rebooted the router to make sure.
Windows simply would not connect to the WiFi network (even though it has always been a saved connection). Trying to connect caused it to sometimes fail and sometimes ask for the network password (and entering it correctly would still fail - but that's another long-standing Windows bug!). Connecting to alternative networks did exactly the same; it would attempt to connect to my phone's portable hotspot, connect and disconnect in a few seconds, retry, and then stop (in a disconnected state). Intermittently it would connect to the network, but sometimes with 'No Internet' and clearly lots of DNS issues in trying to resolve google.com. It sometimes took 30-60 seconds to load google.com.
Troubleshooting steps
Clearly there is an issue with the external display. The display is a 1080p monitor which is connected via a HDMI cable and a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter. The strange part is that this problem has never come up before, though in hindsight I would say that browsing at the office has been generally a little bit slower than at home.
Has anyone else experienced this issue? I might try to get an older pre-1.4 spec HDMI cable to see if this has an effect.
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.
For me this is 100% a docking station plus any external monitor issue. I have ruled out the other suggestions including USB 3, setting to 2.4ghz only etc... I also tried with a brand new Samsung monitor the issue was still there.
Microsoft - get a dock, a sp4 and an external monitor, plug them all in and the issue will be recreated.
The delay in fixing this productivity killing bug is unacceptable.
This is definitely not a dock station issues as I tried another portable usb dock station with exactly the same behavior.
You're the man!!
It worked like charm!!
I had a very similar problem when I got my Surface Pro. Without a docking station, if I plugged in an external monitor the WIFI dropped out. That was the reason I originally got the docking station (I plugged an RJ45 into it and just forgot about WIFI). In my new apartment that's not an option though.
In my case, I seem to have got lucky. I'm not sure if it's a Windows update that was run or the fact that we just got a new WIFI router... but now everything seems to be running perfectly (WIFI works whether the surface is connected to the docking station and an external monitor or not).
I'm kind of nervous about it though. I wouldn't be surprised if, next week, the WIFI dies again. This and the lack of an Android style swipe keyboard are my only two complaints about the device. Otherwise it's been a pleasure to use.
Oh Dear!
I have the same problem, straight out of the box. A Docking Station arrived today. The moment I connected it to a monitor, the WIFI dropped, the moment I unplugged it, the WIFI Came back.
I tried 2 different monitors and they were both the same.
Finally I just connected the second screen directly to the SP4 and had the power coming through the Docking Station. It worked fine like that but now, what's the point of the docking station?
I'll try to have a conversation with a Microsoft tech when they are back online but if it can't be solved then I'll return the Docking Station as not being fit for it's purpose.
