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OK, this is an interesting problem.
So, I have an external SSD in a USB3 enclosure, and I've been moving my Steam Library onto it.
The SSD is a Samsung EVO 850, 500GB drive. I've tried two different enclosures, a Startech and an Orico. Both behave the same way.
The enclosure is hooked up through the keyboard base of the Surface Book via one of the USB3 ports.
The problem I'm encountering is when the drive is busy writing files the base seems to disconnect and the drive disappears. It eventually remounts, but of course the damage is done...
To test this issue, I ran Crystal Disk Mark 5 on the external drive, and the read cycle is fine. Once the write cycle begins, it seems to hang up and then suddenly the drive disconnects.
Anyone have any idea what might be going on here?
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.
Thanks for the info Gary. I'm glad it's working out for you. Maybe mine was just defective. I really want to love this computer. I might go buy another one this weekend and give it another shot. Maybe I'll get lucky this time. Mine was a day one Surface book, maybe later ones are better.
It's funny you mention that, I tried it on my StarTech dock, which is also DisplayLink, and it was much worse.
So, as of right now. I just returned my Surface Book... It was a hard and sad decision for me, because I really liked this machine. This USB thing was the last straw. I could live with the other more obvious software related issues with display driver performance, and even the battery life issue. But me not being able to properly use my USB drives did it in for me.
I'm really unsure if it's just a defect in my Surface Book. I suppose I could get another one to be sure... But I think I need a break from this machine. I've spent so many hours troubleshooting it, instead of actually working on it.
Such a shame. I've followed much of what you've written. I've had many of the same problems you've had.
I just came here to give you more input on my USB ports as both of my USB 3.0 ports have never had a problem. There's no reason to type anything more on that since you threw in the towel. I've not seen anyone else have a USB port problem like you had.
With the update from yesterday that fixed the Intel HD520 Skylake driver problem, I have no complaints on mine and I'm truly enjoying it. My battery life at 50% brightness is consistently between 10 to 13 hours. My color accurate screen at 3000 x 2000 is incredible for my photography with Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop CC. Of the dozens of computers I've had over the years this is the best one yet. I really do love my Surface Book.
Gary in Atlanta
It's funny you mention that, I tried it on my StarTech dock, which is also DisplayLink, and it was much worse.
So, as of right now. I just returned my Surface Book... It was a hard and sad decision for me, because I really liked this machine. This USB thing was the last straw. I could live with the other more obvious software related issues with display driver performance, and even the battery life issue. But me not being able to properly use my USB drives did it in for me.
I'm really unsure if it's just a defect in my Surface Book. I suppose I could get another one to be sure... But I think I need a break from this machine. I've spent so many hours troubleshooting it, instead of actually working on it.
Just an FYI:
I found that the USB based dock (Targus DisplayLink) makes the external hard disk problem worse, so I suspect it is all interrelated in some way.
Once you get the Y cable, make sure you try transferring some large amount of data from internal memory to the external storage.
The official dock plugs into the Keyboard's charging port, which is the same as the charging port on the tablet itself. But i cakt really recommend the dock, it has pretty well documented issues just outputting to two displays. Part of me wonders how much of this is just a single issue with that new connextor.
Let us know how the return goes. I wqs going to try that myself once I've recieved that Y cable (if it doesnt help)
