USB3 Drive Base Disconnecting During Write Cycle

Anonymous
2015-11-29T04:40:25+00:00

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?

Surface | Surface Book | Display and screen

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-12-02T15:14:43+00:00

    I have the same problems as you guys. I expect we will be hearing more from others as they start trying to use external storage.

    I have tried all kinds of combinations:

    2TB My Passport connected to external, powered USB3 (Targus DisplayLink)

    512 GB MyDigitalSSD connected direct with/without Targus

    My Passport connected direct with/without Targus

    Took a SD Card with 32 GB of images and used File Explorer to copy the folder to each of the external devices. After a few GB, File Explorer would stop, complaining about the destination drive not being available. When looking at Device Manager, it showed the device was not working. (I don't remember exactly what it said). I also have seen The Paging Request Error.

    What started my exploration of this problem was that I was ending up with corrupted Word files and problems transferring new images into Adobe LightRoom.

    This is a very serious problem. And, I am too busy to do beta testing, so the Book is going back, unfortunately!

    By the way, just for reference, I have been using the combination of the My Passport, MyDigitalSSd and Targus DisplayLink dock with a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro (with I7 and 250GB internal storage) for a year now, with no problems.

    Kim

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-12-02T18:47:39+00:00

    One additional item:

    When I copy the images from the SD card to the Book's internal memory it works fine, approx. 120MB/second, 37.5GB with no issues.

    Kim

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-12-02T19:41:41+00:00

    It really does seem like a USB hub issue... I tried a different SSD, a Crucial 512GB model and had the same failure. So it's not my SSD. I did a test with the enclosure on my Macbook Pro, and had no issues...

    It's strictly an issue with the Surface Book's USB port.

    I'm not sure if getting a new replacement would even fix this issue...

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-12-02T20:21:40+00:00

    How do we make Microsoft aware of this problem without having to go through an excruciating interchange with someone on the phone? (1. Reinstall Windows. 2. Make sure the drivers are up to date, 3. Reinstall this and that and..... you get the idea.)

    This one is very serious as it can cause loss or corruption of data files, often without warning. Not cool for a business computer!

    Would love to keep the Book, but I will go back to the Yoga 2 Pro if I don't think this will be solved quickly. I just don't have the time to call in for "support", especially when I am quite sure this is not a problem on just my computer.

    I didn't sign up to be a beta tester.

    Any thoughts?

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-12-02T20:44:33+00:00

    I wish I knew. I can tell you that reinstalling Windows didn't do anything. I did that yesterday.

    If anyone from MS is bothering to read this message.

    I've already tried the following:

    1. Restore SB to Factory
    2. Did System Updates, everything is reported as being up-to-date.

    I even went into the device manager and opened up all the USB controller's and ticked off the power save modes on them, so the OS wouldn't try to put the devices to sleep.

    I even went into the UEFI Bios settings and found something called "Docking USB Port", which was ON and toggled it to OFF, to see if that did anything. But sadly, no luck.

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