Surface Dock questions

[Christopher Lindsay]

Looking into buying the new surface dock. I don't need anything except the USB ports and figured it would be better to pair the dock with my surface book than a USB hub. My question is can the USB ports on the dock work with a surface book without being plugged into the wall. Does the dock USB ports work with the surface book when it's connected to the clipboard only? Does the dock charge devices when disconnected from the surface book but is plugged into the wall?

 

[Christopher Lindsay]

Does no one have the surface dock?

 

[Lethal_NFS]

I do not think many people do. $200 for a few USB ports is crazy.

 

[zerospace-net]

The dock provides a little more than a few USB ports, but yes, $200 is pretty steep, though not completely unreasonable for a docking station (proprietary laptop docking stations & port replicators have easily cost this kind of money, sadly, and since the Surface Dock uses the "surface connect" port, it qualifies as proprietary).

That said, from my understanding of the situation, you may want to avoid the dock if you plan to use it for multiple monitors, especially multiple 4k monitors. I currently use just a USB3 to gigabit ethernet adapter, a direct, active mini-DP to DVI adapter and a couple of USB hubs to "dock" my SB to a large regular, full HD monitor, keyboard and mouse in my office. This arrangement is cumbersome to hook up all the time (need to plug 4 things into the SB each time -- power, video, and 2 USB), but it works and didn't cost $200.

 

[Karl-Rudolf Erlemann]

I have a surface dock with a Surface book and in principle I like it a lot. Connection for power and USB that is kept in place with a magnetic connector. This means that you don't run the risk to pull the surface book from a table if you'd get stuck in the cable (moving offices frequently brings this as a work hazard). I had no problems connecting screens with it.

The downside is that the USB conncetions stop working frequently and I have yet to find a the reason.

Rudi

 

[lewinr]

I have the surface dock also and have found one big problem with it... the USB and headphone jack seem to constantly disconnect and reconnect. When I open device manager the list of devices refreshes around every 20 seconds and the list of devices changes... I was planning to ask if anybody else has this problem...

But in theory i like the idea. I move my SB often between my office and home so I keep the dock in the office and the charger that came with the SB at home. And I have a few USB devices (Lync phone, for example) in the office so it saves me from having to connect everything...

 

[Christopher Lindsay]

Thanks for the feedback yall. I guess like the surface book itself the dock needs a few updates. I'll just get a USB hub for the time being.

 

[rdockrey]

I have been using the dock here at work for a few days and so far I have had zero issues with it. I am running dual 30" non 4K monitors using display port cables. I have a wireless mouse, wired keyboard, USB hub and headphones connected to it and have had no drop out issues with it.

 

[Talldog]

I've been using the dock since November and I haven't had any problems. I leave the front USB ports free for transient connections, but the rear ports are plugged into a KVM switch and an unpowered Cable Matters USB hub. The hub goes to a DVD burner, memory card reader, and my monitor to power 2 USB ports that come off the side of the monitor. I also have Ethernet and speakers plugged into the dock.

I haven't had problems with any of that stuff, but I also don't have dual monitors, which I understand has been a source of problems for some folks.

 

[michal64]

i started to use this dock with my surface book plus 2 dell monitors connected using display port. issue i have is that if pc goes to sleep, when you wake it up, monitors dont turn back up. laptop screen is on, network connectivity is on, but screens remain off... so if i had to pay for it myself, i would stay away

 

[kidder4]

I have the exact same issue as you with regards to the constant usb/audio connections disconnecting and then reconnecting. At first I thought it was my Lync phone causing the issue but it seems to be any usb device. :angry:

 

[Bossy573]

Using the Surface dock with a SP3. Have 2 MDP active DVI adapters driving 2 external monitors, plus my Surface screen. With Windows 10 it was one problem after another. I rolled back to Windows 8.1 and everything works fine, except my USB mouse and keyboard will disconnect every once in a while. My fix is to bust out a bluetooth Arc mouse. It connects, and then my USB mouse starts working again. Weird.

When I bought all this I figured that the best Microsoft experience would come from Microsoft hardware. I figured wrong.

 

[zerospace-net]

Using the Surface dock with a SP3. Have 2 MDP active DVI adapters driving 2 external monitors, plus my Surface screen. With Windows 10 it was one problem after another. I rolled back to Windows 8.1 and everything works fine, except my USB mouse and keyboard will disconnect every once in a while. My fix is to bust out a bluetooth Arc mouse. It connects, and then my USB mouse starts working again. Weird.

When I bought all this I figured that the best Microsoft experience would come from Microsoft hardware. I figured wrong.

Surface Pro 3 on Windows 8.1 was a far better experience even with the older docking station than I've had with the Surface Book on Windows 10. MS has a long way to go, still...

 

[Bossy573]

Surface Pro 3 on Windows 8.1 was a far better experience even with the older docking station than I've had with the Surface Book on Windows 10. MS has a long way to go, still...

That's a shame, especially since Win 10 on my home desktop is fantastic. Was seriously thinking of a Surface Book, but holding off until the issues I have been hearing and reading about have been resolved. And yes, my SP3 with 8.1 is again a joy to use.

 

[zerospace-net]

That's a shame, especially since Win 10 on my home desktop is fantastic. Was seriously thinking of a Surface Book, but holding off until the issues I have been hearing and reading about have been resolved. And yes, my SP3 with 8.1 is again a joy to use.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Surface Book, I really do. But here's a case-in-point: yesterday, I was mashing away playing Diablo 3 season 5 for a number of hours. All was going well. Surface Book was plugged in because gaming kills the battery.... then, I'm doing some gear swapping in the game and POOF! Keyboard just quits working. No trackpad, no keyboard. External mouse is fine and touchscreen is fine. Thankfully, it only lasted maybe a minute before the keyboard came back to life, but this is a prime example of one of the issues a LOT of folks have complained about with the Surface Book.

Overall, the machine is great, but it really, really needs work to be anywhere near as stable and reliable as my Surface Pro 3 was. There's a reason my Surface Pro 3 is still in my office, even though I haven't used it since I got the Surface Book. It's my security blanket should the Surface Book just totally die on me. I find it really sad considering that I paid a lot more for the Surface Book than I did for my SP3 + docking station.

 

[hhull]

Has anyone had issues with the ethernet not working on the surface dock? That's one of my primary reasons for picking it up, I've been unable to get it working so I've actually had to attach a USB to Ethernet adaptor to the dock to work around!

 

[DK91088]

Have been several firmware updates for the Book - nothing has resolved the bizarre dock issues. I have made so many changes to power plans telling it not to Sleep or hibernate, but still it does. And when it does, external monitors (two HP ProDisplay 242va connected via mini display to HDMI) never come back on. Have to power down, disconnect the Book from the keyboard, hold down power for 30 seconds so it is OFF, then reconnect it to keyboard, then dock and power it back up. Sometimes it even comes back up right - mostly it doesn't.

Out of the dock - works splendidly.

 

[rdockrey]

I have had no issues with the Ethernet not working. As far as the above goes concerning the monitors, I could not get it to work with mini display to HDMI. I had the exact same issues. I went to mini display to display and have had no issues since running dual Dell 30" non 4K monitors.

 

[Hardcore1973]

I have had zero issues with my dock. I use an external USB 3.0 drive, ethernet, Wireless Mouse via USB, and 1 monitor via display port.

 

[AlexOsadzinski]

I had the same problem. It turned out that the Surface Connect socket on the Surface Book was damaged: one of the eeny weeny little pins was bent. Using a high magnification loupe, and a sewing needle, I was able to bend it back. The sudden "snap" when the magnetic connector plugs itself in is likely what caused the bend. It caused the USB ports to randomly connect and disconnect. It drove me nuts. The pin bent again, I fixed it, and it kinda broke off a little, but everything works fine. The connector is very fragile.

I should send the Surface Book in for repair, but I don't want to be without it for 2-3 weeks right now.

Check out the connector.