Surface Brick - Constant red light on dock eject button

[BubbaUK]

I'll double-check, but as far as I could see all the contacts on both the dock and the clipboard are clean.

I bought the SB through Amazon and I've asked them for a repair or replacement under the UK Sale of Goods Act 1979. I'll keep you updated.

 

[sharpuser]

Also check for metal filaments or debris. A drawback of magnetic connectors is that they attract magnetized dust and metal shavings. Look closely.

 

[BubbaUK]

Thanks for the suggestion. I couldn't see anything, but I gave the contacts a good clean with alcohol last night. It's a bit fiddly to get into the clipboard slot but a folded spectacle wipe did the trick there. Still dead though

Amazon have told me they will deal with this in 3 to 5 days.... we'll see what happens.

 

[Plantje]

Keep us posted. Good luck!

 

[Plantje]

And?

 

[BubbaUK]

And?

Well, after a bit of back & forth, I finally got the RMA from Amazon today, and sent it off to them for inspection. I'll let you know what transpires.

 

[Plantje]

That sounds very positive! Looks like you get a new/refurbished device and they will let you know what was wrong with the old one.
With Microsoft warranty they will replace the device without ever updating you on what was wrong in the first place.

 

[BubbaUK]

Hopefully! I've an horrible feeling I'll get a refurbished model without the performance base, or reduced RAM, or something missing like that. We'll see.

 

[gman713]

I noticed a different issue with the dock eject indicator in the system tray for the SB2... every day I boot up, there's an exclamation point or something like that showing. When I hover over the icon, it tells me something requires my attention before I eject. When I click the icon, I get a message stating "elevated process" and an install message pops up every time. I press yes and I then get a green button stating my clipboard can be detached. I don't know why it's doing this but I noticed it started late last week after a Windows update.

 

[BubbaUK]

As an update, I got an email today from Amazon saying that I would be refunded very nearly the full price I paid for the Surface Book. Presumably it's not repairable.

I have to say I'm very impressed with Amazon, but very unimpressed with Microsoft.

 

[hughlle]

That's a good outcome, but why are they not refunding the full amount paid?

 

[BubbaUK]

That's a good outcome, but why are they not refunding the full amount paid?

Under the UK Sale of Good Act, a product sold must last for a "reasonable" period, for which laptops is considered 5 years. So if your laptop breaks down after say two & a half years, you can reasonably demand a refund of 50%, since you've had half it for half it's expected life (with caveats: assuming there were no problems with it originally, the item concerned has been used according to manufacturers guidelines etc). The kicker is that any warranty period is ignored - so it's five years from purchase date, not 5 years + 1 year warranty.

Since the Surface Book was about 18 months old, they could have refunded 70% of the cost, as it was I got about 94% back (plus kept the free dock), so I'm really not complaining.