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Surface Pro 2 Docking Station - 1st Impressions

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Knuck111

New Member
Knuck, when you first plug in your Surface and turn it on does the Surface screen flicker on and off like it is adjusting to the fact that an extra monitor is hooked up to it? I went ahead and got the Plugable UD-3900 and really like it for the most part except that I do have 2 23'' monitors hooked up to it and every time that I hook the Surface up to the Docking Station and even right after I unhook from the docking station the screen on the Surface does this terrible flicker/roll thing and it makes me wonder about long term effects after this has happened 500-1000 times!

No flicker on mine although I only have one monitor hooked up. Not sure what the long term effect would be.
 

MickeyLittle

Active Member
I am thinking about ordering this dock and a 4 port 3.0 USB to plug into the dock's only 3.0 USB and therefore giving me 4 3.0 USB ports. Now I need to hook up 2 23'' monitors and I know that 1 will be no issue in the mini display port. Since my monitors only have HDMI, VGA, and DVI, what do I need to plug the other monitor into one of the 3.0 USB ports? My monitors are not Daisy Chain compatible.
 
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Knuck111

New Member
I am thinking about ordering this dock and a 4 port 3.0 USB to plug into the dock's only 3.0 USB and therefore giving me 4 3.0 USB ports. Now I need to hook up 2 23'' monitors and I know that 1 will be no issue in the mini display port. Since my monitors only have HDMI, VGA, and DVI, what do I need to plug the other monitor into one of the 3.0 USB ports? My monitors are not Daisy Chain compatible.

I would recommend getting a USB 3.0 hub that allows you to turn on or off each port on the hub. As far as the 2nd monitor goes, there are several USB 3.0 to HDMI adapters. Unfortunately I have no experience with them so I can't comment on how well they work with Windows 8.1. There are also display port Hubs available like EVGA's DisplayPort Hub Available Now that will give you the option of attaching a third monitor in the future.
 

surfdock

Active Member
MickeyLittle, I recommend using as few devices and adapters as possible. A single USB docking station like the Plugable UD-3900 for $119 is probably the most economical solution that will give you 6 USB ports and two monitor outputs that will allow you to re-use the cables with the monitors. As long as your monitors are 1920x1200 or lower this will work great. Using monitors via USB eats up a little bit of CPU since the USB display driver piggy-backs on the Intel driver. For gaming its not a great solution, but for regular everyday usage its a slam dunk. Here is my setup with a Lenovo USB 3.0 dock:



BTW I don't recommend the Lenovo dock. I think the Plugable one is made better and the Plugable support is great.
 
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MickeyLittle

Active Member
I currently have the Plugable UD-3900 but I'm sending it back because 3 times so far this weekend I've had to uninstall the software from control panel and reinstall the software just to get the monitors to come on.
 

surfdock

Active Member
Mickeylittle,

Sorry I missed that posting above. Have you contacted the Pluggable support folks? I hear they are quite good on support. Maybe you have a faulty unit and it needs to be swapped out?

I have a bad Lenovo dock that looses the connection every 20 minutes or so. Quite annoying. I need to get it swapped out, but I have another device that works fine so I haven't bothered to return it yet.
 

elee532

Member
The LAN speed is the only draw back I see to the docking station.

10/100I could live with. I'm more turned off by the way the tablet slides in and out of the dock. Looks like more of a two-handed operation. Might not be a big deal, but if you're docking and undocking repeatedly throughout the day, would seem like it might get cumbersome. I can take my Fujitsu Q702 in and out of the dock with one hand. This is about the only thing keeping me from a Surface Pro 2.
 

Tsurugaya

Active Member
The only caveat is that the USB 3 port divides it's power between the dock's USB 3 port and the three USB 2 ports, so you don't get the power from the USB 3 port that you get directly from the SP2's.
 
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