Surface Pro 3 Dock Issues

[ellswrth]

I see there is another thread on DisplayPort issues with the Surface Pro 3 dock.

My dock, delivered 8/15, drove the display correctly.

However, the USB 3.0 ports functioned intermittently (USB flash drives would appear, then cycle and disappear, then reappear) and the Ethernet port would not make a connection to my wired network.

I had done all updates including firmware to the Surface prior to trying the dock.

Tried different flash drives, different cables, different ports on the switch - none solved the issues.

Anyone else experiencing issues? Wondering whether this is specific to my dock (which Microsoft has already agreed to replace at a Microsoft store).

Thanks in advance ...

 

[ellswrth]

Addendum - I see there was a firmware update on 8/19 - I will try that (when I get back to the office from vacation) and see if it addresses my issues.

 

[malberttoo]

Please let us know!

 

[ellswrth]

OK, back from vacation, performed all updates on the SP3, and plugged it into my dock.

Same issue - no wired ethernet connection. Connection cycles between network cable unplugged and identifying several times and eventually settles on Unidentified Network.

When I run IPCONFIG command line tool, I see DNS and WINS addresses that are sensible for my environment, but I have an autoconfig IP address so it appears that the device isn't getting an address from DHCP.

This is not an issue if I use a ASIX USB GB ethernet adapter - gets an address and fires up no problem.

In fact, I can connect the ASIX to one of the dock USB ports, plug the same cable into it, and it connects without issue.

So I think I can rule out the network itself as an issue, unless it's an incompatibility between the dock's ethernet adapter and my domain's DHCP server.

Frustrating, and I'm not sure where to turn next because I don't think swapping out the dock for a new one will actually fix this.

I'm going to try connecting to a different wired network and see if the result is different.

Any ideas would be welcomed.

 

[ellswrth]

There's a thread on the Microsoft community describing some similar but not identical problems.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...sappears/92c2433b-50c6-4cc6-9cdc-bb30bcd6d1e0

In the thread, it advises to check for Windows Updates while docked. Tried it - didn't yield any new updates.

Pretty frustrated right now ...

 

[WAR]

I called Microsoft support (800) 642-7676 about my display issues since the products are still under warranty. They were nice to work with, though unfortunately their solution was for me to do a full restore. I can't bring myself to re-install all my programs yet . . . .

 

[ellswrth]

I got the same story from them. Told them that wasn't acceptable.

 

[mitchellvii]

Man, for $200 USD and no moving parts, this docking station sure seems sketchy. They can nail something as complex as the SP3 but can't figure out a piece of plastic and some wires?

I bet the problem is the one-size-fits-all data bus solution. That's a lot of stuff happening through one port.

 

[ellswrth]

Hmm.

I've isolated the problem to not getting an IP address through DHCP. There is obviously connection to the DHCP server because I do get DNS and WINS addresses from it. I have noted that I get a bad subnet mask though (255.255.0.0 instead of 255.255.255.0).

I tried the wired ethernet port on a different network (essentially a "home" network, a Cisco router to a DSL connection) and that got an address through DHCP and worked no problem.

When I changed to a static IP address and entered all the DNS and WINS manually, the connection to my corporate network started to work correctly.

The problem has to do with either the dock's ethernet driver or the configuration of the DHCP server (which admittedly is an old Windows Server 2003 box, but works fine with everything else we use).

I'm going to pass this on to Microsoft, but something is definitely wonky here. I don't think it's the docking station as much as it's a driver issue, since the connection DOES work with static addressing.

 

[ellswrth]

No, not working correctly after all.

I do get a connection with a static address, but I'm now seeing the disconnect/reconnect cycle every few minutes or so. Not stable at all.

Disappointing.

 

[bluegrass]

All I can tell you is that I have two clients here where I work that I support that have MS docking stations/Surface 3's wired to our network and are working fine. I would say to take your dock back to the store and get it replaced.

 

[ellswrth]

All I can tell you is that I have two clients here where I work that I support that have MS docking stations/Surface 3's wired to our network and are working fine. I would say to take your dock back to the store and get it replaced.

This is kind of what I was hoping to hear.

I've now tried pinning the speed of the link at 1.0GB Full Duplex (was Auto Negotiation) and it now appears to have stabilized so crossing fingers that I've isolated the problem.