I am using a Surface Pro 2, used a first generation Surface as my travel computer from the day it was released. Until now I never even considered looking back. I purchased the MB168B+ USB monitor to overcome, what I thought, was the only problem with the Surface. Namely, eye fatigue working on a small screen all day long while on the road. After installing the monitor on the Surface I turned up the brightness to full. It ran just fine for a minute or two, then just kept disconnecting.
Thinking this was a driver or software issue I spent the day updating, researching an reinstalling. After hours on the phone with Microsoft, I went for the nuclear option, a complete system restore. To my horror, this did not correct the problem. I eventual reloaded all of the drivers. Thinking there might be a problem with the monitor switches, I started playing with them. Once the brightness was lowered to around 70%, the monitor began working again.
So in summary the monitor, great. The Surface Pro 2 can not handle USB devices that consume power at a level that virtually ever other device I tested can handle. Since in the real world I will need to use the monitor at full brightness and may even need to run another device at the same time, I will begrudgingly relinquish my Surface Pro 2 for something with a heartier backbone.
:disappointed:
Thinking this was a driver or software issue I spent the day updating, researching an reinstalling. After hours on the phone with Microsoft, I went for the nuclear option, a complete system restore. To my horror, this did not correct the problem. I eventual reloaded all of the drivers. Thinking there might be a problem with the monitor switches, I started playing with them. Once the brightness was lowered to around 70%, the monitor began working again.
So in summary the monitor, great. The Surface Pro 2 can not handle USB devices that consume power at a level that virtually ever other device I tested can handle. Since in the real world I will need to use the monitor at full brightness and may even need to run another device at the same time, I will begrudgingly relinquish my Surface Pro 2 for something with a heartier backbone.
:disappointed: