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Surface Dock 2 - USB device might need more power

Anonymous
2020-11-10T00:37:30+00:00

I have been using surface Pro 7 with dual monitor setup with dock 1 with no issues.

I used Mini-dp to mini-dp cable for both monitors to connect from the dock with 3 usb external ssd.

upon upgrading to dock 2, since it doesn't have mini-dp, i had to replace cables to usb-c to mini-dp.

now i get constant message saying 'USB device might need more power' whether i have 1 or 2 monitor attached with no other devices plugged in.

also, charger says 'slow charger' and it simply won't charge.

based on dock2's spec, it should provide more than enough power to cover these connections as i had no issues running same setup on dock1 which was way under powered.

i've searched everywhere to see if anyone else had same issues or solutions for it and couldn't find anything.

Surface | Surface Pro | Power and battery

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-02-14T16:19:07+00:00

    I'm seeing the same problem, but only with my new Surface Pro 7+. My Surface Pro 6 does not give the error.

    I've done a few experiments and tried a few different adapters including USB C to DVI and USB C to HDMI but I get the error every time two monitors are connected and almost always with one monitor connected by HDMI via the dock. I can get it error free with one monitor connected via DVI adapter to the dock and one connected directly to the Surface itself, though this is hardly a satisfactory solution and it doesn't work every time!

    Since everything is fine when I connect to the Surface Pro 6 I think it rules out the cables as the cause. I do feel it's got something to do with the fast charging capability of the 7+ (I believe the 7 also has this capability). 

    I also note that the Surface Dock 2 reports as a slow charger despite it's 199W charging power.

    It would be nice for Microsoft to give us an opinion.

    7 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2021-01-15T17:26:14+00:00

    I have the same issue.  I can plug my USB-C to HDMI cable into the Surface directly and the monitor works fine.  When I plug it into the Surface Dock 2, there is no connection to the monitor and I get the message that "USB device might need more power".  At this point, I'm probably going to return the Surface Dock 2 unless there is a solution.

    6 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2021-02-08T11:34:33+00:00

    I have this problem too.  It started after upgrading from a Surface Pro 6 to a Surface Pro 7+. All hardware is the same...the only change is the Surface.   I can occasionally clear the warning by disconnecting and reconnecting  the USB C monitor, but the warning returns after a while.  

    Image

    Not sure if it helps, but I found a fix, pretty simple fix too. 

    I noticed that I did not have this issue when I went into work and used the dock2 I had there, after some checks, I established that it was the USB-C cable. 

    It was the same brand as the ones that didn't work, but, a different batch number. Clearly something had changed...

    So now I use:

        2M USB Type C to HDMI/A 2.0 Cable M/M

        P/N 1158-520 (with batch ref: 46913)

    If you can get this or a later model I suspect it should fix the issue.

    Best regards

    Owen

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2021-02-02T18:44:09+00:00

    Any update on this? Clearly a common issue... can’t work from home because of it. Not impressed!

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  5. Anonymous
    2020-11-10T03:56:45+00:00

    cable matters usb-c to mini-dp

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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