Surface Dock 2 connector heating

Dear Janette_Z,

I understand that the Surface Dock 2 was conceived to handle higher powers, but my connector becomes hot even when my surface pro 7 is in sleep mode and with the battery 100% charged. In this case there should be no consumption of electricity and therefore consequent heating except for a small heating due to the fact that it is still connected and must keep the battery charged. Instead the connector remains hot as if it were charging the battery even if it is charged or as if the surface was using computational resources even if it is in sleep mode.

It seems as if the Surface Dock 2 continues to supply electricity even when it is not consumed and therefore causes heating indeed this problem doesn't occurs when I connect the Microsoft Surface 127W power supply instead of the Surface Dock 2 under the same condition (surface pro 7 in sleep mode and battery 100% charged).

Is there an explanation for this or is it a problem that needs to be resolved on dock 2?

Mario

First day using Surface Dock 2 with Surface Pro 7 to connect an external monitor, network cable, microphone, USB drive.   The dock's connector gets really hot even when the battery was charged in full.   I disconnected the devices connected to the dock one by one, and the temperature went down when I moved the external monitor from the dock to the USB-C port on the Surface Pro 7.   The USB-C port on the Surface Pro 7 for the external monitor is cool as well.   I almost returned the Surface Dock 2, but I would need the extra ports anyway.   I think that Microsoft has to fix this problem.   Many people buy the docking device for the external monitors, and it ends up getting unbelievably hot.   By the way, my monitor is 3 yr old Samsung1920 by 1080, S24E390HL, nothing fancy. 

Also, I would suggest all the dock users to limit the battery charging level to 50% to prevent the swelling of the battery.   

To do this, turn off Surface, press and hold both the power button and volume up button for 10 seconds, Surface UEFI will pop up, Boot configuration, Enable Battery Limit in the bottom, Exit, Restart.   Then it will charge only up to 50%.

This is my 3rd Surface product.   I love everything of them except the swelling battery issue.    Since I work from home 24/7 and the Surface is connected to the docking system, the battery level would be 100% by default.   Combined with the frequent heating, the battery would gas up in 1.5 years.    I just found out about this Enable Battery Limit feature.   Very sad that two Surface Books were ruined by the battery swell problem.   Microsoft, please do something about this.    Let people know about battery charging level, and make it easier to adjust it to protect your goods and reputations.

I have the Surface Book 3 with the Surface Doc 2.  When the Dock is connected to the Surface Book, the connector (the part that is inserted into the keyboard) gets very hot, at all times, fully charged or otherwise, with our without external monitor.  I have measured it with a commercial IR temperature probe, and it gets up to 120 degrees F.  Is this what you call within safety limits?

Hi, VaibhavSrivastava5!

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Community and posting your concern regarding the Surface Dock.

This is normal and within the safety guidelines. The Surface Dock 2 features an active cable head and power delivery of 120W to host which is twice that of Surface Dock 1 at 60W, these two factors contribute to an increased temperature of the Surface Connect connector head during charging. The increased warmth is expected and does not represent a safety issue under normal operation.

If this answers your question, please let our Community know by marking this post as an answer. Otherwise, don't hesitate to respond to this thread if there’s anything else that needs to be addressed. 

Kind regards,

Janette_Z