Surface dock and the surface book 3

Hi, MelanieDonkin!

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Community and posting your inquiry regarding the compatibility of the Surface Dock with the Surface Book 3. We are sorry for the troubles you have to go through finding the information here. We appreciate you taking the time to let us know about this and allowing us to help you out. Apologies for the Surface Dock 1 that doesn't show Surface Book 3 in the list of compatible devices. The Surface Dock 2 shows the compatible devices through the Surface Dock 2 Tech Specs page. 

I am happy to inform you that both Surface Dock 1 and 2 will work great with the Surface Book 3. Kindly check this page to Identify your Surface Dock and features. You will see a table there on the devices that will work with the 2 versions of the Surface Dock. 

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

I've done my own testing noted a couple things:

For the Surface Book 3 it is important to note if we are talking about the 13" or 15" models.

My SB3 13" works fine with the Surface Dock 1 (original Surface Dock). 

The dedicated charger that comes with the SB3 13" model is a 6.33 Amp 102w charger, but the Surface Dock 1 is a 6.0 Amp 95w charger.

That 7 watt difference is usually allocated to the USB port on that dedicated charger. If you go here: 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/microsoft-surface-102w-power-supply/920j5rj42kd6?activetab=pivot:techspecstab

You'll notice that the 102 Watt charger is only compatible with the 13" model of the SB3, not the 15" model.

That is important because the SB3 13" needs about 60-70 watts to charge the battery (if charging is all you are doing). I don't know what the 15" model requires but logic dictates it would be higher. (yes I've been watching Star Trek lately) The remaining power is used when you utilize more functions on the SB3 itself... gaming or watching Hi Res videos/movies... this will engage more power from the GPU and CPU, and if you are plugged in, it will pull this power from the charger/dock. If you don't have enough power available that is where potential problems will arise... possibly battery burnout, or the Dock may suffer or other damage may occur to the CPU or SSD. I know I'm sounding all doom and gloom but these are 'possible' problems.

That said... I'm still using my SB3 with a Surface Dock 1 because I'm only running 1 external monitor, standard 1920x1080 resolution... nothing fancy and a USB keyboard. I know that the power consumption for those devices won't tax the Dock or SB3 Batteries beyond the .33 Amp or 7w difference in charging and, again, that should only be reserved for that dedicated USB port.

I plan to get the Surface Dock 2 at some point (saving up my Best Buy points) and then get a 4k monitor. I don't want to tax this Dock beyond what I am doing currently. I do not play games on this secondary monitor either... just work (ok maybe I watch a Star Trek episode while on my lunch break... but let's keep that between us). I connect to my work network via Wi-Fi so I don't have experience utilizing the Network Jack on the Dock, sorry.

If you have a 15" SB3 I would highly recommend you NOT use the Original Surface Dock, but my recommendation comes from Specifications, not experience. I would trust what MS says on this. The power levels from that dock just won't work well and you could seriously damage your batteries or worse. If you are using the 13" SB3 and want to connect 1 or 2 4k monitors I also would not recommend it, it might work short term for 1 monitor at 4k but again the power levels would be so close to the edge. Too risky for such a pricey PC. I hope this information/experience helps and I would highly appreciate any corrections on the information I've shared, I enjoy learning... just don't be rude, that sucks.

Incorrect. Surface Dock does NOT support the SB3. You need the Surface Dock 2 for the SB3. 

If you try a Surface Dock you will see it reported as a network adapter and it will NOT allow video output.

I am using SB3 with Surface Dock 1 and all appears to be working (after firmware update of dock).  I have external HD touch monitor, Ethernet and three USB ports in use - two of those ports are USB3 -> Gigabit converters.

David

I have been using the Surface Book 3 with the original Surface Dock for a few months now and it's not a good combo. I have one monitor (1920x1080) that is stable but the other (2560x1440) is NOT stable. I occasionally struggle with random lines and flickering. If I use a web browser or MS application in full screen on the QHD monitor it will go black. It's as though the output on the Dock actually turns off. Typically I can use the Windows key + direction arrows to move the window to the another monitor and it will come back. I have also found an almost daily need to unplug the dock from the SB3, wait 10 seconds then reconnect and it seems to resume working.

With that said, my current situation is actually an improvement from the behavior a month ago. I invested in an active adapter between the Dock and the HDMI input on the QHD monitor which seemed to help. I uninstalled the video cards and then used Intel and Nvidia driver updates instead of the default MS drivers that came on the SB3. I also avoid running certain programs in full screen on the QHD monitor. That's a lot of band-aids.

So, it's a mess and I'm probably going to have to upgrade at least one of my Docks to keep from losing my mind. As silly as it sounds, the multiple docks and chargers is part of the reason I opted for the SB3 instead of a Dell or Lenovo option. There was also that bit where Microsoft told me it would work when I asked on the forum.... :(