Surface Book Tablet will not charge when connected to Keyboard Base, but everything else works fine

Question

Surface Book Tablet will not charge when connected to the Keyboard Base, but everything else works fine.

1. **When connected Dock charges but Tablet does not:**I have a Surface Book 3 that I purchased for my daughter for college a couple of years ago. After about a year, the screen (i.e., tablet) portion will not charge through the base (i.e., keyboard) when attached, but the keyboard does charge and will charge to 100%.   For the last year or so, she has just dealt with this as the laptop was needed for school. I finally got it from her and am now trying to fix it.
2. **When connected Dock charges but Tablet does not:**While both are attached, both batteries show up in the taskbar and show the battery charge percentages. Both batteries appear in Device Manager as working properly. While both are attached the keyboard/dock charges up to 100%, while the screen/tablet goes down, eventually to 0%…and it goes down abnormally quick.

3. **Tablet charges fine when detached:**When the screen/tablet is detached and the charger applied directly to it, it will charge up to 100% and works fine.

Things I have tried:

Reading many online articles that I have tried already.

• Cleaned the contacts on the keyboard/dock, but it did not make a difference. I also examined the contacts, and they look pristine and undamaged. The keyboard itself does have a sticky left shift key and caps lock though.
• Uninstalled both battery drivers and reinstalled them using Window Update. This did not make any difference as well.
• Went into the Surface BIOS, and everything looked fine.  Battery Limiting was also disabled (as expected). Checked all the power settings within the O/S and everything is standard. Also, when I got the laptop when it was having this problem, it was Windows 10 with all updates. I updated it to Windows 11, and it also has all updates.
• Ran Surface Diagnostic Toolkit with no solutions to the problem.
• Ran a battery report (i.e., “powercfg /batteryreport” ). It can be viewed here:
  I saw another question on here and the support person asked for this, so I am being preemptive. From my view of it, which I am a layperson on this one, it looks like the battery has had little use.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AnPHjwLzrDSm9MQSIEtkN8BP8iBtlA?e=lbdHf2

This is a OneDrive link, and the report is in HTML, so download however you feel safe.

Anyone have any ideas?

Appreciate everyone’s help here! Thanks!

--G

Answer 1

Hi GregoryDavis,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community. I understand that you are experiencing an issue with your Surface Book 3 tablet not charging when connected to the dock. Based on the information you have provided; it seems that you have already tried several troubleshooting steps.

Let’s work together in finding the best solution to this issue. To get started I will ask a few questions to further isolate the issue.

• May I know the version of the Surface dock you have?
• Did you make any charges on the device before this issue happen?
• Did you try another power supply to the dock and still have same issue?

However, I would suggest you try the following steps:

1. Check the power supply: Make sure that the power supply is working correctly and providing enough power to charge both the tablet and the dock.
2. Check the charging port: Inspect the charging port on the tablet and the dock for any damage or debris that may be preventing a proper connection.
3. Unplug the Surface Dock from the power connector on the back of the dock. Reset the dock PSU by unplugging it from the power outlet and waiting for 5 seconds. Reconnect the power connector to the dock, then plug the dock PSU into an electrical outlet.
4. Try power cycle the Surface Book by holding down the power button for 30 seconds, then release it and wait for 10 seconds before turning it back on.
5. Make sure that your Surface Book 3 has the latest firmware updates installed. You can check for updates by going to Settings >Windows Update> check for updates.

If the problem continues, it’s possible that the Surface dock you have doesn’t have enough power to support the Surface device. You may need to replace the dock. Just to set you an expectation. Processing replacement orders, checking the status of orders, and escalating cases are beyond our scope of support here in the community. We do not have the necessary tools to create or check orders. Only our live support team can assist you with this concern.

To contact the live support team.

1. Go to Contact Us - Microsoft Support
2. Choose how you would like to get support for your Surface device.
3. Type in the problem you need help with.
4. Look at any available solutions offered and select Contact Support.

You can also check this forum article for a more detailed guide in reaching our live support: How to get Phone and Chat Support (for Surface Home/Consumer - Microsoft Community 

You can also check this link. Global Customer Service phone numbers - Microsoft Support

I hope this helps resolve your issue. Let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.

Kind regards,

Christopher.

Answer 2

Thank you for your reply, Christopher. My headline and use of terms I think was incorrect. When I was saying “dock”, I was really meaning the Keyboard/MousePad Base that comes with the Surface Book when purchased. Sorry…I edited the title he to be more clear.

Here are the Base's connectors. Everything works when they are connected, except the charging of the Tablet's battery.

Answering your questions:

• May I know the version of the Surface dock you have?
  See above. It is actually the surface Book3's Base (keyboard, mousepad, etc.).
• Did you make any charges on the device before this issue happen?
  No
• Did you try another power supply to the dock and still have same issue?
  No, as I have only the factory power supply that came with it. Do note though, that the power supply will fully charge the Base when connected, and when the Tablet portion is detached, it will fully charge the Tablet. It will not charge the Tablet when it is attached to the Base, although the Base does charge and everything appears fine otherwise.

Your suggestions:

1. Check the power supply: Make sure that the power supply is working correctly and providing enough power to charge both the tablet and the dock.
   As noted above, the power supply charges both the Tablet and Base separately, but not the Tablet when connected. It does not appear to be a voltage/amp issue as the Tablet does not appear to charge at all. If it was under-powered, I would think it should still charge both, but do it slowly. That is not what is happening here.
2. Check the charging port: Inspect the charging port on the tablet and the dock for any damage or debris that may be preventing a proper connection.
   I had done this after researching the proper way to do it. The connectors appear to be in perfect order. Also, as mentioned above, all the connectors work when charged separately, so I focused mainly on the connector on the Base. I have yet to put a voltmeter to it as I need to research the specs on which pins are used.
3. Unplug the Surface Dock from the power connector on the back of the dock. Reset the dock PSU by unplugging it from the power outlet and waiting for 5 seconds. Reconnect the power connector to the dock, then plug the dock PSU into an electrical outlet. 
   My bad, as it is the Surface Book 3 base I am meaning, and it is not a Dock.
4. Try power cycle the Surface Book by holding down the power button for 30 seconds, then release it and wait for 10 seconds before turning it back on.
   I did this, but no change.
5. Make sure that your Surface Book 3 has the latest firmware updates installed. You can check for updates by going to Settings >Windows Update> check for updates.
   Yes, I had done this prior and no change.

Thank you,

--G

Answer 3

Hi GregoryDavis,

I apologize for the delay in resolving your issue. Based on my understanding of the problem, it appears that the keyboard port connecting to the device is not functioning properly. You mentioned that you have already cleaned the connectors. Please follow this link for further assistance. Clean and care for your Surface - Microsoft Support Still doing the same thing. The next steps are to check this with our live support team. They will give you more troubleshooting. They can remote access your Surface check setting and they are the one will check confirm a hardware issue.

To contact the live support team.

1. Go to Contact Us - Microsoft Support
2. Choose how you would like to get support for your Surface device.
3. Type in the problem you need help with.
4. Look at any available solutions offered and select Contact Support.

You can also check this forum article for a more detailed guide in reaching our live support: How to get Phone and Chat Support (for Surface Home/Consumer - Microsoft Community 

You can also click this link. Global Customer Service phone numbers - Microsoft Support

Thank you for your understanding.

kind regards,

Christopher.

Answer 4

Thank you for your response. I had found the article about cleaning my surface that you had provided before and had already followed its instruction. I will proceed with Live support as suggested and when resolved there, I will post the resolution here for others that may have experienced the same thing.

Answer 5

Hi GregoryDavis

Thank you for getting back with us. Thank you so much for your cooperation and taking some steps above. If you have any other concerns, please feel free to post on this thread so that other will the best solution regarding this concern after you talk to the live support team. You can also create a new thread to discuss these concerns by clicking this link*:*Create a new question (microsoft.com)

Please stay healthy and take good care always in these trying times.

Kind regards,

Christopher.