[German]Just a brief hint for users of a Microsoft Surface. A Microsoft Surface with a completely discharged battery can no longer be charged at a Surface Dock.
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MVP Barb Bowman points out this limitation in her blog digitalmediaphile.com in the article Battery depleted Surface won't charge using Surface Dock. The Surface Dock is an additional component, which should transform the Microsoft devices into a 'full-fledged desktop system' – according to the description of the German Amazon page shown below.
AdamNids has probably 200 Microsoft Surfaces in his company, and he noticed that the unloaded devices do not charge at a surface dock. He then posted his observation at Microsoft Answers forum.
Battery flat on Surface pro, Surface Dock will not charge it. Needs jump start from surface charger.
Had a few of these on our 200 surfaces in the organisation so I think it may be a bug…different Docks different Surface Pros.
Surface Pro i5 (Latest updates for 1709, latest drivers for 1709 etc…). Kept in a drawer overnight. Battery goes flat. Plug into the surface dock 2 (latest firmware) and get a white flashing light on the charging connector. Check connector, re-seat etc..same problem 100%. Connect to the normal surface charger, solid white light, wait 5 mins, gets a bit of charge and then plug into the Dock – have a solid white light and the Surface happily charges.
Seems like some sort of bug to me…and a bit of Googling seems to show lots of others having a similar problem. Not a big issue for me but those in the organisation who are not confident with technology log a support call, have lost their charger, can't work, asks for their trusty (rubbish) desktop to be returned, rants…etc..
I have obviously run through all the various Microsoft Troubleshooting guides but nothing quite fits with my circumstances.
If anyone has experienced this exact scenario and has an absolute solution then I am all ears (even if that answer is it is fixed 1803).
AdamNids writes that he has tried all possible troubleshooting measures without success. Ad-Hoc I would have guessed that the charging current of the Surface Dock is too low to supply a completely discharged battery. Exactly this was confirmed to the user by Surface-Support.
"The reason why this is happening is that the power supply of the dock (although it is 80W) reserves 30W of its power to the ports on the dock, this means that only 50W is available to the Surface Pro. This unfortunately is not enough to trigger the charging/booting."
It has to be pre-charged before it can be operated and recharged at the dock (that's by design). No idea how widespread the surface docks are and whether this is relevant or already known for surface owners. (via)
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Thanks for this article, addresses issues we are seeing.
The excuse by the Microsoft support agent makes no sense. There is still 50W of power that should be passing through to the depleted battery, if anything it should take longer to charge, but to stop the flow all together seems ridiculous to me. after all you can charge an iPad of an iPhone charger even though the wattage is less, it just takes longer.
This is why I discourage people from Surface devices… the poor design factors in multiple areas of the products.
I agree – special with the last sentence – my suggestion was since years: Keep your fingers away from Surfaces (and also iPad), due to the poor design (Surface) and the environmental footprint caused by these devices (nothing is repairable).