Hate to start another docking station thread, but...

[HarnessTech]

Well I just got a real surprise. Chatted with a great MS tech and he is sending me a new dock for FREE, not even requiring me to send the old one back to Microsoft. And he says its new, not a refurb, and the newer ones are better than the earlier batches. It'll get here in about a week, but certainly worth the wait. If this works I'll let you know, but regardless MS has restored my faith in their customer service.

This was exactly my experience. I'm getting a new one and it's on the way.

 

[tuchas]

This was exactly my experience. I'm getting a new one and it's on the way.

This is where you have a company that doesn't want to admit to an epic failure but instead decides to send out replacements for $200 docking stations without asking for the defective ones back. Look, I'm happy that they are taking care of some of us this way. But part of me is scratching my head about this. I didn't even have to prove I had a docking station. Perhaps I was angry enough that they got the message. But considering those of us who plopped down $200 for these, what this tells me is that any idiot could contact MS complaining about a docking station they never purchased in the first place, and end up with a freebie. There is something inherently stupid about that.

Earlier in my thread I eluded to the fact that I could return my original docking station to Amazon given the fact I have until the end of January to do so. But I refuse to do that. I'll use the defective one at my office and just use the MDP port on the Surface for video.

 

[GreyFox7]

I do hope MS reads these forums and takes them to heart, they make a lot of rookie mistakes they could easily improve upon.

 

[davanata]

Well I just got a real surprise. Chatted with a great MS tech and he is sending me a new dock for FREE, not even requiring me to send the old one back to Microsoft. And he says its new, not a refurb, and the newer ones are better than the earlier batches. It'll get here in about a week, but certainly worth the wait. If this works I'll let you know, but regardless MS has restored my faith in their customer service.

Did the new dock fix the issue?
I'm having the same issue, it boots fast and perfectly when not docked. When its docked it just sits at the black screen with Surface and never boots.

 

[tuchas]

Did the new dock fix the issue?
I'm having the same issue, it boots fast and perfectly when not docked. When its docked it just sits at the black screen with Surface and never boots.

Sorry I haven't gotten back to everyone about my experiences with the new dock - been buried with work. So here a quick review of what is fixed and what isn't:

• No more problems with video. That has been working flawlessly.
• STILL problems with boot up IN the dock. So to answer davanata's question, that issue has NOT been solved. Latest firmware did nothing.
• Problem with USB dongle for Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse still persists - it has trouble with recognizing the USB device. Only workaround is to use the USB port on the device itself for the keyboard/mouse and that works fine.

So I have come to the conclusion that this dock is a complete mess. When I use the workarounds (boot up before dock, use the dongle on the SP3) it works fine. No problems adding other USB devices (last drive, external drive), external speakers work fine). But the bottom line is - if you have to pay $200 for something like this, there should be ZERO issues, no workarounds, and Microsoft should fix this thing. I love my SP3, but these issues, among with other ones discussed elsewhere, are irking me to the point where I may be dusting off my MacBook Pro Retina. MS as a company better think about how customers aren't going to take this crap.

 

[HarnessTech]

I received my new one a while back and it's like night and day. What an improvement! Everything works, even coming back out of sleep.

 

[tuchas]

I received my new one a while back and it's like night and day. What an improvement! Everything works, even coming back out of sleep.

So you can boot up your SP3 while in the dock with no problems?

 

[HarnessTech]

So you can boot up your SP3 while in the dock with no problems?

Yes. I could do it with the old docking station also, but it had some major issues when plugging and unplugging USB peripherals. Everything seems to work just fine with the new one.

 

[CP7]

Well I just got a real surprise. Chatted with a great MS tech and he is sending me a new dock for FREE, not even requiring me to send the old one back to Microsoft. And he says its new, not a refurb, and the newer ones are better than the earlier batches. It'll get here in about a week, but certainly worth the wait. If this works I'll let you know, but regardless MS has restored my faith in their customer service.

I have been having the same problem with my docking station. Do you happen to know the MS tech you spoke to?