Docking Station + Microsoft Surface Book Pro 7 Don't Work Together

goliath on 05/07/2024 - 15:51
Last edited 05/07/2024 - 15:53

I've got a docking station with thunderbolt 3 (or 4, I'm not sure) as input and lots of output (thunderbolt, hdmi, usb)

When I connect my mac (2019 ver) to it via the thunderbolt 4 cable, everything works fine just that the charging rate is slower than direct charging - which is fine.
But I recently bought a used MS Surface Book Pro 7. It has a type-c which should be compatible with thunderbolt. My question is, is it possible to make it work with my docking station? Currently when connecting, it's charging but my monitor is black. And a dialog pops up saying something like type-c not compatible. I've tried to use a couple of other cables and didn't work. When I googled it says the Surface needs a Microsoft docker which is very expensive. Not sure if this is precise answer

Computing Computer Docking Station Laptop Microsoft Tablet

Comments

  • ihfree on 05/07/2024 - 15:59
    +1

    Guessing you have a Thunderbolt 3 dock which doesn't support USB-C and the Surface device doesn't support Thunderbolt.

    Got some specific model numbers?

    • goliath on 05/07/2024 - 20:37

      Thanks, yeah it's thunderbolt 3, model is this one: https://au.alogic.co/products/thunderbolt-3-dual-display-doc…
      I know thunderbolt and usb-c are not the samething but in most situation it shoudle be compatible with each other right?

      • fredskis on 06/07/2024 - 17:34
        +1

        No. USB-C is a type of connector. Thunderbolt is an Intel technology that requires extra hardware, access to the PCI-express lanes on the motherboard, and extra costs to implement. A device needs to specifically support Thunderbolt to work with Thunderbolt devices and the Surface Pro 7 doesn't support Thunderbolt.

        You need a regular USB-C dock, with no Thunderbolt features/connectivity.
        USB-C docks will have less features but are also cheaper.

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