[SOLVED] USB Device Not Recognised - Surface Pro 4

[Watrevir]

My second hand Surface Pro 4 refuses to take any external USB peripheral (apart from the type cover), always coming up with the message: "The last USB device you connected to this computer malfunctioned and Windows does not recognise it". It will recognise USB flash/ disk drives fine. All the peripherals work fine on my main PC.

I've tried seemingly everything out there - reinstalling any of the USB controllers in Device Manager does nothing, there is no Hardware Troubleshooter, advanced power options on the SP4 are limited, I've done a full reset/ Windows clean reinstall - all with no result. There is only one USB 3.0 port so I can't try any others.

This does seem to be an issue others have had with the SP4, but there doesn't seem to be a solution anywhere and I really can't see a way to get this working. I'm running Windows 10 Pro 20H2, Build 19042.746.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[COLGeek]

What kind of devices are you trying to connect directly to the Surface? The issue, most likely, is a power issue. The USB port on the surface can't provide sufficient power to some devices.

There is a USB port on the Surface power supply that can help with such issues. Have you tried using it?

For example:

[SOLVED] - Does anyone know of a particular model of external blu-ray drive that works with the (underpowered) USB port on the Surface Pro 4?

I just bought a used Surface Pro 4. I want to play Blu-rays on it from an external disc drive. (Portable blu-ray "players" are a joke because the screen quality is commensurate with the resolution.) Many users report that such external drives do not work without being powered from a dock...

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