MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Connecting a Kobo to a Microsoft Surface Book

bbrady42 · 12-20-2016, 04:59 PM

My wife recently replaced her laptop with a Microsoft Surface Book and had problems getting it to “see” her Aura One (or my H20 either for that matter). We found several threads and posts about similar issues that pointed to Win10 Anniversary Update as the likely culprit. But those issues weren’t exactly like what we were seeing.

For us the readers were never recognized as USB devices at all. They never got the “connected” screen on the reader itself, and they never showed up in the Windows Device Manager, even as an unrecognized USB device.
Since this happened with two different Kobo models I thought it may have something to do with the Surface Book USB port itself. So I tried attaching her Aura One using a small, passive USB hub, and that did the trick.

I guess there must be some weirdness in the Surface Book’s USB ports. The ports are in the keyboard section, which is detachable, so there must be some extra something to make that work and that something possibly interferes with its ability to “see” the Kobo. Just my guess.

Anyway, if anyone is having similar problem try going through a cheap USB hub.

12-20-2016, 04:59 PM	#1
bbrady42 Member Posts: 13 Karma: 4388 Join Date: Dec 2012 Device: Kobo Glo	Connecting a Kobo to a Microsoft Surface Book My wife recently replaced her laptop with a Microsoft Surface Book and had problems getting it to “see” her Aura One (or my H20 either for that matter). We found several threads and posts about similar issues that pointed to Win10 Anniversary Update as the likely culprit. But those issues weren’t exactly like what we were seeing. For us the readers were never recognized as USB devices at all. They never got the “connected” screen on the reader itself, and they never showed up in the Windows Device Manager, even as an unrecognized USB device. Since this happened with two different Kobo models I thought it may have something to do with the Surface Book USB port itself. So I tried attaching her Aura One using a small, passive USB hub, and that did the trick. I guess there must be some weirdness in the Surface Book’s USB ports. The ports are in the keyboard section, which is detachable, so there must be some extra something to make that work and that something possibly interferes with its ability to “see” the Kobo. Just my guess. Anyway, if anyone is having similar problem try going through a cheap USB hub.