Connecting a Kobo to a Microsoft Surface Book

[bbrady42]

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.

[Willa]

Originally Posted by bbrady42

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.

The answer is in this thread

[LuckyL]

Thanks for that has been bugging me for ages, I got an old (passive) USB hub out and voila, the reader mounted and was accessible via Calibre.
After removing the hub and plugging the reader directly to my Surface Book, it was recognised.
Weird one, and I am not sure where the problem sits (I had the same with a Win 10 device with USB2 and USB3 ports and it wouldn't be recognised on any port).