Review on Cateck USB Hub Docking Station 6 in 2 Converter Adapter for Surface Pro 5/Pro 6 with 1000M Ethernet LAN, 2 USB 3.0 Ports, Mini DP to HDMI, and SD/Micro SD Card Reader by Cory Whitney

I liked the idea of a small, inexpensive hub that I can take with me when traveling or working remotely and that provides a good connection to my Surface Pro. I bought my Surface Pro a year ago and started using the hub available at the time: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PHFH1RH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 totals for exactly a full year, until the HDMI port has failed. At that point I got back online and was thrilled to see that there were more options and models on the market. This Cateck was even cheaper, even smaller, and had all the inputs I needed. Excellent. However, this only lasted ONE MONTH before it started to fail. In this case, the USB connection to my wireless keyboard and mouse started freezing and glitching, and then eventually stopped working until I force-restarted the Surface. The mouse and keyboard worked again, but over the next 12 hours they started failing again. In addition, the hub also felt hot, which seemed to be an issue. I called the tech support company we use for troubleshooting and after hours of troubleshooting etc they said my surface, keyboard and mouse are fine, the problem is with this hub. They explained that there were probably two issues with it: 1) They checked and there isn't a driver designed for that part/brand, so the Surface Pro uses the generic Microsoft driver, which isn't good in those situations functioning and causing peripheral devices to go out of service. Other people have complained about this issue with the Surface, it doesn't work well with non-Microsoft parts. Secondly, the design itself is problematic, since it does not have its own power source. Instead, it draws power directly from the surface and even only runs 2 peripherals at a time, causing overheating, possibly sending power surges to the surface, etc. So I had to force restart my Surface - the only other time I used to have to do this was when the power went out the night before. Bad sign! I ended up firing on the Microsoft-branded Surface Dock 2. Peripherals work well, it doesn't overheat and I no longer worry about it messing up my OS software or ruining my Surface. Who knows, maybe there was or is a mid-size dock that comes with its own power supply and could handle the situation better. But I know that this cateck, as great as it looks, isn't a good option. Buyer Warning.