Fedora 43 on Surface Go 3 can't write to Vantec NexStar GX USB device

Hello everyone,

I recently switched from Windows 11 to Fedora 43 on my Microsoft Surface Go 3 tablet and the experience has been incredibly smooth (other than learning that the linux-surface project (GitHub - linux-surface/linux-surface: Linux Kernel for Surface Devices · GitHub) didn’t yet have a custom kernel for Fedora 44 so I had to redo my install on 43 to avoid issues) with just about everything “just working” out of the box.

The only exception to this is my Vantec NexStar GX USB hard drive enclosure (NST-272S3-BK - Vantec Thermal Technologies (VantecUSA)). When plugged in, the OS detects the device and mounts it, but I am unable to write anything to the device as it will disconnect, reconnect, and jump mount point when I try and do this (for example from /dev/sda to /dev/sdb).

I initially thought this was due to the device having been configured for hardware RAID 1 or because it was formatted using NTFS, but I am unable to even reformat the drive to EXT4 without it exhibiting the exact same behaviour. Similarly, switching the device to JBOD and trying to format/write to each drive individually doesn’t work either as it still exhibits the same behaviour of disconnecting and jumping mount points.

I have reformatted the drive in Windows and tested writing to it there and that works fine, so I am fairly convinced this is a compatibility issue with Fedora, but I would love to figure out if there’s a way to get this drive working as it’s a backup facility for my business.

Setup details:

  • OS: Fedora 43
  • Desktop: GNOME on Wayland
  • Custom kernel: Linux-Surface modified 6.19.8-3
  • Hardware: Microsoft Surface Go 3
  • CPU: Intel i3 10100Y
  • RAM: 8GB
  • Storage: 128GB SSD (Kioxia KBG40ZPZ128G)
  • GPU: Intel UHD 650

Exact error(s):

  • When writing to disk: Error splicing file: input/output error
  • When attempting to format: Error creating filesystem ‘ext4’: Process reported exit code 1: mke2fs 1.47.3 (8-Jul-2025) mke2fs: Input/output error while writing out and closing file system (udisks-error-quark, 0)

dmesg errors:

  • xhci_hcd 0000:00:14:0: ERROR: Unknown event condition 10 for slot 45 ep 7 , HC probably busted
  • Buffer I/O error on dev sdc1, logical block 36, async page read

These errors are the followed by usb 2-2.1.3 picking up a new device:
usb 2-2.1.3: new SuperSpeed USB device number 44 using xhci_usb
usb 2-2.1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=152d, idProduct=0561, bcdDevice= 1.01
etc. etc.

[Edit] I have since tried swapping it to a different USB port on the device, using the OEM Surface Hub, and using a third-party powered USB hub. All produce the same effect.

For those wondering, I found that using a different USB dock (not the Microsoft Surface dock (Use Surface Dock | Microsoft Support)) seems to resolve the issue. Given that the same dock works fine with this drive under Windows, I am going to assume this is a driver issue with the dock somehow.