Fix iPhone USB disconnects from Microsoft surface dock

iPhone 8 frequently disconnects - update your dock firmware

My iPhone 8 disconnected from my Microsoft Surface Laptop frequently, and reconnected immediately. I tried several cables, re-starting the phone & computer. Nothing helped.
This was especially annoying because I couldn't transfer photos and videos reliably from the phone.

Surface Dock updater

What solved it for me (at least for the moment), was to update the surface dock firmware.
I got the latest version from Microsoft here.

Microsoft dock updater

Several rounds needed?

I ran the updater three times (taking about 5 minutes for each round), following the instructions of the updater each time.
Finally re-running the updater reported:

Dock firmware fully updated

And that seemed to fix it. The iPhone now syncs with iTunes reliably and I can transfer data without disconnects.