T400s: Interruption of Network Connection while unattended Thinkpad is in Docking Station

[Moskito]

Hello

I've got some issues with the network connection when leaving the notebook unattended, while it's still in the docking station.

The Thinkpad is a T400s (2815-A32). The docking station is a "Series 3 Mini Dock Plus" with the 90 watt power supply.

• When the notebook is left unattended while still in the docking station, then after some time (5, maybe 10 minutes) the network connection (lan) gets disabled and thus any ongoing traffic gets interrupted. (Using the lan connector on the docking.)
• However, if I leave the notebook while it's not in the docking station, the network connection (again lan) doesn't get disabled. In that case everything works fine and all downloads continue as they should. (Using the lan connector directly on the notebook.)

I haven't been able to figure out what causes that behaviour. The same energy profiles are set in the energy manager which are basically no energy saving at all (no stopping harddisk, no standby and especially no suspending to disk). And the "Allowing disabling of hardware for energy saving purposes" for the network adapter is disabled in the hardware settings, too.

But for some reason the lan port at the docking gets disabled (which I assume is for energy saving purposes).

Is there some option I've overlooked in the energy manager to change this?

Best Regards,

Moskito

[Serge1410]

hey Moskito,

could you uninstall the Power Manager software and see if it happens again ?

also, i suggest going to http://support.lenovo.com and check that your bios, network card driver and the rest of your system is updated.

[Moskito]

Hi Serge

Sorry for the late reply. I finally got the time to test it after uninstalling the power manager.

The result is the same, after 45 min (I measured the time by playing a video over network shares) the network connection on the docking gets deactivated.

Bios/Drivers/Software are up to date.

I tried to find any matching option (set to 45 min) in the built-in energy manager of the Windows 7, but I haven't found any.

Also I double-checked if the disabling of the device for energy saving purposes is set to no in the device manager, it is...

Interesting is why it wouldn't happen when undocked. Do the electronic signals of the network port at the docking station directly getting routed through, or are there any converters?

Regards, Moskito