docking methods causing problems

[dchiang]

Hey guys, 

just wanted to put something out there to see if anyone else has encontered problems when users dock their laptops incorrectly (straight up and down as opposed to angling it it so the "teeth" grab it)

We've seen times where the USB ports or the monitor don't work properly if its undocked/redoced incorrectly, and restarting seems to fix it most of the time. however we've got a fairly new machine that seems to have issues with its user profiles and its drive mappings

Let me know if you have encountered anything with the docks! Thanks!

[topmahof Community Moderator]

That's a fairly precise connection where the laptop meets the dock. I know if I put my x41 or x32 on improperly nothing works on the dock at all usually.  I'm not sure about user accounts getting messed because of the dock, improperly docking usually just messes with the ports. 

[dchiang]

Hi Topmahof,

I've seen a few times where something doesn't work or another but usually rebooting would help. Have you ever seen any damage from repeated improper docks? They seem pretty resilient to most abuse that the users have thrown at them. Just wanted to see if there was anything down the road that I should be aware of.

thanks

[topmahof Community Moderator]

I've seen the little tabs on the front break off and the slots crack sometimes.  I've janked mine off the dock with the laptop turned on already, it beeps at me but it still worked.

I don't  put it on the dock with it on anymore, though.  Mine have always been asleep or turned off.  I did it once or twice with the laptop on and the screen flashes and it beeps and ports don't work so I don't do that anymore. 

Putting it on and off without properly engaging the latches and tabs could mess up the plastic parts.  

Putting it on and off the dock with the laptop on messes up the timings for the hardware in power manager as far as the sleep timer, the screensaver timer and the hibernate timer. Also, the screen dimming timer.  So you might get some weird behavior as far as the laptop not going to sleep or not hibernate or it might not wake up from hibernation.

Dave