Stability issues when using Extreme X1 with TP Thunderbolt 3 Dock

[adamelg]

I've been experiencing general stability issues with the ThunderBolt 3 dock. I purchased Extreme X1 for work because of the impressive specs and portability of the device. Overall I've been very pleased with the performance and build quality of the device and Lenovo's software suite makes keeping everything up to date really easy.

WIth that said, I've had LOTS of issues with general stability of this product. It appears to Lenovo had issues with the discrete graphics (Nvidia Geforce GTX 1050 ti) which may have mostly been resolved with the latest update.

I'm on a fairly recent version of Windows 10 (1803). When using the Thunderbolt 3 dock I still experience lots of issues where the device freezes or becomes unresponsive when docking or undocking. Often times I must force power off the device completely because the device is unable to wake from sleep correctly when docked. I have not tested whether device itself is unable to wake from sleep or if it's just because it is connected from the Dock.

However sometimes the device WILL wake correctly but then certain functions will not work, notable USB data will not work often but will be powered (keyboard lights are on but can't use caps lock, for example). Or sometimes the VIDEO won't display at all (thunder bolt graphics issue with discrete GPU) however I can clearly see caps lock works on my keyboard. Note all mentions of keyboard here refer to a USB keyboard wired to the TB dock. 

Also worth noting often when I come back to the docked computer after a certain period of inactivity, often the device will blue screen (I think this may be resolved with Nvidia update already) or be unresponsive. The unresponsiveness appears to be the USB issue, where USB data stops passing through. Docking and undocking will often resolve this issue but obviously you should NOT have to undock a laptop once docked, this is THE WHOLE POINT OF A DOCK.

Now perhaps I'm an idiot but generally speaking not since I work for a consulting technology firm as an engineer. If these issues are this difficult for me I can only imagine how much difficulty the average consumer is having. Keep things simple or people will stop buying your products, whether or not they are engineers. 

Notes about my configuration:

• I set BIOS to discrete graphics only. (FYI I think your Vantage team should be aware you cannot get the graphics driver update correctly since Vantage can't tell what the Intel graphics version is when in discrete mode forcing me to choose IGNORE UPDATE if i already i have the update).
• I installed the Thunderbolt software to manage/see thunderbolt devices. The Dock is authorized already
• 16 GB model with 256 G SSD, 8850H CPU. 

MAKE IT WORK please! 

[adamelg]

Anyone? I'm having the SAME ISSUE every morning where I MUST FORCE SHUT DOWN THE COMPUTER TO USE IT WITH THE DOCK

this is NOT ACCEPTABLE

I tried to open a ticket and then received a call from Lenovo support before hearing "not my department".

This is not the level of service I'd expect for $2500 for a computer/dock. 

[adamelg]

Same issue is happening with a different ThunderBolt 3 dock when connecting via separate power adapter and Thunderbolt cable. This is clearly not a hardware issue and is a software problem.

Would be really nice if there are any humans at Lenovo who actually understand the way the dock works...

[adamelg]

I've come to the conclusion these devices simply cannot be turned on from the dock when they are sleeping/hibernating. This is a bug and only work around is to start the latpop, wait for it to boot/resume into Windows, and then dock.

Everything else on the laptop seems super stable and rock solid at this point but very annoying... 

[Joseph232]

I have same issue. I was using Dell till now using docking and 2 monitors, and it was smooth. Now i'm struggeling, every day. I asked support if i can return computer and dock due to this issue, and they don't care. Do you have any idea what to do to solve that issue? I think only option is return that laptop and take XPS 15 

[atomey]

I switched the graphics card to only use discrete (1050 ti) in BIOS and whenever I start the computer,  I always power it on and wait for it to boot into Windows before connecting the dock. Since then I've had minimal issues.

I can only conclude that Lenovo has no idea how to fix the issue so this is the work around. 

[Ambitz]

I just posted a similar forum post to this.  Exact same issues.  I had to set it to discrete because it would randomly conflict with my ultrawide and the system would stutter like it was at 15 refresh rate.  Once discrete only the issue went away.  But now I about a 60% chance that the system will power up from being shutdown with the dock successfully.  The other 40% time I have to manually power down the laptop directly and start it up with the screen open.  Then restart so that the DPI and everything works well.  I am equally frustrated that this high end system has so many issues with the dock. Whereas the X1 Carbon is generally flawless.  And agree with Lenovo support, they don't know how to fix it.  

[Joseph232]

The problem is that Lenovo knows, there is a problem, and they don't want to solve that. If there is no firmware/software solution, they should give money back for computer or offer other computer without issue. I know that X1 extreme is first revision and probably this a reason of problems, they will solve that in rev 2 or 3. But why i have to pay 2500 USD for computer, 400 USD for docking station, and work like that ... If i can buy dell xps 15 for that money, and work withpout a problems.

I have opened 2 tickets asking for option to return computer, and they refuse.  

[Ambitz]

Yep. The screen and system are beautiful. Just plagued with issues. And given the lack of acknowledgement by Lenovo I am doubtful that the Gen2 fixes these problems.