Thinkpads Forum

Hi and greetings from a first time poster, but long time Thinkpadder.

Last fall I needed to replace my T42 and I bought a used T61 with the horror nVidia graphics(I didn't know of this at the time). Then I bought a 2504 Minidock a few months ago to help with the daily task of removing the laptop from an external monitor, speakers, ethernet etc... And the reverse when coming home.

It's all be working perfect up until today, when during a Skype call Windows announces that it's undocked my computer successfully, similarly to what it does when I press the undocking button on the minidock. By then removing the laptop and putting it back, I was able to regain internet, and thought nothing else of it. Until 2 hours later I notice that my battery is almost empty, since the dock no longer charges my Thinkpad, only allows the ports to be powered.
Removing the laptop correctly (pressing the button and so on) and then replacing it does NOT "re-dock" the laptop, the lights on the dock buttons do not change(green arrow by button 2) and it gives no power to USB-ports. Ethernet and VGA continue to work.

The laptop charges fine when plugging it directly, and I've tested two power adapters, to no avail.

What kind of issue might I be looking at here? Problem with the computer or the dock? Software or hardware?

Kind regards from Bergen

EDIT: Clarification: The powered ports(USB) only work if the computer is booted while in the dock. I do NOT think it works if I just wake from sleep after placing it there. So the boot sequence seems to make a difference, but no charging of the laptop...

Welcome to the forum.

I believe it is more likely that the dock is defective, but maybe it's the laptops. A different dock is simpler / cheaper to obtain for testing, so I would start with that.

Darn, I was hoping for a "Yeah Windows has this issue because X, Y and Z reasons, just reinstall this"-type of solution. Hopefully it's not totally bust.

I think the easiest to test is to ask someone with a suitable laptop if they can test the dock for me I'll check that and return with any info. Thanks so far.