Best practice undocking from Port Replicator II

[boberonicus]

Hi,

I've just set up my wife's new T42 and port replicator II. She's delighted with the setup. However, Port Replicator II documentation seems to be scarce. The link listed in the FAQ gets me to documentation for six docking stations with model numbers between 2631 - 3547 This is model 74P6733. A link would be appreciated.

The real question: can she remove the T42 from the PRII when the power is on? We've been shutting the system down each time just to be safe. The T42 is running XP PRO and I had expected to see the orange icon with "Undock computer" just above the start button, but no such luck.

Thanks,

Robert

[Kenn]

I usually wait for the machine to finish hibernating/powering down before removing from the dock (but I do the same when detaching from AC). Mainly it's to keep the machine from going to the battery, but there's no harm in doing so. I've hot-undocked plenty of times without problems.

The thinkpad is designed to be hot-undocked; you can tell from the various settings to standby/hibernate when undocked, etc.

[oversky]

Though I does not have a port replicator, but I think you should use easy eject(Fn+F9) before unpluging.

[JaneL]

The real question: can she remove the T42 from the PRII when the power is on?

Yes.

[awolfe63]

Hi,

The real question: can she remove the T42 from the PRII when the power is on?

Thanks,

Robert

It depends.

If you have USB storage devices (flash or HD) on the replicator then you need to shut them down first using easy eject or the "Safely Remove Hardware" dialog. Otherwise - no problem.

[gibblets]

The lack of documentation is aggrevating!

Here is what I've done with my t42 fvu for the last 3 months..

I try not to actually turn my laptop off (usually ~once per month), hibernation is also out of the question because I might as well have turned it off considering how long it takes to turn back on. The whole purpose of a laptop to me is to be able to close the lid, let it sleep, walk around, and then open the lid and have it be ready for input.

The replicator lets you do that. You can dock it while turned on if you want, but normally I get home from work and plop it on the replicator still asleep. When I wake it up using the replicator power button (leaving the laptop lid closed), it detects the new wireless network and displays at the laptops resolution on my display. The only adjustment I have to make is to hit the presentation manager icon in the system tray and switch to docked mode (if you haven't created a docked mode for yourself yet hit fn+f7 and then manage schemes). That's it. I have lots of external usb stuff plugged in to my replicator, including a harddrive. No problems whatsoever. You can connect and disconnect hot all day long.

The whole reason to buy a thinkpad is so that you can use a laptop like it should be used.

[Leeper]

There is really nothing fancy about how to use the Port rep.


Just eject the machine, Windows might toss a fit if you have devices only plugged into the port rep but under XP nothing should break.

I have used the port rep for years and have never thought about actually shutting the machine down or putting it to sleep before I eject.

[awolfe63]

The lack of documentation is aggrevating!

Here is what I've done with my t42 fvu for the last 3 months..

I try not to actually turn my laptop off (usually ~once per month), hibernation is also out of the question because I might as well have turned it off considering how long it takes to turn back on. The whole purpose of a laptop to me is to be able to close the lid, let it sleep, walk around, and then open the lid and have it be ready for input.

The replicator lets you do that. You can dock it while turned on if you want, but normally I get home from work and plop it on the replicator still asleep. When I wake it up using the replicator power button (leaving the laptop lid closed), it detects the new wireless network and displays at the laptops resolution on my display. The only adjustment I have to make is to hit the presentation manager icon in the system tray and switch to docked mode (if you haven't created a docked mode for yourself yet hit fn+f7 and then manage schemes). That's it. I have lots of external usb stuff plugged in to my replicator, including a harddrive. No problems whatsoever. You can connect and disconnect hot all day long.

The whole reason to buy a thinkpad is so that you can use a laptop like it should be used.

Sorry - but you are risking data loss if you disconnect from a hard drive hot. XP delays writes to drives and can trash a file system if not shut down/disconnected. You may get away with it hundreds of times in a row - but if your data is important than it is a silly risk.

[geobel]

Sorry - but you are risking data loss if you disconnect from a hard drive hot. XP delays writes to drives and can trash a file system if not shut down/disconnected. You may get away with it hundreds of times in a row - but if your data is important than it is a silly risk.

Had problems with delay writes on Win2k but never on XP. To my understanding XP does not delay writes by default.

Gosha

[boberonicus]

The lack of documentation is aggrevating!

But your extensive article (above) on how to manage PRII docking is just the opposite. Thank your sharing your specific tactics. We have not yet setup the profile, so that procedure is also much appreciated.