Strange behaviour with Dock II

Message

noetus · #1 Post by **noetus** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 3:45 am

I have a Dock II with two USB hubs plugged into 2 of the 4 USB ports at the back of the unit. Attached to the hubs are a number of peropherals. The funny thing is, whenever I reboot or start Windows (hot or cold) the machine hangs at the BIOS spalsh screen. I have to pull the two USB cables from the back of the dock, then it boots normally. Once I'm in Windows, I can reconnect the USB hubs. If I try to do it too soon (before the Windows login screen, for example) the system will hang. Any ideas?

#2 Post by **GomJabbar** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 4:44 am

You do not state which model of ThinkPad this applies to. It makes a difference.

One possible reason is that you are using an older BIOS version.

Summary of changes for BIOS Update wrote:(Fix) The system may not start with some USB devices, attached to docking station or port replicator.

noetus · #3 Post by **noetus** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 9:50 am

It is a T42, with the latest BIOS (3.21). Also, I just tried going into the BIOS to check settings there, and I am being told that I can't modify ANYTHING - I have to consult the system supervisor! Dammit, I AM the supervisor - I mean, I am the single owner of the machine, and I set the BIOS/HDD passwords, and now I can't seem to change them or anything else.

terry_mccann · #4 Post by **terry_mccann** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 7:38 am

I had the same with a non-TP PC and the only thing that helped in the end was using another hub from a different manufacturer.

HTH

Marco
xxx

christopher_wolf · #5 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:42 pm

noetus wrote:It is a T42, with the latest BIOS (3.21). Also, I just tried going into the BIOS to check settings there, and I am being told that I can't modify ANYTHING - I have to consult the system supervisor! Dammit, I AM the supervisor - I mean, I am the single owner of the machine, and I set the BIOS/HDD passwords, and now I can't seem to change them or anything else.

That is not a good sign. If you recieved the T42, upgraded the BIOS to 3.21 at some point as well as BIOS/HDD passwords, that shouldn't happen.

Can you try to boot off a USB external HDD or storage device, like flash memory stick? Don't even have to boot off of it, just plug it in the dock where the hubs usually plug into and then hit F12 during the BIOS splash screen and see if the system responds and/or lists it as an option.

Then try doing that with the USB going through one of the hubs as an interconnect and see if you can do the same thing.

J-Atlanta · #6 Post by **J-Atlanta** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:03 am

Hello, I am having a very similar problem that I can definitely use help with.

I am using a T42 connected to a Mini-Dock 2878 Docking Station, and I am unable to boot the computer while it's attached to the dock. I also get stuck at the black Thinkpad screen, before the Windows XP startup screen can come up.

If I fully start up the PC while it's not connected to the docking station, then connect it to the dock, everything works perfectly fine, including all peripherals and my Internet connection.

I do have a lot of peripherals connected, but I wasn't having any problems restarting the Thinkpad while attached to the dock until I tried to install a Belkin 7 port USB hub that ended up being defective. Ever since then, I have had the aforementioned problem, even with no peripherals other than the mouse, keyboard, and monitor attached.

Could someone please shed some light on this issue?

Here's some info about my PC:
- 1.7Ghz T42 running Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2, 512 MB of Ram
- System BIOS version 3160 Phoenix FirstBIOS Notebook Pro Version 2.0 Ver 1.00PARTTBL
- BIOS date 4-19-05
- connected to the Mini-Dock 2878 Docking Station
- attachments include an LCD monitor, USB wireless mouse and keyboard, Belkin 4 port mini USB hub, Diamond USB PVR, Snapstream Firefly remote receiver, LaCie USB external hard drive, Mad Dog USB DVD burner, Netgear WGR614 wireless router.
- SVideo out and external speakers connected
Thanks for your help

andyP · #7 Post by **andyP** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:22 am

Question:
normally in bios the default boot sequence has USB FDD and USB CD before the internal HDD. Have you moved them down in the boot order? Not that the ThinkPad is trying all USB connections one after the other and trying to boot from them and has to wait a while for an answer, "no you can't boot from me"?

noetus · #8 Post by **noetus** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 11:32 am

I originally started this thread and there were two problems - not booting when docked and lots of USB devices plugged in, and not being able to modify any of the BIOS settings. I have since had the second problem fixed - the machine (T42) was sent to IBM and they replaced the system board. However, I am still having the first problem - I have to unplug USB drives (not all USB devices, just the USB disk drives, of which there are about 8, including 4 hard drives) to get the machine to boot. I can replug these in once the machine has got past the BIOS stage and windows is starting up, without problems. I notice that the LEDs on the flash drives are continually flashing when the boot gets "stuck" so it looks like some kind of loop where the BIOS keeps querying the flash/disk devices.

#9 Post by **GomJabbar** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 11:50 am

I think andyP might have the right idea above.

J-Atlanta · #10 Post by **J-Atlanta** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 12:12 am

Thank you very much everyone. I tried moving the devices in the bios boot order and eliminating some devices from the boot order, but that didn't change anything. Should the IDE HDD devices be first in the order? I have 3 listed. Should Legacy floppy drives be first? I'm not sure what most of the device names mean.

andyP · #11 Post by **andyP** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:18 am

I would arrange the devices in the following order:
1. ATAPI CD0 "manufactures name" e.g. Toshiba
2. IDE HDD0 "hard drive part number" e.g. HTS72.....
and then exclude all other possible boot options, you can always include them again afterwards.

noetus · #12 Post by **noetus** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 11:42 pm

andyP wrote:I would arrange the devices in the following order:
1. ATAPI CD0 "manufactures name" e.g. Toshiba
2. IDE HDD0 "hard drive part number" e.g. HTS72.....
and then exclude all other possible boot options, you can always include them again afterwards.

Thanks! This worked! Or at least it almost did. Every now and then it still hangs on the BIOS boot as soon as the Video card splash shows (which is immediately) but this seems like 1 in 10 boots or less, so I can live with it.

Strange behaviour with Dock II

Strange behaviour with Dock II

Who is online