Laptop sound won't turn off when machine is docked: Ideas?

[texasdiver]

Hi guys:

I have a T42p and a Thinkpad mini-dock with sound connections to the external speaker sound bar on my Dell monitor.

For some reason when I dock the thinkpad the speakers keep playing on the thinkpad even though I'm also getting sound output to the external speakers at the same time.

This only happens when the sound cord is plugged into the sound port on the mini-dock. If I pull it out and plug it into the speaker port on the thinkpad itself the internal thinkpad speakers mute and only the external speakers play.

Any advice on how to fix this? Is there a setting on the thinkpad control panel that will shut off the internal speakers when the machine is docked?

Thanks.

[JHEM]

Get a spare stereo mini-phone plug from Radio Shack and when the unit is docked, plug it in.

Not very elegant but it's the only way to turn off the internal speakers that I'm aware of without affecting output to the external speakers.

Regards,

James

[texasdiver]

Ahhhh

So this is a "feature" not a bug?

Everyone's machine does the same thing?

Guess I'll stop messing around in the "advanced" tabs of the sound control panel and live with it then.

If I'm going to have to plug something into the speaker port anyway then I might as well just plug the speaker cable into it instead of the mini-dock so I don't have one extra thing on my desktop to lose.