Not able to dock my T20 - any ideas?

[Gilesmanners]

Hi - my Thinkpad T20 will not recognise its docking station any more. I have tried IBM support, and they dont seem to be able to help. I have downloaded the latest BIOS and dock driver, but nothing happens when I dock it - the dock does not power up. One thing does happen actually - and this may be a clue - on device manager, a USB error appears saying that a driver needs to be installed, but then it refuses to install it on the basis that "a function driver was not specified in this instance".
The dock used to to work fine before I re-installed windows 2000 (SP4) as on the pre-installed disk, with a full disk re-format, and the updated BIOS. I have a vague memory that someone tweaked a driver before to make it work. Anyway, this is driving me slightly mad, because I cant get to the data on the dock, and so if anyone has any good ideas, I'd be especially grateful. The only thing IBM said was there are no known issues relating to the dock and T20.

[tfflivemb2]

Since you are running Win2000, are you also running the Software Installer to install everything that is specific to your T20?

If not, run Software Installerand have it update all of your drivers, etc. This might clear up your problem.

[chan_man]

First off what dock are you using? where is the data stored?

When you say that the dock does not power up, is this the dock that comes with its own power supply so you just plug it into the wall and not using your brick power supply? I have had two of these types of docks fail where the internal power supply have failed. IBM replace one of them but the other was out of warranty.

[Gilesmanners]

Thanks for your replies. I have installed Software installer, at the request of the IBM web site - it does try to install various bits of software, but invariably it seems to keep coming up with the same things to install again each time I run the program, so I'm not sure its working very well at detecting what I have installed.
The Dock is a Selectadock II, which has its own power supply that kicks in when you dock, it has a 10 GB drive within, also charging the laptop, as well as having loads of ports. Now it doesnt power up, but as green light shows up dimly, and as I mentioned a non-functioning USB port appears on the control panel.
Cheers, Giles

[chan_man]

From what you describe, the power supply in your dock is bad.. I just tried this with my dock and a T23. Does the dock still lock your thinkpad to it when you power it on? normally once docked, there is solinode that will lock the thinkpad to it until it is powered off, if you hibernate or put it to sleep, you can not undock using the button on the dock. If you can press the undock button and the thinkpad releases, then the power supply may not be working. I confirmed this with my 2631 dock.

As for the harddrive, did you use the ultrabay hdd adapter? if so, you can just take this out and put in into your thinkpad to get to your data.

[Gilesmanners]

I think you might be right - the TP will release by pressing the button, so it could be the power supply....

I dont know where the hardrive is in the dock, but I will check - that could be a good solution to the data loss problem that is losing me sleep!

Thanks very much for your help, cheers, Giles