Did I just blow about $60? Minidock and T23....

[BlueDevilTide]

I feel miserable.

I feel like I just blew about $60 on a Thinkpad MiniDock from ebay (model 2878 I believe).

I mainly wanted it for the easy use of the 4 USB 2.0 ports, but now it looks like those might act like USB1.1 ports...say it ain't so...


Is there any workaround for that? They're 2.0 ports, even though the T23's are not...and XP takes 2.0, and even suggests I plug in my devices into a 2.0 port when I put something in (of course, I don't have any).

Any suggestions? If it doesn't work, does anyone want to buy it?

[rkawakami]

I believe when it says "USB 2.0" that it really means it's compliant with the USB 2.0 spec. In other words, if your computer has 2.0 ports, it will work at that speed when placed into the dock. Since the T23 only has USB 1.1 ports, unless there is special hardware inside the mini-dock that supports 2.0 (i.e something like a PCMCIA adapter), then you are stuck with 1.1 speeds.

Your alternatives? Use a PCMCIA-to-USB2.0 adapter. I have an Apricorn "ez usb 2.0" which seemed to work okay the one time I used it several months ago. I bought it for my 600X in order to do backups with an external USB 2.0 hard drive. There are other adapters; I wanted that particular model because it only takes up one slot (type II card).

edit: I searched IBM's site and found this:

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/op ... 2p1837.pdf

It's the users manual for the port replicator and mini-dock systems. On page 7 there is this note:

"If your Thinkpad computer does not support USB 2.0, any attached USB device does not work in USB 2.0 high-speed mode"

[BlueDevilTide]

[censored]. Yeah...so I did waste some money.

I'll see how I like it, but I probably will end up selling it. I wanted USB2.0 with maybe some other features down the road...though I don't plan on getting an external LCD anytime.

Any interested takers? Heh, I'll post on the marketplace after a while I'm sure.

Though, if anyone knows of a hack or something, that would be great! I don't see why it wouldn't work. The Dock is not plugged into the USB port, so it isn't limited by its slow speed. The Thinkpad itself supports it, the machine just doesn't have the ports. If the PCMCIA slot is able to take 2.0 speeds, I imagine the T23's dock connector on the bottom could take high speed data transfer, right? And if that's the case, there should be a way to make the T23 recognize the Dock's ports as 2.0. If it were plugged into the on-board USB1.1 ports, I could obviously see the problem...I just can't seem to see the problem here. Anyone know of a hack or workaround?

[tfflivemb2]

You could just add a PCMCIA USB 2.0 card, which would have been far cheaper than the $60 Dock.

[rkawakami]

If it (mini-dock RK) were plugged into the on-board USB1.1 ports, I could obviously see the problem...I just can't seem to see the problem here.

True, however your USB speed limitation exists within the chipset inside the T23. Any USB device that tries to communicate with your computer via the USB ports (built-in, port replicator or mini-dock), will always run up against that barrier. The only way I know of getting USB 2.0 speeds with the T2x series is to use the previously mentioned PCMCIA adapter. Now, if the mini-dock supported an external PCMCIA card cage, then that would be a workaround, but I don't believe that is the case.

[BlueDevilTide]

I see...darn. Maybe if it functions nicely as a good stand, I'll keep it. That really blows though...I was looking forward to having 4 ports and such. Sigh.

At least one advantage is that nothing will be hanging out of the side of the notebook, as now there is the headphone jack going to my audio reciever. I believe that will plug into the back of the machine now. Unfortunately a USB PCMCIA card will negate that.

[censored] it..

[schen]

You can get a full dock (I forget the model number) for the T23 pretty cheap these days. You can either put a 2.0 PCI card in it that will give you 2 to 4 ports depending on card, or you can stick a PCMCIA USB 2.0 card in on of the slots in the back (which is what I'm doing). So when you dock you have the 2.0 right at hand. It shouldn't be an issue since you were willing to use the Mini-Dock anyway which is actually more of a port replicator.

[_erazor_]

you do not plan to buy an external lcd screen?

well good, cos it would not work anyhow with the t23. the t23 does not support DVI out of any kind, not even in a dock

[Berny]

... but of course you can use the good old VGA connector to connect almost every LCD screen/TFT display/CRT to your dock.