Thinkpads Forum

Others have noted on this forum that their machine will shut down when they try and dock it. This has been diagnosed as a static electricity problem. While my machine does not shut down, I did get other odd behaviors such as the keyboard not working, USB devices that are hooked into the dock not working, screen resolution changes, and other erratic behaviors.

Has anyone else noticed these types of issues when docking? I am wondering if this is just another instantiation of the static electricity problem, so I will be grounding myself on the dock prior to docking to see if that helps the issue. Certainly this morning when I did that I had no problems.

What do you mean by "grounding myself"? Do you just mean touching the metal dock connector?

I have a Z61t with an Advanced Mini Dock, and I have problems with docking. The most common I have is the keyboard not working. Going into Standby and then awakening again seems to fix this.

I've also had screen resolution / color depth problems. Undocking (with the hardware button) seems to fix this.

It seems to have gotten worse (more common) after installing the latest ThinkPad / Windows Updates, but it's intermittent. It happens often, but not every time.

I have no idea whether it's static electricity (this is my first time reading that that might be the cause). Please keep me updated, especially if you find a fix.

intelliot wrote:What do you mean by "grounding myself"? Do you just mean touching the metal dock connector?

I have a Z61t with an Advanced Mini Dock, and I have problems with docking. The most common I have is the keyboard not working. Going into Standby and then awakening again seems to fix this.

I've also had screen resolution / color depth problems. Undocking (with the hardware button) seems to fix this.

It seems to have gotten worse (more common) after installing the latest ThinkPad / Windows Updates, but it's intermittent. It happens often, but not every time.

I have no idea whether it's static electricity (this is my first time reading that that might be the cause). Please keep me updated, especially if you find a fix.

I have that problem with the keyboard too! I am trying to remember to touch the metal dock connector before docking - had to put a sign on the dock to remind me! The jury is still out. I sometimes get a small shock.

The screen resolution changes are annoying but seem to be unrelated - they happen even when undocked. Try using Presentation Director to switch to "My Normal Display Settings" - it always switches to 1024x768 first before going back to the native resolution. This is really annoying and often (not always) screws up windows placements.