Issue with Lenovo Advanced Dock 2503 & T61p

[mintsick]

I have had 2 users with the 2503 Advanced dock and a T61p thinkpad bring this issue to my attention. When docked randomly the built in network interface will stop functioning, in device manager it will show "Error code 10: Device could not start". No matter what you do to try and get it to start it refuses (remove device, let windows rediscover, rollback drivers, uninstall drivers, reinstall latest, etc etc). Even a reboot does not seem to cure it. I ended up giving one user a PCMCIA network adapter as a temporary bandaid, but then a second user with the same setup brought up the issue to my attention. Again same symptoms ran through the same attempted fixes, ended up giving her a PCMCIA network adapter also until I had time to research further. After 2 days this user came back to me with the PCMCIA card saying "the dock works again" but she hadn't done anything other than undock at the end of the day to take home. I went to the original user and checked out Device Manager on his system...sure enough the built in network adapter was again functioning properly! This turned out to be short lived as a few days later it was not functioning again.

I am thinking the issue is actually with the Advanced Dock, the first user says that the network adapter on the side of his T61p works when he brings it into conference rooms, but when docked it will not. I gave him a mini-dock to use and so far there haven't been any issues with it.

Are there any firmware updates for the Advanced Dock out there? A google search really did not produce anything useful so I figured this would be the place to come. Any ideas/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Mike

[basketb]

I don't have an advanced dock (yet) and the one person I know who has one uses it with a T60p and has never mentioned such a problem. However, one thing stroke me as odd:

...the first user says that the network adapter on the side of his T61p works when he brings it into conference rooms, but when docked it will not.

Why doesn't the user use the network port on the docking station when docked? Or are you saying that one doesn't work either?

[mintsick]

I don't have an advanced dock (yet) and the one person I know who has one uses it with a T60p and has never mentioned such a problem. However, one thing stroke me as odd:

...the first user says that the network adapter on the side of his T61p works when he brings it into conference rooms, but when docked it will not.

Why doesn't the user use the network port on the docking station when docked? Or are you saying that one doesn't work either?

I am saying that when the user undocks the network port on the side of the laptop is functional when he is away from his desk. When he comes back and puts the laptop back in the dock neither the rear (on dock) or side network port (on laptop itself) work. This is obviously only when the network adapter is not functioning as noted in device manager.

[RonS]

I've seen problems where I'll re-dock my T60p on my Advanced Dock and cannot connect to the LAN through the dock (yellow exclamation mark or red X on the LAN icon). When that happens, I usually have to reset my router/switch, disable/enable the LAN under Windows, and then it comes back to life. I've never seen the "Error code 10" message.

Do you see any difference if the system is docked cold and then powering on, rather than docking warm and rebooting?

Another thing to try: boot into Safe mode with Networking. Do you see the same problem?