Thinkpads Forum

I have just bought an x6 ultrabase for my x60s. The tab on the ultrabase that is intended to blank off the power socket on the x60s has snapped off. I can therefore use either the socket on the ultrabase or the socket on the x60s -- and everything seems to work properly either way.

So why is the blanking tab there in the first place? Is there some fundamental reason why I shouldn't use the laptop's power socket when it is on the ultrabase?

it's probably precaution, i'm sure if you have power plugged into x and into ultrabase nothing good will happen.

I hadn't thought about plugging power into both sockets at the same time; maybe that could cause problems, and maybe that's why the blanking tab is there.

But could there be problems plugging into the laptop on its own?

icebag wrote: But could there be problems plugging into the laptop on its own?

Probably not. It must all be on the same power bus, so either way would work.

Harryc wrote:Probably not. It must all be on the same power bus, so either way would work.

Yes, that was the reasoning behind my original question ... so why does the ultrabase blank off the laptop's power socket? There surely must be somebody here who knows.

My opinion is that the reason has already been stated...that something bad (short, or over current) would occur if someone plugged two adapters in at once. The designer capped the laptop plug for a reason, why question it? Tell you what, try plugging in (2) power adapters at once and tell us what happens. It is not uncommon for dock designers to block off ports on the laptop, after all the entire idea of a dock is to have it tether/cable free for easy removal.

I would agree with what Harryc says here. The ultrabase has a set of pretty good speakers, and a ultrabay for a cd/dvd burner or separate battery, etc. I would not be in the least interested in finding out how this stuff works under AC power if I used the laptop's jack instead of the ultrabay jack. Just my opinion.....