Docking Station Advice/tips

[dallascowboys]

hello thinkpad fam,
as I have never used a docking station before, I just have a few questions about what to do with mine. After I called thinkpad support they seem unsure too:

-by the way I have a t410

1) when using the thinkpad away from docking station, do I need to turn off, close the lid or put the laptop into sleep mode before putting it onto the docking station?

2) there is a power button on the docking station, does this power button turn on the laptop if laptop is turned off or does it turn on the docking station?

3) before ejecting from the laptop from docking station, do I need to turn the laptop off, press the power button on the docking station or etc or can I eject while the laptop is powered on?

4) is there any other advice, tips or anything else I need to know about using the docking station?

Thanks, Dallas

[s1148625]

1. No. The Series 3 Docks all support hot/warm docking.
2. Laptop
3. Can eject while laptop is on.

Rob

[papapete]

I wonder if there is something I need to be doing in order to hotdock BACK with T510 into 4337 mini-dock so that the dock with my mouse, keyboard, and external display know I'm back. Running XP prof. wi. SP3. Someone said i should be able to right-click on START on task bar and get an "undock" option which would make things work, but there is no such thing. the only thing on the systray "safely remove hardware" is a network drive (duh).

Anyway, my symptoms/scenario: I start my system in the dock and use the kb, mouse, and display attached to the dock. I undock physically, come back after about 2 hours (not having done any suspend/hibernate/change users/restart/etc., click back into the dock, but nothing attached to the dock is recognized/detected/usable. I'm left with having to use laptop as a laptop without the external keyboard, mouse, or display that was in use before I undocked. Workaround is to shut-down and power OFF and ON in order for the firmware and [lovely, sophisticated?!] Windows to wake up to the fact that I'm docked. Without power off, nothing helps, not even shut-down/restart. That's lame. I'm guessing firmware, but what do i know.

Any ideas?