undocking a docked t60p with active serial port

[deforest]

I'm using the serial port on the dock to monitor my ups. I had this setup from before with my t40 and dock, and now have moved over to using a t60p and it's dock.

The problem is now it seems the preferred way of removing the thinkpad from the dock is using the undock button, which seems to basically put the machine in suspend mode.

The problem is that when I use the undock button, the system refuses to go into suspend mode. I look at the event log and there is a complaint that a process won't let it suspend. So I run over to the services control panel and stop that service and select the undock feature, and it goes into suspend mode.

What is odd is if I instead use the suspend feature, the machine suspends without complaint with the serial port in use (i.e. the service that is using it active).

Then I can go ahead and undock it, even though the dock eject button is red instead of green.

The error message I get is:
"You cannot eject your computer because on of the devices in the docking station 'COM2' cannot be stopped right now."




So 2 questions: why is the undock complaining about the serial port in use (or is there away to get around this easier than stopping a service)?

The next question is: is there anything wrong and putting the system in suspend mode and ejecting it (then resuming it while undocked)?

With the t40, you could hot undock, but I always put it in suspend mode first before undocking, since I was going on the road anyhow.