Miserable docking station support

Message

WPWoodJr · #1 Post by **WPWoodJr** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 8:15 pm

Even though I have those new little rubber anti-static booties on my TP dock, the T60p freezes several seconds after I remove it from the dock and must be rebooted. If I put it in standby before undocking that seems to work ok. Do you have this problem too? Are you as [censored] off as I am with Lenovo's miserable docking station support?

jeffm · #2 Post by **jeffm** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 6:37 am

Did Lenovo send you a new docking station like you mentioned in another thread? Or are you still having problems with the same one?

Scratch · #3 Post by **Scratch** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 10:22 am

what hardware do you have attached to your dock? anything with a driver that might not understand docking?

i take it that you're selecting start>undock computer and waiting for the display to switch over to the T'Pad panel before ejecting?

I rarely undock without going to standby as the reason I'm undocking is to leave either home or the office so i can't speak to undocking with the system active. This is "hot" docking/undocking which ibm says the t60 doesn't support, the standby state is the "warm" process which is supported.

WPWoodJr · #4 Post by **WPWoodJr** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 10:39 am

I did get the new docking station and it still has the "freeze on hot undock" issue.

On my dock I have a Dell 27" monitor (DVI); a ViewSonic monitor on the VGA port; several USB devices (including a USB hub built into the Dell monitor, 4 USB card readers built into the Dell monitor, a Treo 700p, a headset microphone, a Logitech mouse, and a Lenovo external multi-read/write DVD); a keyboard; some speakers on the headphone output; and an ethernet cable. One would think these could all undock successfully.

I am indeed doing the whole undock thing, I use the hardware key on the dock which is labeled "1". I also switch my monitors back to the T60p using presentation director.

My colleague who has the Z61p hot undocks all the time. I used to also when I had the T42p and T41p. This after-the-purchase nonsense about hot undocking being "unsupported" is really an attempt to cover up hardware problems in my opinion. By the way, the Lenovo rep I talked to said that you should shut your machine down before docking/undocking so "warm" docking isn't supported by Lenovo either!

jeffm · #5 Post by **jeffm** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 1:01 pm

A new BIOS version (1.06) was posted yesterday for 6369, 6370, 6371, 6372, 8741, 8742, 8743, and 8744 T60/T60p models. It might be worth a try if it applies to your model...

Scratch · #6 Post by **Scratch** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:28 pm

Sorry to ask such foolish questions.

Have you tried the process without any external peripherals connected?

Does the CD/DVD drive show in the external device control applet in the SYSTRAY? If so does stopping that device prior to undocking make a difference?

I hear what you're saying about Lenovo Spin, but with just a USB printer or 3, speakers, 3D Connexion Space Pilot, and Viewsonic panel connected I am able to undock hot without incident.

I have found I have to wait for the display to transfer to the laptop panel on its own or I can run into problems. I don't use Presentation Director for monitor control. I allow the system to do the sensing/switching. I actually had removed PD for a while because it messed up my automatic display synching. I recently reinstalled it as I've been running on a lot of different projectors of late.

Have you tried cold booting the system undocked and deleting all other hardware profiles? I've used this on occasion to "reset" my environment when I have issues. I then shut down and boot up on the dock and allow it to build a new profile. Might be worth a shot.

Keep us posted if you get to the root of the problem.

Best of luck.

WPWoodJr · #7 Post by **WPWoodJr** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 4:14 pm

Thanks for the suggestions. I've decided to disconnect the Dell USB hub and the CD/DVD drive and only plug it in when necessary. Perhaps this will create less of a problem when undocking, time will tell!

acasto · #8 Post by **acasto** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:31 am

I've never had a problem hot docking/undocking on either windows xp or linux with the T60p.

WPWoodJr · #9 Post by **WPWoodJr** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 8:38 am

acasto wrote:I've never had a problem hot docking/undocking on either windows xp or linux with the T60p.

That's interesting... before I got the rubber booties I had all kinds of problems when docking including freezing keyboard, freezing mouse, etc. My colleague with a Z61p used to dock his machine and it would just shut off with no warning.

Perhaps you live in a low static area? Here in the Northeast we get a lot of static in the winter.

acasto · #10 Post by **acasto** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 5:42 pm

WPWoodJr wrote:That's interesting... before I got the rubber booties I had all kinds of problems when docking including freezing keyboard, freezing mouse, etc. My colleague with a Z61p used to dock his machine and it would just shut off with no warning.

Perhaps you live in a low static area? Here in the Northeast we get a lot of static in the winter.

Honestly, I have never heard of anything like that. Does the ground on your building's electrical suck or something? I don't know how to test it, but I've heard guys talk about how in the military they learned to to fix a bad ground by digging a post hole for the ground and filling it with gravel and sand and putting salt or something around the top. Maybe some searching on that idea would turn up something.

As for my situation, I keep three smaller houseplants sittings on my desk, so I'm sure that helps with the humidity and in turn static.

#11 Post by **gator** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 5:46 pm

hmm, I have no trouble hot undocking at my lab - this was a used minidock that was handed down to us ... does not have the rubbber contacts or anything, but works great. I have not had trouble even once docking/undocking it, both with and without periphrals attached.

I hate the docking procdure though, am always afraid I am applying too much pressure on the LCD lid. Corner docking sucks

I prefer the mechanism on my X31 ultrabase much more compared to this.

WPWoodJr · #12 Post by **WPWoodJr** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:20 pm

acasto wrote: Honestly, I have never heard of anything like that

The winter static is from the heating system drying the air in the building. Here's the info from Lenovo on the static discharge and solution: Rubber Booties

WPWoodJr · #13 Post by **WPWoodJr** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:23 pm

WPWoodJr wrote:Thanks for the suggestions. I've decided to disconnect the Dell USB hub and the CD/DVD drive and only plug it in when necessary. Perhaps this will create less of a problem when undocking, time will tell!

This may have fixed my undocking problem, no issues today - fingers crossed!

WPWoodJr · #14 Post by **WPWoodJr** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 8:14 pm

WPWoodJr wrote:
WPWoodJr wrote:Thanks for the suggestions. I've decided to disconnect the Dell USB hub and the CD/DVD drive and only plug it in when necessary. Perhaps this will create less of a problem when undocking, time will tell!
This may have fixed my undocking problem, no issues today - fingers crossed!

No problems all week, have not had to reboot since last Friday - I guess the rubber caps for the docking station and removing unnecessary USB devices have cured my docking station woes.

PC-T60p-Oz · #15 Post by **PC-T60p-Oz** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 3:34 am

I have a t60p with XPP and an IBM Advanced Dock, I ejected mine with the power on to test and it was ok, lots of bing bongs then about 15 secs later pooped up with a message on how to eject from the doc.

I put it back in and it reconnected to the wired LAN. I did reOS my t60p last week with a fresh XPP and updated IBM drivers, maybe that has something to do with it?

PC
Sydney

Miserable docking station support

Miserable docking station support

Who is online