docking station doesn't work

[wmills]

Hi,

I have a new W510 with Windows 7 Enterprise, and a series 3 Thinkpad docking station (either a "port replicator", a "Mini Dock" or a "Mini Dock Plus", not sure which but guessing Mini Dock Plus). I've had numerous problems with it:

* With power and peripherals plugged into the docking station, when I dock my powered down laptop the little monitor light to the lower left of the docking station's power button lights up green. But when I then push the docking station power button, the pc powers up, but I don't get anything on my (Samsung flatscreen) monitor.

* I unplugged all the peripherals (monitor, USB mouse, USB keyboard, power) and hooked them directly to my PC, everything works.

* I unplugged everything from the docking station and left it that way for a few days. I came in this morning and hooked everything up to the docking station, then plugged in my PC and hit the docking station power key. All peripherals came up, but the screen was very green. After about 10 or 15 minutes, it suddenly adjusted to normal tint and colors.

* I opened the start menu and there is no "Undock" option.

* I shut everything down, undocked, then re-docked. Now, I'm back to the original problem (bullet 1 above) where the monitor is not engaged and I see nothing.

Any idea what's going on?

Regards,
Wayne

[Chatbox]

When the laptop is docked, do you have the laptop's lid/LCD close or open?

[wmills]

closed

[Harryc]

Try a new monitor signal cable. Swap monitors.

[wmills]

Yeah but when connected directly to my PC the monitor works fine (I do leave the laptop screen cracked open in that case). I cannot replace the monitor so easily unless we are 100% sure it is defective, and if it were defective, why would it work when connected to PC?