Docking Station Power Button

We are using the 130W AC Adapters.  BIOS is fully up to date.  Plastic spacer is installed.

That is not expected behavior.  What wattage power supply are you using with the docking stations?  I believe the E7470 and E5570 require the docking station to be powered by at least a 130W AC adapter.  You might also want to try updating the BIOS on a test system if you haven't already just to see if that improves things.

And this is happening with multiple laptops connected to multiple docking stations?  In that case I'm not sure what might be causing the behavior you're seeing.  Sorry!  The Power light should be on when the system is on, pulsing when the system is asleep, and off when it is hibernating or powered off. Pressing it should always power on/wake the system when it's off/asleep/hibernated, and when it's on, pressing it should do whatever action you've configured in Windows for pressing the Power button, i.e. it should behave exactly the same way as the Power button on the laptop itself.

One other potential idea.  For the best dock placement, the E7470 and E5570 use a plastic spacer intended to be placed on the dock.  The reason is that more recent Dell models have moved the dock connector close to the edge of the laptop, whereas it used to be closer to the center.  That spacer isn't required for proper operation, but it can create a more secure connection, so if you find that your laptops are wobbling a bit on the dock, that could be responsible for the unreliable behavior you're seeing.

Hi Petrucci914,

Thanks for posting.

Sounds like you are a commercial customer.  You should have an account manager assigned to your company.  Your issue sounds like you should contact them, as they should have access to your warranty and the tech support team that services your company.

This was an issue with the machine - either a bad power button or motherboard.