E7240 and docking station

Hi 1erans,

I’m sorry to hear that, thanks for the post though! I have not seen this issue reported by other E7240 users so I would like look into this for you. Could you clarify a few things:

Are all 200xE7240 systems are having exactly the same issue on dock or if the problem changes system to system?

Are all systems using the same model AC adapters / Batteries?

When USB fails, are both system and dock USB ports not functioning?

Have you been able to note the exact error message seen on the system pre OS?

Thanks,

Hi

I want to clarify first we don't have 200xE7240 Just over 200 Dell computers in our office so we are experienced with dell's products before.

We are always upgrading our dell products and lately we purchased four E7240, I found two of them with the same issue I mentioned. I also did a test yesterday with a new docking station but it has the same behavior.

I used three docking stations before, all of them using the ac adapter we got with it, normally it's a bigger adapter to support the docking station.

When the ac adapter fails only the displayport is working and the USB,network and AC of course is not working.

I also get a message before the windows boot up - "Your Power Adapter does not supply enough power to run the attached docking station". press f1 to continue or f2 for setup. I started the setup and noticed that in the battery the computer does not see any AC connected, but if I plug the same AC from the docking directly to the power port behind the computer while the docking station still connected it will behave normally as it should and all the ports will work.

I tested the same docking station with other Dell Laptop we have (E6440) and it works fine.

I also tested it on A06-A08 BIOS. Dell mentioned they changed the AC settings in the latest bios (A08) but this didn't fix it. I'm thinking about an hardware problem but I wanted to find some proof before. I will also call Dell technician in my country to see if they saw this problem before on E7240.

Thanks,

Eran

We have also recently purchased 50 E7240 for our office and I see this error message frequently.  Not on every one I image and not even every time.  Sometimes a computer will be working fine for months and then this message will come up.

Any suggestions?  I always just hit F1 and go on my merry way.

Thank You

Stacey

Hi Stacey,

Could you Private message me the service tag / order of one or more of your effected systems. We are currently working on a resolution for this prompt.

Thanks,

Hi James,

Thanks for the post. Our engineers are working on a solution for this issue which has been extremely intermittent in testing. Could you Private message me your systems service tag / order number. Does the Error “Your Power Adapter does not supply enough power to run the attached docking station" occur regularly with your configuration?

Thanks,

I, too, am having an issue trying to connect my dell e7240 to the docking station. When I connect it either has no picture and will not recognize it or it locks it out... Not quite sure what to do here....

I am a desktop support person for my company.  We have been using Dell computers for longer than the three years I have been here.

We have seen this so far on two E7440s.   "the battery currently attached to the system will not supply enough power to the dock for it to function. Please attach AC power to the dock for it to function normally"

The power supply works with the computer but not with the dock and when in BIOS, the power supply isn't recognized.  Doesn't matter what dock or power supply we use.    The first resolution was to open a ticket with  Dell and the motherboard was replaced.   That computer worked fine for about 6 months before getting this error.  I have a new ticket open today for a second computer.  This computer has only been in use for a couple weeks.   Probably going to provide that person another computer and have Dell replace the motherboard on this one.    It's got the latest BIOS.   The failure rate on these brand new computers is not satisfactory.

Doug

on the same boat. has dell got any idea how to fix it? seems bother lots of e7240 user for a long time...

As an addendum to my post above, it turns out there is a docking station spacer available which will solve this problem.  Given that it is a lump of plastic that probably costs about 50p to make, it is a shame that Dell do not ship this as standard with all the E7000 series Ultrabooks.

I have just had the same problem my new Ultrabook was working fine and then suddenly it wouldn't dock and I got the

"Your power adapter does not supply enough power to run the attached docking station.  Please press F1 to continue or F2 for setup"  .

In my case this turns out to have been a physical problem, it is just possible to see that some pins on the docking connector on the bottom of the laptop have been damaged.  The docking connector is right at the front bottom of the laptop which makes it very hard to locate the connector on the docking station and the docking connector on the laptop also seems to be very fragile.  Call me clumsy if you want but this seems to me to be a design fault in terms of both the fragility and the location of the docking connector in relation to the docking station. 

I do not know if this is what is causing this problem for others but I thought that I would share it with this forum.

We are having the same issues. All our E7240 and E7440 are having the same issues. The LAN port on the docking station stops working. We are also getting "Your Power Adapter does not supply enough power to run the attached docking station". We had dell replace a few motherboards and it works for a few days and the problem comes backs. We also had a new laptop E7440 2 weeks old already given the power error message.

Dell please fix this problem, it's driving us nuts.. Anyone know a fix?

thanks

We have all Dell equipment and are getting the same issue with some of our E7240 laptops.  some have been resolved with a BIOS update but others have not.

Is Dell any closer to resolving this?

Hi MikeT80 – Dom_rwood,

Thanks for your posts. The Latest BIOS A10 revision has been tested and resolved most reports we have had for this issue. For outlying issues I would suggest making sure of a good docking connection / swapping known good docks, AC Adapters and System batteries in testing in case of a peripheral failing and causing the persistent error.

Dell Latitude E7440 System BIOS

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=7K8V2&fileId=3385439514&osCode=W764&productCode=latitude-e7440-ultrabook&languageCode=EN&categoryId=BI

Dell Latitude E7240 System BIOS

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=1WC2K&fileId=3385439530&osCode=W764&productCode=latitude-e7240-ultrabook&languageCode=EN&categoryId=BI

Dom_rwood – I’ve not seen other reports of LAN connectivity issues tied to the battery error message. Does connectivity drop only coincide with the error message? I would suggest checking drivers and BIOS are up to date initially and testing in safemode with networking. If using a non-Dell image, try testing an OEM install to see if the problem still occurs. 

Hi Shawn - Once the MB becomes damaged the LAN port on the dock does not light up. Every once and a while you see some lights on the Ethernet ports but then they go away. Yesterday actually the Ethernet port on the docking station woke up and lights started blinking but the speed was only 10mbs, then a few minutes later it stopped working. Remember, the E port on the laptop works when not on the docking station   

 Most recently one MB was replaced and the laptop Lan port worked on the docking station for that day. The following day when the user docked the Lan stoped working and we got power message errors again. Those messages come and go for no reason.  Can a bad battery cause this? We are asking Dell again to come change the mb again, At the same time we will change the docking station and battery to a new ones. 

Since we are running A10 bios is there anything else causing this. Like I said all our E7440 and E7240 are displaying this craziness. Thanks for your help