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May 25th, 2020 02:00
Docking station WD 15 issues
Hello,
I have the issues with this docking solution
- sometimes after connect the monitors are not detected, just internal display.
- sometimes after connect the monitors are working but the USB devices attached to the station are not detected
Those annoying issues are solved sometimes by disconnecting the docking station from computer and power. On like fifth attempt it connects all devices properly.
Important to say I always had a solution from Dell and this WD 15 is really the worst docking solution I ever had specially speaking about reliability. What is the way out of it? Is some newer Thunderbolt docking station better? Or should I switch to i.e. Lenovo Solution, where they have still the classic dock port like the Dell had? I never had such issues on E-ports docking station with my previous E7440 or E5500 laptops .
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jphughan
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May 25th, 2020 09:00
@ljelinek I've found that power cycling the dock by removing the power connector from the back and waiting a few seconds before reconnecting it resolves issues like this on the relatively rare occasions where I experience them.
Yes, these docks are fundamentally different from the "traditional" docking stations of the past. Older docks were essentially just pin extensions for chips and other hardware that was already completely built into the system itself. That's why the E-Dock connector required over 200 pins. USB-C/TB3 docking stations incorporate all of the chips they need into the docks themselves. That's why you need drivers for things like the dock's audio chipest, Ethernet chipset, etc. This carries the advantage of allowing interoperability across brands, i.e. Dell docks can work with non-Dell systems and Dell systems can be used with non-Dell docks, and it also means that (for example) a laptop that doesn't have a built-in Ethernet interface can still use Ethernet through a USB-C/TB3 dock, which wouldn't have been possible with the traditional pin extension docks, but yes it does make them a bit more complicated.
Lenovo has gotten rid of the "traditional" docking connector on their modern systems too though, fyi.
Alex_IFS
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November 29th, 2020 20:00
We are a school and we are experiencing also reliability issues with WD15... the source is not found and also when switching video mode the source is flicking or loss sometimes for 5-10 seconds until it is found again. Sometimes the display never finds the source at all (HDMI) despite being obvisouly connected and switched on. I can share a very interesting video explaining the problem. The teacher are so upset they unplug the HDMI from the docking and plug directly in their laptop and it works bypassing the docking... docking firmware updates did not help much. Sometimes we just replace the docking and it works... The helpdesk team suggest the connector USB-C is too thin or too flimsy... subject to failures... If someone at Dell could comment?