TB15 dock compatibility with non-DELL laptops

Per the documentation, the WD15 and TB16 will supply up to 60W to non-Dell laptops.  With the WD15 you'd need at least a 130W adapter to provide 60W to the system.  With the TB16, you'd need a 180W adapter to provide 60W.  The reason is that the dock itself reserves some AC adapter capacity to power peripherals you might attach to it, and the "upstream" USB-C and TB3 ports on those docks can draw quite a bit.

Anyhow, my wife uses her Lenovo ThinkPad T480 with the WD15 and it works just fine, including charging.  The light on the USB-C connector only lights up when plugged into a Dell laptop, but that doesn't seem to affect operation.  See if the BIOS Setup on your Yoga will tell you how much power is being drawn through the USB-C port to see what it's negotiating with the dock.  Dell systems show this, but I'm not sure about Lenovo systems.

Your TB15 experience was probably a disaster because Dell ended up recalling all of them due to widespread and wide-ranging hardware issues, and exchanging them free of charge for the updated TB16.

In addition to the above, do you have the latest system firmware for your Yoga and the latest firmware on the WD15?  I'm not sure if the WD15 firmware can be updated from a non-Dell system though, since I've never tried it.

Just tried to update the firmware. Downloaded the utility, launched with admin rights... And no window. Only got the "This program might not have installed correctly" with some troubleshooting suggestions (that do not work).

Sadly no one I know has a DELL laptop with USB-C port.

I thought that might have been the case because on Dell systems, the WD15 firmware updater causes the system to reboot and then the firmware is pushed to the WD15 in the system's pre-boot phase.  It looks a lot like a BIOS update.  If you don't have access to a Dell system with a USB-C port and updating the firmware for your laptop doesn't resolve the charging issue, I'm not sure what to suggest though -- maybe finding a retail location that has some Dell systems with USB-C ports on display?  I realize that's far from ideal.  Sorry!

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@jphughan wrote:

Per the documentation, the WD15 and TB16 will supply up to 60W to non-Dell laptops.  With the WD15 you'd need at least a 130W adapter to provide 60W to the system.  With the TB16, you'd need a 180W adapter to provide 60W.  The reason is that the dock itself reserves some AC adapter capacity to power peripherals you might attach to it, and the "upstream" USB-C and TB3 ports on those docks can draw quite a bit.

Anyhow, my wife uses her Lenovo ThinkPad T480 with the WD15 and it works just fine, including charging.  The light on the USB-C connector only lights up when plugged into a Dell laptop, but that doesn't seem to affect operation.  See if the BIOS Setup on your Yoga will tell you how much power is being drawn through the USB-C port to see what it's negotiating with the dock.  Dell systems show this, but I'm not sure about Lenovo systems.

Your TB15 experience was probably a disaster because Dell ended up recalling all of them due to widespread and wide-ranging hardware issues, and exchanging them free of charge for the updated TB16.

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Hi! Is there any available information to confirm this? I have a TB15 and would like to get it exchanged for a TB16 if that is possible.

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@decimistah wrote:

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@jphughan wrote:

Per the documentation, the WD15 and TB16 will supply up to 60W to non-Dell laptops.  With the WD15 you'd need at least a 130W adapter to provide 60W to the system.  With the TB16, you'd need a 180W adapter to provide 60W.  The reason is that the dock itself reserves some AC adapter capacity to power peripherals you might attach to it, and the "upstream" USB-C and TB3 ports on those docks can draw quite a bit.

Anyhow, my wife uses her Lenovo ThinkPad T480 with the WD15 and it works just fine, including charging.  The light on the USB-C connector only lights up when plugged into a Dell laptop, but that doesn't seem to affect operation.  See if the BIOS Setup on your Yoga will tell you how much power is being drawn through the USB-C port to see what it's negotiating with the dock.  Dell systems show this, but I'm not sure about Lenovo systems.

Your TB15 experience was probably a disaster because Dell ended up recalling all of them due to widespread and wide-ranging hardware issues, and exchanging them free of charge for the updated TB16.

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Hi! Is there any available information to confirm this? I have a TB15 and would like to get it exchanged for a TB16 if that is possible.

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Googling "Dell TB15 recall" turns up a few good results, including a tweet from Dell's official DellCares Twitter account here: https://twitter.com/dellcares/status/809296051941281792

You should just be able to contact Dell Support and explain that you have a TB15 and want it exchanged.  I don't think that the recall "expires" or requires the dock to be under warranty, but I'm not sure about that.

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am trying to use a WD15 with non-DELL laptop (Lenovo Yoga 370). Everything works, except for charging.

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Are these docks compatible with other laptops?

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Same issue here with WD15 (180W PSU, firmware 1.0.6) and HP EliteBook Folio G1, HP Elite x2 1013 G3 (latest BIOS on both). HP tech. support said they can't escalate ticket to engineers because HP tech. supported is not allowed to escalate tickets with non-HP hardware.

Is there any chance Dell can resolve this incompatibility with firmware update?

@RussianNeuroMancer  see the posts above in this thread. All TB15s were recalled years ago.

@jphughandid you noticed that I talking about exactly same issue with WD15, which wasn't recalled and still sold by Dell?

I'm in the same boat. 

I have my WD15 for a while now and used a Lenovo T480 and now I'm using a Avell. The Lenovo was powered by the WD15 but the new one uses external power as it's not charged thru the USB-C and uses a 240W power adapter by it's gaming capabilities.

That said I'm trying to update my WD15 firmware since the prior computer and didn't manage to do it. I also have my old dell Inspiron 7520 here but it has no USB-C ports to help me, or the company's laptop that's also a Dell without USB-C.

Anyone managed to update it's firmware?

I recently (last week) bought a WD19TB to my wife and just updated the firmware with no issues on my Avell laptop