WD19 docking stations - network dropout, USB dropout across multiple models

Actually...  there's another thing you guys can try that costs nothing; power the system off, open it up, and disconnect the battery for a few minutes (or press the power button with the battery discoed).  Reconnect it, close it back up, and see if that does anything.  There may be a hardware something or other hung up in some persistent memory somewhere.  Should never be the case, but that's the third variable.  I am running the latest bios for the laptop and the dock.

I will see how long the dock remains stable for me.  I'll report on it Friday if it stays stable, sooner if it doesn't.

@Russael 

I've had 2 sticks of RAM out of the factory (yep, in dual channel config), and I had this issue, so I don't think that is related.

I can't spot the 15w option in the BIOS... I have an Inspiron 7490.

@Bogomips99 I don't think the Inspiron lineup has that option.

So, the last suggestion I have (as far as what I did), is disconnecting the battery.  If yours is external, shut the machine all the way off, remove the battery for a few minutes or press the power button, and put it back in.  If it is internal and you're comfortable with taking the cover off (and assuming it doesn't have a warranty seal sticker), you can try opening it up and disconnecting the battery for a few minutes and/or pressing the power button, and reconnecting it.

Aside from that, those are the only 3 items I had changed.

I am interested to see what happens with everything when I use my office dock again, but that won't be a thing for a loooooooong time.

hi iitsmetoo

I tried what you suggested on this forum: when connected to dock, and wired ethernet dropped as per usual, and Wifi wouldn't work either, I physically unplugged the Cat5 cable from the docking station.   Suddenly Wifi started working.  THen I plugged in the Cat5 cable and wired internet started working again!  Maybe a fluke, I'll try it again when the problem comes back, and see whether this solves the problem again.

iitsmetoo:

when my hard-wired internet via the dock stops working on my laptop, I note that the two ethernet lights are still flashing normally on the dock.  so it's kind of like the dock still thinks its connected fine to my router.  but my computer can't access that internet.  weird.

I hope that answered your question.

Hi Russel,

I looked for BIOS events - thermal or power -but never found any at the times when I lost internet.

However, I tried something else suggested on this forum: when connected to dock, and wired ethernet dropped as per usual, and Wifi wouldn't work either, I physically unplugged the Cat5 cable from the docking station.   Suddenly Wifi started working.  THen I plugged in the Cat5 cable and wired internet started working again!  Maybe a fluke, I'll try it again when the problem comes back.

Alternatively, if I just disconnect the WD19TB cable from the computer, and then plug it back in, wired internet works again.  Most of the time this takes less than 1 minute and I don't lose any work.  Sometimes, as you know, Windows gets upset to be undocked and then re-docked.

At 9:35am, 1 hour 35 minutes in to the work day, the dock ethernet flapped.  *bangs head on desk*  4 days of rock solid performance and today it decided "Eh, I think I've fooled him for long enough."

So the RAM thing, 15w thing, and the unplugging battery thing are all bogus solutions.  Wish it didn't take this long to make a mockery of that.  Sorry everyone. 

Adding my experience for reference.

Dell Latitude 5501 w/ WD19TB Docking Station Windows 10 Build 19041.

Docking station is used for Ethernet, USB wireless mouse/keyboard, DP->HDMI 4K60 display.

The system was losing LAN connectivity once or twice per day.  When it occurs during use the system stops responding for 5-10 seconds.  My wireless mouse/keyboard (attached to dock) stop working for those 5-10 seconds.  The integrated track-pad still works and the keyboard lights up but the system is otherwise unresponsive. Once the system starts responding the LAN connection would drop and Windows switches to WiFi and remain that way until I intervene.  Task Manager shows a CPU spike with all cores at 100% during the time the system was not responsive. 

Disconnecting the Ethernet cable from the dock and then reconnecting the Ethernet cable restores the LAN connectivity.

As a test for the past few days I've moved the Ethernet cable from the Dock to the Laptop.  I have NOT lost LAN connectivity during this time. 

However I am still experiencing the same occasional 5-10 second long lock-ups, 100%CPU spike across all cores and the system is non-responsive.

The next test would be to eliminate the dock entirely, I'll do that this coming week.

Note of my frustration: My previous system was a Dell Latitude E6540.  This new 5501 has given me more trouble in just a couple weeks than the old one did during six years of daily use!

I have to strongly agreed with the last sentence. The old E-docks were stable as rock. No problem for 7-8 years.

This new WD 19 is really nightmare.

Reproduced it!

When my hard-wired internet drops, the LEDS in the docking station are still blinking.  I unplug the CAT5 cable from the docking station for 5 seconds, and then plug it in again.  Magically internet works again! This has worked me twice.  This was a good suggestion from someone here.  Thank you.

I have reproduced this trick on average once a day as needed.  I wonder what clue this gives us to its origin, and if there is a simple longer-term solution?

@princebuy I think your issue is slightly different than the one a lot of us have experienced.  We actually completely lose the dock NIC - the lights will go completely out, you'll hear a USB disconnect sound, and then it'll come back on and resume working after a few seconds.  Others have had the USB ports themselves quit working too.

For me, it's always been just the dock nic giving me trouble.  Interestingly, aside from the disconnect I had last week, it only happened once.  I WAS having it happen so much that the dock nic would completely disable itself with a windows start code saying that it was faulty, and I'd either have to powercycle the dock, or just jack in to the ethernet port on the laptop itself and just leave it (which is what I've done up until last week).  I'd even hear the dock nic drop out with no ethernet plugged in to it.

Oh wow, that is more dramatic than what I experience.  Sorry to hear it.

My dock is two weeks old; the USB ports did NOT work out of the box, but then I ran the firmware update, and things worked.  I'm now using the latest Dell xps 15 7590 firmware.

Oddly enough when using the dock and the computer, once every few hours it freezes 2-4 seconds while emitting a high pitch and then all is well again.

I just have a tool next to the dock to deal with internet dropout once a day: I push down on the Cat5 cable tab and remove it and then I plug it back in.  What junk!

Follow up post.

I'm now using this Dell Latitude 5501 system WITHOUT the dock, and also without any other Thunderbolt devices (Dell power adapter is connected to the Thunderbolt/USB-C) . 

I'm still getting the occasional 5-10 seconds total system lockup, with associated 100% CPU spike across all 6 cores (12 threads).  The LAN connection stays in tact. It seems to almost always happen when I'm interacting with an input box, either in Chrome or Slack, or at least that's when I notice it happening.

So what I'm thinking at this point is whatever is causing the system to periodically lockup (a few times per day) is the root of the problem, and the dock losing LAN connectivity is just a side-effect of the system locking up for 5-10 seconds and that wreaking havoc on the Thunderbolt connection, which then causes the LAN connection to drop. 

And again for reference I still have my 6+ year old Dell Latitude E6540 running the same OS & software versions as this new Dell Latitude 5501 for comparison, and it does not have the lockup issues.