WD19DCS not recognizing turned off laptop

Question

Hi, I bought a WD19DCS for my company's Precision 7550 mobile workstation laptop. Before that I had a WD19DC (without the S). The new docking station now has a problem and I don't know if it is a software problem or if it is a hardware problem and I should send back the faulty unit. The problem is like that: The docking station does not recognize a turned off laptop. With my WD19DC I can power on the docking station any time and just plug in the laptop and both would turn on and recognize. With the WD19DCS it only works if the laptop is turned on and especially it only works if the docking station had a connection to a turned on laptop during its startup, otherwise it will just not connect to the laptop, regardless of the state the laptop is in. Only a full AC power reset while connected to a turned on laptop fixes this. This also applies if they are started together correctly, but after shutting down the laptop I would unplug the docking station from the laptop. This would also trigger this locked state. Has anybody similar problems or is this a known issue? If not, it is probably a faulty cable or unit, where some sensing functionality is broken and I would have to return it. Otherwise I need to figure out how to get into contact with Dell Support which is really difficult as I had to find out.  Thanks for your help.

SkryptX · Accepted Answer

My problem got solved by the Dell Support which suggested the steps below. I had my docking station a whole night without AC power which should have removed all the power from it, but apparently this does something more and internally reset the docking station.

To release flea power, follow these steps:

Remove the Dock USB-C / TB cable from the System.

Unplug AC power and all peripherals from the Dock.

Drain power on the dock by holding the power button for 30 seconds. For Salomon docks, the power button may flash three times.

Plug AC power into the Dock before redocking the with the System.

Connect peripherals one at a time and test before connecting the next peripheral.

Note: The type C USB connector LED may remain lit despite an error transferring power to the system, contrary to how AC Adapter LED responds to a short, overvoltage, overcurrent or over temperature situation.

After that it started working correctly and an additional cause could be that the contacts in the USB-C ports were maybe corroded and plugging them in and out multiple times helped with the problem.

Maybe this helps you solve this and similar problems.

Very similar instructions are also here for a different Dell dock: https://people.uleth.ca/~daniel.odonnell/Blog/resetting-a-dell-tb16-thunderbolt-dock

piet delaney · Answer

@SkryptX​ This is a stupid solution. it's going to damage the connectors doing this every morning after suspension. Replacing the USB-C plug on the 7780 is a lot of work,.

Precision Mobile Workstations

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