Is Thundebolt active on my XPS 13 9333 ?

Question

Hello to all,I own (with a lot of satisfaction) an XPS 13'' 9333 for many years now. As I was seeking for an extension hub, I bought a 'Thunderbolt 2' box with all connectors I wanted (Ethernet, HDMI...)Unfortunately, the box does not work with my equipment Does anyone know if the Thunderbolt port is active on this machine and how to activate it ? Or is this only a mini-displayport ? Is there any means to use this connector as a 'Thunderbolt 2' port ? (by upgrading the BIOS for instance)Many thanks in advance

jphughan · Answer

@_cym_  the XPS 13 9333 only has Mini-DisplayPort.  Thunderbolt did not arrive until the next generation (the XPS 13 9350), and that was Thunderbolt 3, which uses a USB-C connector style.  There is no way to add Thunderbolt 2 support to the XPS 13 9333.  That would have required Dell to engineer a motherboard that included a Thunderbolt 2 controller, which they didn't.  And as a result, unfortunately there is no way to get Thunderbolt 2 peripherals working with that system.

jphughan · Answer

@_cym_  in addition to my reply above, in terms of the connectivity issue itself, the closest you can get to a docking station type of solution with the XPS 13 9333 would be a dock like the Dell D6000 that can plug into a regular USB port and still carry video by using DisplayLink technology.  However, DisplayLink has some drawbacks that are important to be aware of, because they might be dealbreakers for some people.  I wrote a detailed post about that in this thread, specifically the post marked as the answer.  If those drawbacks sound like they might be a problem for you, then your best bet would probably be to keep connecting the display(s) directly and then use a USB hub for anything else so that you still only have one USB cable (from the hub) to plug into the system.  With newer systems that use USB-C or Thunderbolt 3, docking stations and even 'mini-dock' adapters become much more plentiful and don't have these drawbacks because those devices can tap into a native GPU connection provided on the USB-C/TB3 port.  All TB3 ports have a GPU connection, and some but not all USB-C ports do.  But of course that requires a different system.