Dell D3100 connect with adapter

Question

Hello all, I have a dell 3520 at work which is connected to its docking station via a usb c type cable.

For various reasons I sometimes need to bring my own old hp laptop to work, but it does not have a usb c interface. Would it be likely that I'd be able to connect to the docking station's usb c cable (male) to my old laptop's usb 3 input (female) by putting a small usb c to usb a adapter in the middle?

I don't need full functionality, just the display connectivity. I know there's no guarantees given the different brands and the janky setup, but just to know whether it's somewhat likely to work or not at all.

Thanks, cheers

jphughan · Answer

@Flaxtnez Something isn't adding up in your post. Your title mentions a D3100 dock. The D3100 does not use USB-C. It uses USB-A. The newer D6000 can use USB-C, but it includes an adapter on the end of its cable to allow you to plug it into a USB-A port. So unless you've mixed up the terms "USB-C" and "USB-A", I'm going to guess that you have a dock model other than the D3100. You may want to check the underside of the dock.

But to answer your question, whether you can do that will depend on how the dock handles video. If it's a Dxxxx series dock, then it handles video through "indirect display" technology called DisplayLink -- not to be confused with DisplayPort -- and in that case yes you would be able to run video even if you connected over USB-A. You'd want a dongle that supported USB 3.x data (some only support power and USB 2.0), and you'd need the DisplayLink software installed on your HP system, AND you wouldn't be able to charge your HP system through its USB-A port, but otherwise you'd be fine. DisplayLink's indirect technology does come with some drawbacks, but those may not be worth getting into here. If on the other hand the dock uses DisplayPort Alt Mode, then you would be stuck. That is the more common mechanism for handling video over USB-C since it involves tapping into a native GPU output wired to the USB-C port. That sidesteps the software requirement and drawbacks of DisplayLink, but it does mean you need to use a system with USB-C port that supports native video output. USB-A ports never had that capability, and in fact not even all systems with USB-C ports support video output over them since that is an optional feature of USB-C.

EhsanE · Answer

Hi Jphughan,

Thanks for the detailed explanation about the docking station.

I have D3100 docking station but the USB A to B cable is short so I need to replace that with a longer one. I was thinking of getting a USB C to B instead of A to B, since USB C is backward compatible. Do you think it will work without compromising any features?

Thanks!

Latitude

Dell D3100 connect with adapter

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