C400 docking station video problem

Question

Hello,

We recently installed XP on our C400. It works fine except for when it is put in the docking station. When I power on the system it displays video until after the initial Windows XP loading screen is displayed. After that, the video to the monitor is cut.
Does anyone know how to fix this? It never did this on Windows 2000.

Thanks.

whyworry · Answer

i'm having the exact same problem....  as wella no audio from the speaker jack on the right side of the docking station...   i'm running A03 BIOS...  anyboy have any thoughts?    :smileysad:

ymcasupportguy · Answer

Well, I guess there is a workaround. The Scroll Lock can be used as the function key. So when the video cuts out, do a 'Scroll Lock + F8' to redirect the video.

whyworry · Answer

i found a very long thread (in the forums) that states to use the April 2003 video drivers from Intel (build 3150 it think)...  supposed to be stable with XPSP2...  i haven't tried it yet.....  hope it helps....

ymcasupportguy · Answer

Thanks for the info.

I went looking on Intel's site and this was the closest match I could find. The driver date is 5/1/2003 and the revision history says its 3510 I think.

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df/download.asp?url=/5940/a08/win2k_xp131.exe&ProductID=669

I'll give it a try!

sakols · Answer

Hi,   I had the very same problem.  Here is how i fixed it.   I think the issue is correclty setting the hardware profile for use with the dock.  I got the video to display correctly by booting up in the dock with the lap top display open, and the external monitor plugged in.  After the xp splash screen and your external monitor blanks, look at your laptop display, it will be asking for your log in.  Once logged in toggle FN F8 until you get the video back to your external monitor.  Shut the system down.  This should configure your docked profile.   I still found that the first time rebooting in the dock, the problem repeated, but by the second time all video was going to the external monitor

Spurljl · Answer

Ok, I have installed the latest Video driver from Dell. I have followed the above steps. I can get video as long as I am in the dock. I'm OK out of the dock.

If I shutdown and take my laptop to a meeting or work on it out of the dock, when I return it to the dock. I have the same issue and need to open the laptop lid and then close it, the monitor will pickup the signal.

Per corporate policy I can't roll the video drivers back to an older version. Something about a possible BSOD when a MS security update was rolled out.

Oh, yah. This is on a Win2K SP4 system with the R86397 drivers.

Anyone have anything else I can try.

tasuswm · Answer

Typically when you have a problem seeing video with a docking station it is that the resolution is too high to display on the monitor.  The video diplays in different resolutions when in the docking station and when out.  The easiest way to fix this is to boot into safe mode while in the docking station.  Press the F8 key when Windows first starts and choose Choose enable VGA mode.  You may have to press F8 twice to see the option menu.  This will boot the PC in standard VGA safe mode.  When it finishes booting change the resolution to something your monitor can support 1024x768 usually works great.  Reboot your laptop and you should be good to go.

sakols · Answer

Look down the thread where I explain what I did to fix the problem.  The computer needs to build a 'docked' hardware profile with video configured to the external monitor.   I booted in the dock with the lap top screen up, and saw that the video was switching from the monitor to the laptop.  I think if scroll lock is set as your hot key (look in your bios settings for this) you can use scroll lock and F8 to toggle the video without having to mess with opening the laptop display in the dock

Spurljl · Answer

That would be possible if this was an initial configuration. This issue is repeatable on systems by removing the laptop from the dock and logging in, shut down properly and place laptop back into the dock. At bootup I have the same issue. The only thing that has worked was going back to an older video driver.

Also I am able to use the "Scroll Lock" + F8 to switch the active screen to the monitor.

Spurljl · Answer

I understand what you did. I attempted to follow the same steps, but it did not correct my issue. Also note that this is on a Win2K system.

I just reconfirmed that your above steps still does not correct my issues on a Win2K system with the .3889 driver version

datadog · Answer

I'm having the same problem, only I have a similar issue when the laptop is undocked as well. I'm thinking it might have something to do with the latest video drivers (both from Dell and Microsoft Update), but I can't tell at the moment, cause I can't find an older version of the video drivers to roll back to.

When undocked, I'll have video on the laptop's screen until I log in. A couple of seconds after logging into a profile (any profile) the laptop attempts to switch to the external display, even if one is not attached.

When docked I'll see up to the Windows splash screen, but I won't see the login screen. It's still there, just on the internal display. If I log in (assuming I know which profile it has defaulted to) it will switch to the external display after a couple of seconds. I've tried everything I can think of to thwart this behavior, but I can't seem to find a solution that works.

From what I've seen on these boards, this is not an isolated problem.

I'm running a C400 on Win2K SP4 w/all the latest updates. BIOS A12, and the latest Intel video drivers (either from Windows Update, or the official Dell drivers R99021) It's a very strange and frustrating problem.

datadog · Answer

Alright, I got it working. The problem lies in the latest version of the Intel video drivers. I rolled back to an older version Dell has on their ftp site, and the problem went away. I believe these might be W2K only drivers, but YMMV. ftp://ftp1.us.dell.com/video/IX2K3162.EXE was the file that did the trick. HTH

Empacher · Answer

Hello!!! I lost my Dell Latitude CD and now I can't find a proper VGA driver.I'm using WinXPSP1.Help me,please!!!!Thanks!!!!

Motown Scott · Answer

Try here - this is the link I used. I am running XP Pro.

1. Download and install Intel Video Driver previous version 6.13

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/format.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&SystemID=LAT_PNT_P3_C400&os=WNT5&osl=en&deviceid=1033&devlib=6&category=6&releaseid=R46584

Locked Topics – Laptops General

C400 docking station video problem

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