Precision 7540 with D6000 and Thunderbolt docking stations

@noddy14  I have no idea what a “Thunderbolt 15EB station” is. That definitely isn’t a Dell Thunderbolt dock model. The D6000 requires the DisplayLink software to be installed for full functionality, so you could try getting the latest version of that software from DisplayLink.com if you haven’t already, but there’s no reason that simply connecting to a D6000 would break functionality when you later connect to another dock. I’ve switched between a D6000 and other Dell USB-C/TB3 docks just fine without even rebooting. Maybe also update the D6000 firmware and your system’s BIOS for good measure.

That said, the D6000 is a poor dock choice overall, and especially so for a 7540. The general reason is that the D6000 uses “indirect display” technology called DisplayLink, not to be confused with DisplayPort. That introduces many drawbacks I’ve written about in the post marked as the answer in this thread. And in your system’s case, the D6000 can only provide 60W of power, which is far below what your system is designed to run. The ideal dock choice for that system is the WD19DC, which is a “native GPU” dock and is also able to provide enough power for Precision 7000 Series systems due to the fact that it connects to two USB-C ports. The only other dock that can do that is its predecessor the TB18DC.

Oops, actually it is the WD19TB station that I have, not the WD19DC..

The Thunderbolt station I referred to is the Dell WD19DC. That is the station that gives me the problem. The D6000 works fine all the time.

DO NOT update the BIOS, that is how I got into this black screen issue and can not get out.

@noddy14  Ok, the WD19TB doesn't require any software for video output other than the general Thunderbolt Control Center software and the Intel Graphics drivers that should both be installed anyway.  And the WD19TB's USB ports just rely on a built-in Intel USB controller driver.  Ethernet support is also built in (although updates are available on support.dell.com).

I've never seen an issue like this reported, and I've personally switched my system between a WD19TB and a D6000 without issues.  So if you haven't already, again I'd make sure you're running the latest version of all of this:

• DisplayLink software for the D6000, obtained directly from DisplayLink.com
• WD19TB firmware (obtainable here)
• Intel Thunderbolt firmware, driver, and application for your system (all obtainable here, just search "Thunderbolt" to narrow the list down)
• Make sure you do NOT have the ASMedia USB xHCI driver installed by looking through your Programs and Features list.  That's only used for older Thunderbolt docks and has been known to create weird conflicts with applications, such as Citrix Receiver.
• Normally I would also suggest updating your system BIOS, but if there's some issue with the current 7540 BIOS release as suggested by @Left Handy  above, that might be worth waiting on.  I'm not familiar with that issue, but I don't have any particular reason to be deeply familiar with Precision 7540 BIOS releases either.