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September 7th, 2020 20:00
Vostro 5490, fully compatible with any dock?
Hello everyone. I've been reading the Vostro 5490 user guide and also the W19/D6000/etc docks documentation to see if I can connect at least two external FHD screens, but, I confess, I was unable to identify if there is compatibility between my new laptop and any dock station model from Dell to do this (in addition to the dock also charging the laptop battery, of course, by USB-C DP/PD connector). I was also quite surprised not to find the Vostro 5490 in the list of compatible computers in the documentation for the Dell docks, but I still believe in miracles. So, could someone help me solve this? Thank you guys and stay safe.
jphughan
9 Legend
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14K Posts
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September 7th, 2020 22:00
@Zielpunkt The D6000 is a "universal" dock, because it will work with any system that has DisplayLink "indirect display" software installed -- although it will only charge systems that actually support that. So it doesn't have an official compatibility list, because that would even include non-Dell and even non-Windows systems. However, since DisplayLink has drawbacks that can be significant in some use cases, I don't recommend it in your case, since your system supports USB-C DisplayPort Alt Mode, which means you can use docks that tap into that native GPU output instead, such as the Dell WD19.
The reason the WD19 doesn't list Vostro systems as "fully supported" is because that designation is reserved for systems that support some of the specialized features that can be used with that dock, which I'll get to in a moment. All of them require firmware-level support from the attached system, and at least for now, Dell seems to be including that only in Latitude, Precision, and XPS systems, while leaving the Inspiron, Vostro, and Alienware systems out in the cold. However, if you don't care about those features and just want the standard functionality, you don't have to worry about it. The specialized features include such as MAC Address Passthrough, PXE Boot, and the ability to use the dock's Power button to control the system. If you don't know what the first two are, don't worry about them. That last one is admittedly a nice perk, and it's irritating that Dell hasn't implemented support for using the dock's Power button with other systems, but at least for now, that isn't possible -- and it won't be possible from other docks either. There's no industry standard for an external Power button (as of this writing), so that's just something you won't be able to use with that system, no matter what dock you get.
But again, if you just want standard dock functionality, such as video output, system charging, USB, Ethernet, audio, etc., the WD19 will be able to deliver that even with systems not on its list. My wife uses a WD19 with a Lenovo laptop, for example. Getting standard functionality out of a WD19 just requires a system with a USB-C port that supports USB 3.x, video output, and system charging. Looking at the specs of the Vostro 5490, its USB-C port definitely supports USB 3.1 Gen 1 and DisplayPort Alt Mode (video output), but it's not clear whether it supports charging. The product page mentions support for Power Delivery, but that's ambiguous because USB PD can supply power in both directions, and not all systems support using that spec in both directions. If you want to test it out, plug a 45W or higher USB-C power source into your system and see if it charges. If it doesn't support charging via USB-C, you won't damage anything, but it also means that no USB-C dock will be able to charge your system that way either. But if it DOES support USB-C charging, note that the specs of the Vostro 5490 indicate that it can come with either a 45W or 65W adapter. The difference probably depends on whether your system has an NVIDIA GPU. Check the wattage of the adapter that came with your system. You'd ideally want a dock that provides at least that amount of power. The regular WD19 130W can supply up to 90W of power to the attached system (so you don't need the WD19 180W that can supply up to 130W to the system), so you're good there. The D6000 can only supply 60W, though. If your Vostro has a 65W adapter, the 5W shortfall probably won't make a noticeable difference in terms of battery charging speed or performance, but it MIGHT trigger a warning about an undersized power adapter when your system boots -- but that warning can be disabled by pressing a key that will be mentioned in that warning.
But regardless of what happens with charging, your system will be able to run dual FHD displays through a "native GPU" USB-C dock like the WD19. But that's as high as you'll be able to go, due to bandwidth limitations on USB-C and the fact that your system's GPU only supports DisplayPort HBR2, not the newer HBR3 standard. If you want to go with higher-end display setups, such as dual QHD or triple anything, that actually WOULD make a case for the D6000, since one of the perks of its DisplayLink technology is that since it transmits video as compressed USB data, it can run more and higher resolution displays than would normally be possible. It can also exceed the maximum display limit of your GPU (which is 3), because the displays aren't technically driven by the GPU. But again, that has its drawbacks, which I've written about in the post marked in the answer here.
I realize that was probably a lot to digest, so here's the bottom line:
Hopefully this helps!
DELL-Cares
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September 7th, 2020 20:00
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Zielpunkt
4 Posts
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September 8th, 2020 07:00
@jphugan, first of all, I believe Dell should pay for your posts, which turn into effective lessons about their products and are certainly much (much) more enlightening and didactic than the answers given by Dell support employees. In my case, I intend to use 2 FHD displays for office tasks because I know that dock stations don't currently offer acceptable image quality and performance for anything else (rendering, games or videos). For example, I have a desktop workstation where I use applications like Altium Designer and Solidworks and on it I have 3 Samsumg U28E590D 4K displays with Nvidea Quadro K1200 DP graphics card, which gives me results I would never expect from a laptop like my Vostro 5490 and any dock. Returning to the subject, I understood perfectly your excellent explanation about the video technologies used in a D6000 and W19 and its implications and restrictions in each case. So, the W19 should be my choice, as it adapts correctly to the GPU output via USB-C and easily drives at least 2 common FHD displays. As for the Vostro 5490 accepting or not being powered/charged by USB-C/PD, I will try to find a suitable charger for this test, but it will not be easy (I live in Brazil, where nothing is very easy or cheap...). Even so, I will also try to get a specific and objective answer from Dell about this (yes, I know, they are watching us this moment). In conclusion, I believe it is clear to many people that Dell does not offer enough documentation for the user to understand for himself whether a simple USB-C connector can be used to power/charge the system. And this is not a problem exclusive to Dell and it seems to me that technology companies, in general, do not mind delegating the task of writing manuals to inexperienced people. Thank you so much for the free training and your time, @jphugan! I will keep you informed about results.
jphughan
9 Legend
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14K Posts
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September 8th, 2020 08:00
@Zielpunkt Thanks for the kind words! I've worked in various IT roles over the years, and I'm a tech hobbyist in general, so contributing to forums like this is sort of my "pro bono" work to help do some good in the world.
In terms of your post, first you should understand that a dock does NOT inherently have an adverse effect on image quality. The D6000 is a special case since it uses DisplayLink, which uses compression and therefore can introduce compression artifacts and motion judder, as I explained in the thread I linked. But the WD19 relies on a native GPU output from the USB-C port, which is literally just a DisplayPort interface from the GPU with the pins physically arranged differently to suit a USB-C connector rather than a DisplayPort connector. So connecting displays through a WD19 or any other dock would be exactly the same as connecting a display to a DisplayPort or HDMI output on a laptop. (For systems with discrete GPUs, there's an additional question of which GPU controls the output, which can have some impact on available technologies, but that's a larger discussion -- which I wrote up in the post marked as the answer in this thread if you're really curious -- but even that doesn't affect image quality.) But it is absolutely possible to use dock-connected displays for rendering, games, etc. People do it all the time and have done for years, because again as long as you're tapping into a native GPU output rather than using "indirect display" technology like DisplayLink, the dock is no different from connecting a display directly to the system.
That said, your Vostro 5490 simply doesn't offer the GPU outputs needed to drive triple 4K displays. But that's not the fault of any dock. It's just that the system doesn't offer the needed outputs.
In terms of Dell's specs not being very detailed, I've raised that very issue with an internal Dell Support contact, who has been able to get that feedback to the Documentation team. The ambiguity around "Power Delivery" is one of those issues, and the other is the supported DisplayPort revision on USB-C, since Dell often just mentions "DisplayPort". The revision matters because it affects how much video bandwidth is available and therefore the types of display setups that can be run through a dock. And it seems that things may be changing for the better. For example, the recently launched XPS 15 9500 and XPS 17 9700 have specs that specifically mention DisplayPort 1.2 or DisplayPort 1.4 rather than just DisplayPort. (Unfortunately the DisplayPort support spec for the XPS 15 9500 is incorrect on one of its ports and the spec for the XPS 17 9700 is incomplete since it doesn't account for the effect of a special BIOS mode, but at least Dell is trying to move in the right direction here, I suppose.)
Zielpunkt
4 Posts
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September 8th, 2020 12:00
@jphughan, thanks again for your attention, you can believe you have been doing a great job. It became even more clear to me the issues of reproduction of the video signals that the docks can deal, also due to the video stage architecture/composition of the laptops in general. As I said I would, few minutes ago I had a chat with Brazilian's Dell Support and its "expert" also had a lot of difficulty in giving me an assertive answer regarding the USB-C/PD being able to charge/power my Vostro 5490. I will not transcribe the conversation here, as it is relatively long, but in the end he said he "believes" that I won't have a problem with that and also that if I buy the W19 and it doesn't charge/power my laptop, Dell would accept its return. He also said he will recommend that more consistent information on this matter be added to Dell's documentation. Let's wait to see. So, as I received a copy of that chat by email and this commitment stated in it, I'm going to buy W19 dock station. When receiving and testing, I will report the results. Regards.
Fabulinux
1 Message
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November 24th, 2021 17:00
Hi @Zielpunkt , have you bought the WD19 in the end? Does it work with the Vostro 5490? Does it charge the laptop just fine? I have the same laptop and wondered if buying the WD19 was worth it or not. Thanks!
Zielpunkt
4 Posts
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January 1st, 2022 08:00
Hi @Fabulinux, sorry for the big delay in replying, too many things to deal with in a short time. In the end, I didn't buy the WD19 because I reassessed the cost against the risks and concluded that it wasn't essential for me. So unfortunately I can't help you at this point, but keep me posted if you buy it. Good luck and Happy New Year.
roztocilm
1 Message
0
January 6th, 2023 06:00
The specialized features include such as MAC Address Passthrough, PXE Boot, and the ability to use the dock's Power button to control the system. If you don't know what the first two are, don't worry about them. That last one is admittedly a nice perk, and it's irritating that Dell hasn't implemented support for using the dock's Power button with other systems, but at least for now, that isn't possible -- and it won't be possible from other docks either. There's no industry standard for an external Power button (as of this writing), so that's just something you won't be able to use with that system, no matter what dock you get.
Just for case if anybody wants to buy this Dell USB-C dock. I confirm that combo Dell WD 19TBS + Dell VOSTRO 5471 (i5, VGA Intel + Radeon 530) can 100% work together, even the poweroff button works. There were some updates for USB-C during last two years, so I maybe it has been resolved with theme. I was worried about it before I buy that dock. So everything is great. KR