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Hi. My question is about the WD-19 (WD19) dock. I’m posting my question under Latitudes because I’m considering using a WD-19 with a Latitude 5590 - but it would apply equally to other 'Dell compatible laptops'. I’ve seen posts relating to the number of monitors that can be attached to the dock – but my question is about the power button. I’m hoping someone who has experience of using the dock with a ‘Dell compatible laptop’ (such as the 5590) can tell me if the power button on the dock will switch on (power up) the laptop even if the laptop is completing turned off and the lid is closed. The documentation implies that it will – but in a conversation I had with dell on chat I was told that the power button would only wake up the laptop if it were asleep or hibernating. I’m hoping someone knows for sure. Thanks. Chris.
Jesse L (retired)
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Posted December 15th, 2020 04:00
Tasmanie,Please allow us some time to review this issue and get back to you soon.Jesse L (retired)
Jesse L (retired)
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Posted December 15th, 2020 06:00
Tasmanie,There is nothing in the online WD19TB User's Guide that states that the power button should turn off when connecting to the power adapter. The only time it is off is if the power adapter is disconnected. Click here for information on the dock.Jesse L (retired)
Jesse L (retired)
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Posted December 18th, 2020 05:00
Tasmanie,
I hope we have answered your query- please reach out to us if you need any further assitance or any other query we will be happy to help.
Jesse L (retired)
I just wanted to add - I went ahead and bought the Latitude 5590 with the WD-19 - and I'm very pleased to say that the power button does indeed turn om the laptop, even if it is completely off and not just asleep. So - just like you said. Without your help I might have believed what I was told by Dell Chat and not gone ahead with the purchase - so I rekcon Dell owe you one
@Chris-W thanks for the follow-up and the kind words! Glad it's performing as advertised and as you'd hoped it would. As for the bad answer from Dell Support, they're expected to field a broad range of questions about a broad range of products, so even though in this particular case the answer was available in the manual, as a general statement, that breadth means that when a question about a specific product is asked and the answer relies on understanding some underlying technical concepts, they might not always have enough depth of knowledge about that concept or how it's implemented in that specific product to answer correctly. By comparison, people like me on this forum get to pick and choose the threads that we want to jump into based on the ones that align with our expertise and interests.
@SeanObba Looking over the WD19 manual available on support.dell.com, a triple blink is the only listed docking LED indicator behavior, and that means that the dock has started drawing power from the power adapter. So it sounds like it’s working as it should.
Hi, I just got a WD19 (180W) docking station for my Latitude 7490 laptop. Everything works as it should but the only question remains to be answer is; is the power button on docking station suppose to light up when the laptop is on? The light on the power button briefly blinks when I plug in the power cable to the docking station but that's only time I see the power button light comes on. Is my docking station defective?
thank you for that. i saw that too but that just didn't make common sense since that power button is supposed to function identically as the power button on the laptop, i (& the common sense) would expect the same from the LED on that power button. I was wondering if other users with WD 19 see the same.
jphughan
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Posted November 18th, 2019 05:00
The manual is always better than Dell Support reps, whose reliability is shaky at best when dealing with technical questions. From the WD19 User Guide on support.dell.com:
“Sleep/Wake/Power button: The dock power button is designed to replicate your system's power button. If you connect the Dell Docking Station WD19 to supported Dell computers, the dock button works like your computer's power button and you can use it to power on/sleep/force shutdown the computer.”
Yes it will wake supported systems up from full shutdown regardless of lid position. I do this all the time. Supported systems would include at least Latitude, Precision, and XPS systems. Inspiron and Vostro systems are less certain because it seems Dell didn’t implement firmware support for some of this dock’s “bonus” features like an external power button and MAC Address Passthrough into those model lines, at least not all models, even though the regular functions of the dock still work.
You might also find that you have a BIOS option enabled by default that will cause the system to wake up when you simply connect it to the dock. If you don’t want that, look in the BIOS for an option called “Wake on Dell USB-C Dock” and disable it.