Inspiron 8600 vs. Docking Station

Question

The machine is a Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop with xP Home that I purchased maybe three months ago. For home I use the docking station with external keyboard, mouse and an additional 15' LCD display (still use the built-in display as the primary). Soon after I purchased this package I began having a problem.  When the laptop was docked it would not fully boot... it would freeze right after the black Windows loading screen with the animated bargraph.  When booted dockless it would zip right through.   I took matters into my own hands (antivirus, spyware, etc) and then went through a few levels of Dell tech support.  Finally I threw my hands up and just decided to reload Windows.  It didn't fix it.  This was looking like a hardware issue...  ...and then magically the problem solved itself the next day.    Here is the problem, in the past couple of days when I start the computer it HANGS big time. The Windows screen (with the little moving bar) displays pretty much on time, but then there is a five minute hanging black screen until the Windows music plays and the blue XP splash displays. Then there is more black screen, and another minute or two until the mouse pointer shows up... then another minute or two and Explorer loads the icons, startbar, etc. When I shutdown it is a little slower than normal, too. The computer doesn't appear to be 'thinking' during this time, no apparent harddrive activity. I have done the obvious spyware scans (AdAware and SpyBot) and the virus scans have shown nothing (AVG).  So I reinstalled XP Home again, over my current installation hoping that it might iron out any bugs. No dice.   Here is another funny thing.  Windows startes loading, pauses after the black Windows screen and then displays the blue XP splash screen... then pauses again with a black screen and then the mouse pointer appears.  Explorer won't load for another 2-3 minutes, but the mouse pointer is there and I can move it all around.  I can ctrl-alt-delete and get the Task Manager.  After 2-3 minutes my desktop will load with the startbar, icons, etc.   Last clue.  I just installed NERO today so I can do some DVD authoring.  I installed it painlessly then started the program.  Nothing happened... literally.  The program didn't load.  So I reboted the computer and retried.... same thing.  I turned off the laptop, removed it from the dock and rebooted (quickly, whew) and tried to run NERO.  Started right up!  Turned of the laptop, docked it and tried again.... NERO wouldn't load.   ...minutes go by, I forgot that I tried to start it and all of a sudden the NERO splash screen displays along with a prompt saying that NERO is scanning SCSI/IDE ports.  This is a normal prompt, but normally it flashes by so fast I don't notice it.  That prompt stays up for a couple of minutes then NERO loads fully.   Here is my theory.  I think that the dock itself has a problem and it is causing the computer to hang.  Is the dock connected by any kind of SCSI or IDE port?  If not -- I still have strong reason to believe that the port is the root of this problem.  Unfortunately I do not have another dock to test with... and it could also be the laptop's mate with the dock... but at least trying another dock would further pinpoint the problem.   Help me!  This is a bad thing!   Darren   PS: If you have a dock and are in the Portland OR area please email me at darren@meltedmonitor.com

MeltedMonitor · Answer

This is the NERO prompt.  It stays on for 3-4 minutes before the program finally loads.

MeltedMonitor · Answer

Update: Maybe it wasn't the docking station after all.  This morning the hard drive started making grinding noises and I have ordered a warranty replacement through Dell Support.    Darren

MeltedMonitor · Answer

Turns out that editing my BOOT.INI through msconfig.exe solved the problem.  Changed the timeout setting from 30 to 10.

Locked Topics – Laptops General

Was this post helpful?