If your Operating System is WinXP

Boot the computer without docking it.

You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure.

1. Open System in Control Panel. 
2. On the Hardware tab, click Hardware Profiles
3. Under Available hardware profiles, click the Docking hardware profile and Delete it.

Now shut the system down.  Dock it and power it back up.  It will recreate the docking profile.

What if the oeprating system is Windows 7?

What if the oeprating system is Windows 7?

Windows 7 does not have hardware profiles like Win XP.

Our probelm turned out to be a software pacakge that was installed for VPN'ing into our network.

Name of the software is Check Point. Once we upgraded/put in the fix I haven't been having any issues. 

AJ,

Is the e6520 using the combination intel-Nvidia video card setup?

We have been chasing a blue screen issue on e6520 and e6420's but only with the Nvidia card combo since Dec 2011.  We have a dozen or so e6220, e6320 and e6420 but only with the Intel-based and those systems are fine.

All e6420 and e6520 with the combo intel-nvidia card has bluescreened for us.  Both on and off the dock.  Dell stock images, hand built, drivers upgraded/downgraded.   You name it - we did it.  All windows 7 64bit.

Our blue screens are almost always nvidia-related in error, but we feel its connected to sound problem.  We can crash by simply playing music, or running a combination of audio-competing applications like communicator, skype, gotomeeting, media players, etc.   It doesn't happen immediately nor can we force it to happen.  It just takes us by surprise and will happen randomly to people.

Our systems will crash with either nvlddmkm.sys or dxgmms1.sys, always with the same stop code of 0x7F.

We are currently chasing different options with the IDT driver and sound playback devices with isolated success.  But we have just started this method a few days ago.

I have been experiencing the BSOD's on this line of laptops since the beginning of the year.  All of my laptops are running Windows 7 32-bit. 

My observations include:

- an Immediate BSOD when booting up while docked when using the Display Port connection to the monitors.
- random BSOD's when using both DVI ports to connect to the monitors.
- I have a 32Gb PNY flash drive that has caused two of these laptops to Blue Screen when I plug it in.  I have since refrained from doing so.
- One laptop has been replaced because the external video was "distorted".  Random pixels on the screen were displaying different shades and looked like a person had wiped their fingers across the screen.  According to Dell Tech support, there was a problem with "static discharge" that was causing a short in the video card.
- I have another one that the laptop display is "distorted".  Random pixels are flickering, but the external display is OK.  Dell is replacing the screen, updating the drivers did not help.

I have stopped most of the random BSOD's by disconnecting DVI-2 and plugging the second monitor into the VGA port.

With the amount of problems that I am experiencing with this laptop model, I wonder if they are defective?