Dell D820 and Docking Station troubles problems with vista ultimate

Howdy,

I have a Dell d820, docking station, and monitor stand. I am running Vista ultimate.

My problems are two-fold:

• Hot docking does not work. If I take my laptop out while it's running and open the screen, it is blank, and it never comes back. Pulling it out while asleep results in similar issues. The only reliable way to dock and undock is to shut down completely.
• The ethernet port on the dock sometimes stops working. It allows me to connect with "limited access" i.e. no internet. If I take the laptop out of the dock, unplug the ethernet cable from the dock and plug it directly to my computer, the connection always works.

I have the latest updates and drivers for my computer. How can I solve these problems?

Alternatively, if these issues are not solvable, please suggest another brand of laptops that dock and undock without issues. Proper docking is a high priority for me, and I would buy another laptop and docking station if it meant docking works as it should.

Thanks!
David

 

I solved problem #1 by installing Windows XP. Apparently Vista uses a new window/monitor manager (TWM if I remember correctly) that, ironically, cannot handle docking and undocking as well as the one in XP. Now my monitor settings are quickly and automatically adjusted depending on the physical state of my laptop.

My ethernet port still goes out intermittently. This has happened under Vista, XP, and Ubuntu 9.10. It seems to be a hardware problem specific to my laptop or network environment.

As a side note, docking support in Ubuntu is even worse than that in Vista. There is no sound, second monitor, or automatic adjustment of monitor settings.

 

I have a D630 and a D830 that I use with PR-01X docking stations, and Windows Vista Business. I have none of the problems that you describe. The only issue I have with docking and undocking is related to the video; occasionally, the laptop's video will not properly detect the DVI-D-attached display (a Dell 2005fpw or a Dell 2408WFP), and thus, will display the docking station's display with 640x480, or some other weird resolution.

I know the D620/D820s are slightly different laptops than the D630/D830 architechturally, but the Ethernet issue is bizarre. My laptop automatically turns off the wireless Ethernet as soon as the machine is plugged into a docking station with Ethernet attached (but doesn't replicate such behaviour when Ethernet is not attached to the docking station, *or* if I just plug the Ethernet into the laptop without the docking station.).