Experiences with T61/T61p Advanced Mini Dock?

I am curious about people's experiences with using their T61 or T61p with Lenovo's advanced mini dock (part number 250410U). I'd love to know if it is generally a simple, flawless user experience, or if it can cause headaches. Specifically:

1) How is the DVI connector? Any issues with using dual displays? Any video bandwidth or compatibility problems using an external, 1600x1200 DVI display simultaneously with laptop's internal WSXGA+ LCD?

2) Any problems hot-docking (warm-docking) or undocking a T61/T61p? Ie. can you connect a powered-on system to the dock and have it start working with a dual monitor setup, or are you required to power off the laptop before docking it (as is required with the advanced dock)? Do you have to perform manual steps to get dual screens working every time you undock and dock again (particularly if you are using Windows XP)?

3) Any glitches or stability issues with system hardware (sound, video, network, etc.) when docking/undocking? Any general stability or thermal issues using the advanced mini dock?

Basically, I'm accustomed to leaving my T61p powered on almost all the time, and am only interested in the advanced mini dock if I can dock and undock from it without powering down my laptop, and without causing hardware or stability issues. If anyone is doing this already without any issues, or if you've tried it and encountered issues, I'd really love to hear about it in detail!

 

Fignuts, good thorough opening for a thread, and I'd like to know the answers to his questions as well. If anyone does have any information or even pictures of how big the dock is in respect to the notebook, that'd be helpful too.

 

Well i can't awnser your questions about the dual displays seeing as I have only used the dock to hook up to my desktop monitor once. When i did it automatically detected and I was ready to go is seconds.

As for hot swapping yes you can I always just plop my T61p into the dock without shuting it down and I undock it the same way. there is a little button you push that allows your laptop to undock safety. all you do is push the button wait mabey a second and undock very quick and easy.

I have had zero stability issues thus far.

I'll post pics in a few mintues.

 

Cool, thanks jooooeee! Your account really helps alleviate my concerns about getting one, it sounds like it'll work just as I hoped it would (unlike a number of other recent gadget purchases I've made!).

 

Okay here are a bunch of pics

 

Awesome, thanks and kudos for providing what is no doubt the authoritative collection of shots of the advanced mini dock! Your pictures do a great job of showing lots of important things, like the arrangement of the ports, the clearances for the laptop ventilation ports, and the docking/undocking buttons you mentioned. The one question your pictures raised for me is related to the fact that the 15.1" widescreen T61/T61p shown is obviously wider than the docking station, and noticeably overhangs over the right hand side of the dock while it is docked. It looks like it's not nearly enough of an overhang to cause any issues, but have you ever had any "tipping" problems, like if you rested your hand on the far right hand side? I'm sure it would take a purposeful effort to cause the docked laptop to tip over, but I just want to make sure.

 

No I have never had it tip over on me, the front edge of the laptop sits on the desk so that keeps it very stable.

 

Oh, and one last question--can the power adapter that plugs into the mini-dock be used with the laptop as well, or is it a different connector? It looks like it could be the same connector (which would make total sense, but it wouldn't be the first time that Lenovo used a different power supply for a dock than for the laptops that use it).

 

Good work, I'm also considering buying one of these or a 9 cell battery, its a tie right now. If anybody knows a good place to get one of these cheap or a battery in that matter I'd appreciate it.

Again nice work on the pictures.

 

It is the same connector in fact it is the exact same power supply i have used it for traveling several times.

 

You can get a semi cheap mini dock on Amazon $149 instead of $219

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000BYA5NC/ref=dp_olp_2/104-9935694-4125525

 

Nice. Confirmed my decision to get one in the near future. Assumed it was way larger on the Lenovo site. Thanks.

 

Anyone know if the Amazon offering comes with a power supply? It doesn't mention an included power supply anywhere on the page, and that they suggest buying it with a seperate 90W adapter for another $56 seems to imply it doesn't. The ones on ebay at least seem to specify that they include a power supply.

 

Okay well the first dealer on Amazon seems to in fact include the 90W AC adapter

Here is the link to their page
http://www.pcuniverse.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Advanced-Mini-Dock-Port-replicator/250410U/pd/p3381605

 

Heh, thanks for the help ...I promise it's that I'm just tired and not lazy! I've placed my order with 'em via Amazon, thanks again for all your help. NBR ftw!

 

I just got it a couple of hours ago (hurrah for "UPS Ground" shipping that only takes one day!), I'm loving it so far. My shipment from pcUniverse contained the advanced mini dock, power supply, keys, and manuals, all packaged nicely in a security-sealed box that looks like it came straight from Lenovo's manufacturing facility in Mexico. I had no issues at all with hot-docking my laptop and getting my WSXGA+ desktop extended to my 1600x1200 external LCD monitor via the DVI port (though I did have to set it up manually in the nVidia control panel, that's to be expected). I'm going to try to put it through its paces with docking/undocking before casting my vote in the poll in this thread, but it's definitely looking good so far!

 

Those using the advanced mini dock - do you have any issues at all with getting audio outputed (to external speakers/tv) from the SPDIF port on the dock ?

 

There's no SPDIF port on the advanced mini dock, I think you're thinking of the advanced dock?

 

Nope, there actually is an SPDIF coax out on the right side of the advanced mini right next to the lock slot. I didn't know what it was when I first got mine either, but apparently you can output a standard SPDIF signal to a compatible receiver and it *should* work fine. Haven't tried it personally though.

On-topic though, I've had one of these docks for several months now and I have to say it's been one of the best purchases I've made for my desk. It's made life so much easier when it comes to taking the lappy somewhere or for when I get home. As far as the dock itself goes, everything works perfectly and I couldn't really ask for much better (well, aside from maybe swapping the VGA on the dock for a DVI-I port).

 

Interesting, I thought that was just a regular video-out coax! I even made it a point to go check the listed specs for each one, to make sure I was right...ah well. Neato.

 

One thing that I found out recently is that if you lose power while docked the whole laptop loses power. But Lenovo came out with a fix recently through BIOS update and if you go into BIOS and disable the serial and parallel port then if you lose power the battery will take over.

 

Fantastic information, agilpwc, thanks! That's one of those things I could certainly live without finding out about by surprise. Here's a link to Lenovo's list of T61/T61p BIOS fixes by version...the issue you mentioned seems to have been fixed in BIOS version 7LETB0WW (2.10-1.08). The BIOS instructions also recommend only installing the BIOS update while undocked.

 

I did a quick test (with BIOS version 2.14-1.08) with support for "legacy devices" enabled in the the BIOS dock configuration section, and if I pulled out the dock AC power cable, my laptop froze/locked up completely. Plugging AC power back in again did not revive the system. After disabling support for legacy devices in the BIOS dock configuration section, I was able to unplug AC power from the dock without locking up the laptop. Good to keep in mind if you're using the advanced mini dock!

 

So after using the Advanced Mini Dock for a bit over a week, I've finally cast my vote in the poll. I really wanted to vote for "Great user experience, no problems at all", but I had to go with the "Usable, but can cause problems" option" because it's a little more accurate. Overall I am very pleased with my purchase, and it's a great user experience. However, I've encountered a few notable problems while using it:

1) If you don't specifically disable legacy device support in the BIOS before docking it, AC power loss while docked will completely, irrecoverably lock up your T61p. This doesn't happen once you change the BIOS setting. I felt this was a mistake in Lenovo's BIOS team's decision for selecting a default BIOS value that puts the user at greater risk for data loss, without adequately explaining that.

2) If you use dual-screen with the second screen as a non-primary monitor, and you undock with a dialog box open on the second monitor, it may not properly move to the primary (laptop) display. In my case, I accidentally undocked while using Paint Shop Pro, with a "Save As" dialog box open on my second monitor. Until I figured out what happened later on, it appeared that the application had locked up, and I was entirely unable to access it in any way to save my changes. This could have resulted in data loss, if I hadn't re-docked to see if that's what had happened.

3) When undocking/redocking, the dual monitor setup is frequently not reapplied automatically. It's really not too much of a hassle, but most of the time I re-dock my laptop, I have to manually reconfigure the dual desktop display. Since I use my laptop display as a primary display, but have my secondary monitor on the left side of my screen, I have to make the dual monitor change in nVidia's control panel, then use Windows' display control panel to move the secondary display to the correct position. It's a bit cumbersome and something that a novice might not figure out...setting the position of the secondary monitor is something that should be included in nVidia's driver configuration panel.

Aside from these specific issues, all of which are easy to fix once one is aware of them, I've had no issues with using the advanced mini dock. It's pretty cool, and I'd certainly recommend it. With the included spare 90W power supply, getting it for ~$150 from a third party seems like a great deal to me! It's made my life a ton easier.

 

Ugh, I just had my docked T61p freeze up completely, exactly like how it did while it was docked and AC power was removed while "legacy device support" was enabled in the BIOS. However, AC power was not removed or otherwise interrupted, and I'm running the latest BIOS with "legacy device support" disabled. I was using it totally normally, wasn't doing anything even remotely strange (like installing applications or drivers), and it wasn't running hot or anything, it just locked up. I lost some data because of it, but nothing too important...this time. This is the first time this has happened (unintentionally), and it's never "locked up" once in the seven months before I started using the dock. It could be coincidence, I dunno...has anyone else using the advanced mini dock had any problems with your system freezing up?