I use a Dell Latitude D820 laptop, which I love. One of the few things that doesn’t work in Windows Vista correctly, on my laptop, is hot-docking and undocking. Sometimes it freezes, but most of the time, the display won’t work right. I do have two external monitors hooked up to my docking station, which isn’t a very commonly used configuration, and probably explains why nobody discovered this problem in testing.
It’s probably a driver problem, which means it’s Dell’s fault, rather than Microsoft’s. It’s no difference to me whose fault it is, though, it’s still a pain.
To work around this, I put the computer in Sleep mode before docking or undocking. Then, it docks and undocks fine. To go to sleep, click Start, and then click that 0-looking button. I’ve changed the power settings so that the power button puts my computer to sleep.
I also use a D820 – nice machine – but the upgrade to Vista has been a pain. There seems to be an issue(?) in that there is no longer a hardware profile whereby I can disable and enable devices like the “wired NIC” and the “wireless NIC” depending on the docked or undocked state of the PC. I have experienced the system trying to use both network access methods while docked – that sucked. I found a work-around by using the wireless access method all the time. But that sucks too because it is slower than the wired access method. I also have trouble with the 20″ widescreen display. Dell’s website is of no use – just like their tech support. They are also slower than molasses in releasing drivers for Vista on the D820. Do you know of any other solutions to any of the above? Thanks and regards, Jim
I have the same issue with a D620 Dell should get it’s act together. Intel has a display driver update but it doesn’t work on the Dell.
I called Dell to complain and they sent out a guy with a new motherboard no help.
Thanks so much! I have an Acer Travelmate C314xmi, and was experiencing the same problem with Vista freezing when docking, but then returning fine if I undocked, and telling me the undock was complete.
Putting it to sleep prior to docking allowed it to dock just fine! Hopefully sleeping will help it undock correctly too.