T61 not booting from Advanced Mini-Dock: Anyone else?

I'm having a problem with my T61 and Dock too. If I try to power on the T61 while docked via the dock power button, the computer freezes immediately and indefinitely on the Lenovo startup screen. There are no issues starting up normally. Anyone run into anything like this? Any advice? Looks like a call to Lenovo may be in order...

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UPDATE: Hey everyone! GREAT NEWS!

After I got home I hooked my dock back up, and individually, 1 device at a time, hooked all my items into the Advanced Mini-Dock.

I THINK I found the problem!!! I got EVERYTHING to work perfectly... I even got my Belkin Thumb Mini Hub (Self Powered) to work! The ONLY thing that didn't work was when I booted the computer on WITH my external Seagate Hard Drive powered on before the Laptop was. If I turned it off before I booted the PC, everything works! In fact, if I tuned the Hard Drive off WHILE the Thinkpad screen was frozen, the laptop continued to boot! So basically the Hard Drive can stay plugged in on boot, it just cant be powered on. Based on someone else's issue with an externally powered USB drive also not working, I think we can safely come to a conclusion that the Advanced Mini-Hub does not like "powered" USB devices to be "on" while cold booting. For me, this is ok.. I can just turn my external Hard Drive off when needed as I use it for occasional backups... this might be a deal killer for others.

Im curious if maybe a stronger wattage/voltage AC Adapter would fix this issue, or if its something else all together?

Eitherway, I'm SOOO stoked that all is working well again. (Outside of my fan still needing to be fixed from rubbing up against a wire)

As an added Bonus, I'm also happy to say that I have Vista Ultimate installed on my T61 (with NVIDIA) and when I dock and undock the resolution outmatically goes back and forth between the 1440x900 native of my Thinkpad and the native 1680x1050 of my 22" External LCD! I couldn't be happier! I was seconds away from RMAing this machine... glad I took the time to test Too bad Lenovo support couldn't figure this out on their own... but thats a whole other joke...errr, I mean story.

Hope this is of help to many!

 

This problem has been documented by a few other people. Here is a link to a thread about it.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=44341

 

Did you call? What did they say? I plan on getting the advanced mini dock. I'm assuming I'll have trouble to so I'm interested in the fix. Please post back.

 

Just got off the phone after spending almost 2 hours with IBM/Lenovo support. Long story short, it's not the dock, and it's not Vista (at least the initial problem isn't) While docked and powered off, I try to turn the laptop on via the dock and T61 and it just freezes immediately on the initial Thinkpad screen forever. It doesn't even get a chance to get to the OS. Its not the dock because I had 2 brand new docks in my possession to try, and both did the same. So the tech tells me its the system board and or the the dock connector on the system board.

Long story short, because I already had a service call in for the fan to get fixed, he just suggested I call Lenovo Sales in the morning and ask for an exchange for a new system vs opening the system out and basically swapping all the parts. He also hesitantly told me I could ask for a full refund if I wanted. If the wait time is going to be another 2 weeks, I may just get a full refund for everything, wait for the new 14.1" Dell Inspiron 1420 to be released in a week or so and call it a day.

Anyways... thats the story for the moment.

 

lemon it...i wouldnt bother anymore. use it until you get a new machine, then return it on their bill.

 

Thats the game plan! Very frustrating though.. especially since its my very 1st Thinkpad ever

 

Someone else mentioned having the same problem I had because of a certain USB hub he had plugged into the dock. Any other people experience issues with particular USB devices plugged into the dock?

 

do the problems stop when you unplug the hub?

 

I'm not home right now so I can't try it. I personally only had only 2 things plugged in via USB... an External Seagate 300GB Hard drive (which was on) and a MS Microsoft Adapter for a wireless external keyboard and mouse. I didn't think to boot without those devices in only because I figured there should be no issues with USB devices plugged in to a dock because... well , isnt that the point of a dock?

I will admit that it was dumb on my part not to at least try it without the USB devices... but that goes to show you how smart Lenovo/IBM support is because they didn't suggest it either.

I actually can't wait to go home to at least try it!

 

regardless, you are right, its stupid because it should work with all those devices plugged in. at least it might point you in the right direction.

 

Did you tell tech support that this problem had been occurring to other people? It seems that everyone who has the advanced mini dock has these problems. I'm sensing a recall on either the docks or t61's in the future.

 

UPDATE: Hey everyone! GREAT NEWS!

After I got home I hooked my dock back up, and individually, 1 device at a time, hooked all my items into the Advanced Mini-Dock.

I THINK I found the problem!!! I got EVERYTHING to work perfectly... I even got my Belkin Thumb Mini Hub (Self Powered) to work! The ONLY thing that didn't work was when I booted the computer on WITH my external Seagate Hard Drive powered on before the Laptop was. If I turned it off before I booted the PC, everything works! In fact, if I tuned the Hard Drive off WHILE the Thinkpad screen was frozen, the laptop continued to boot! So basically the Hard Drive can stay plugged in on boot, it just cant be powered on. Based on someone else's issue with an externally powered USB drive also not working, I think we can safely come to a conclusion that the Advanced Mini-Hub does not like "powered" USB devices to be "on" while cold booting. For me, this is ok.. I can just turn my external Hard Drive off when needed as I use it for occasional backups... this might be a deal killer for others.

Im curious if maybe a stronger wattage/voltage AC Adapter would fix this issue, or if its something else all together?

Eitherway, I'm SOOO stoked that all is working well again. (Outside of my fan still needing to be fixed from rubbing up against a wire)

As an added Bonus, I'm also happy to say that I have Vista Ultimate installed on my T61 (with NVIDIA) and when I dock and undock the resolution outmatically goes back and forth between the 1440x900 native of my Thinkpad and the native 1680x1050 of my 22" External LCD! I couldn't be happier! I was seconds away from RMAing this machine... glad I took the time to test Too bad Lenovo support couldn't figure this out on their own... but thats a whole other joke...errr, I mean story.

Hope this is of help to many!