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    x230T and mini dock series 3

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by rthur, Nov 14, 2013.

  1. rthur

    rthur Notebook Enthusiast

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    I ordered a mini dock plus series 3, thinking that seeing as it can be modified to fit the x220t I should be able to get it to work with the x230t.

    After removing the rubber piece and the sliding bit as per this thread, there are still a couple of issues.

    The laptop is wobbly - I believe this is due to the fact that the feet on the 6 cell battery extend past the end of the dock. I've added some rubber pieces in between the dock and the battery and it seems to have fixed the issue.

    The USB ports don't work at all. I've tried updating all my drivers, but I can't seem to get any of them to work. I'm running windows 8.1.
    Could this possibly be because I have the non USB3 version of the dock? The lenovo website is vastly inconsistent, but the x230 doesn't seem to be listed as compatible with the non USB3 mini dock. I might try booting on a live version of linux to see if it's a driver issue.

    I can confirm that the audio, power and ethernet work correctly. I haven't been able to test the display ports or the esata port thoroughly, but at first glance a single monitor can be plugged in either via DVI or Displayport. I don't have second monitor on hand to test if three displays can work simultaneously (2 Displayport/DVI and the laptop screen), but I'll test it tomorrow.

    UPDATE: The dock's USB ports do not work in Linux or in the bios, so it seems like a more serious issue.
     
  2. rthur

    rthur Notebook Enthusiast

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    UPDATE: I've tested out several different docks, and here's what working / not working if anyone else is planning on doing the same.

    USB: Not working
    Ethernet: Working
    Power: Working
    Esata: Untested
    DisplayPort and DVI 1: Not working
    DisplayPort and DVI 2: Working
    Audio out: Working
    Line in: Working
    VGA: Untested

    In regards to using multiple monitors - I was able to get two external monitors working by using the DisplayPort port 2 on the dock, and the laptop's DisplayPort and by updating to the latest video drivers (The generic Intel ones). I wasn't able to get the laptop display to work alongside the two external ones, but I believe it may be as I was using DisplayPort -> DVI adapters as per this faq.