Lenovo/Docking Station USB

[jer18]

Hi all,

I have a user here with a Lenovo T Series laptop which is about two years old. It uses a ThinkPad docking station, and for the most part works fine.

When returning from vacation and docking the unit, the printer is no longer detected. The printer is an older HP model which connects via IEEE/USB into the docking station. I am able to print successfully only when plugging the USB directly into the laptop. It seems like something is skew with the USB ports on the docking station.

I cannot find the model, but only a serial number. It didn't help in my research on Lenovo's website. I was not able to pull up any drivers/documentation from their online db. Please advise!

TIA.

 

[vacunita]

Is it only the printer that fails? How about a thumb drive? Or an external HD? Any other USB device?

If nothing gets detected through the docking station, then is the USB Root Hub from the docking station being detected? Does it appear in Device Manager under Universal Serial Bus Controllers?

Is there any yellow exclamation point in device manager?

----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Behind the Web, Tips and Tricks for Web Development.

http://behindtheweb.blogspot.com/

 

[goombawaho]

Turn off the ability for the machine to power down usb devices. In power management tab of device manager under the USB ROOT Hubs entries?

 

[jer18]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies, the user has been out of the office and couldn't proceed too well without the PC..

Device manager looks great, no errors or warnings.
I unchecked the turn off power option on all USB hubs.
I also seen some lenovo power management settings where there was a check for turn off usb to save power.

After this I applied settings and closed all windows.

After this change(s) my usb flash drive now works as a test. However the printer still didn't pick up. Any ideas?

 

[jer18]

An update; the flash drive will be detected in any of the USB ports on the docking station. But the printer will not. It's powered on and connected via parallel/usb cable.

 

[trvlr1]

Are you still using the same power brick/cord you were before when it worked? I have no experience with Lenovo, but I have seen Dell docking stations that required a larger capacity brick, than the standard that comes with the laptop.

 

[jer18]

Hi trvlr-
Interesting. Yes, we are using the existing dock and power that had previously worked.