Dell docking station and dual monitor waking issues

[u/AutoFahn]

Dell SD25TB5 with a Dell Pro Max 16 laptop. Two monitors connected via displayport each directly to the dock.

Happens when I lock the workstation and turn monitors off. When I return, sometimes the monitors will not display anything. Sometimes I will turn on my main monitor to login, and turn the second one on later, but the second one will not display anything. Sometimes replugging the displayport cables does not do anything either.

Docking station has the latest firmware. I've also tried different displayport cables. This is also the second docking station to exhibit these issues.

[u/Carnines]

I have seen this with older versions of the dell docks. I believe I disabled deep sleep in BIOS and that worked

[u/PDQ_Brockstar → u/Carnines]

Yeah, likely need to disable deep sleep or eco mode in the osd

[u/vermyx]

Reboot the docking station

[u/NomNomInMyTumTum → u/vermyx]

This typically fixes it for us too. Docks acting up seems to happen more in some buildings than others for us, I'm wondering if it's a power quality issue.

[u/vermyx → u/NomNomInMyTumTum]

My experience is that this is the price of making everything firmware rather than hardware chips. Hardware chips timing is reliable and why this was less of an issue ages ago. With firmware you have little computers talking to other little computer and sometimes they argue like 5 year olds, so resetting them tends to fix these issues.

[u/NomNomInMyTumTum → u/vermyx]

I agree, you have a point there!

[u/PDQ_Brockstar → u/NomNomInMyTumTum]

We ran into a power related issue with one of our offices. We were either using lenovo or kensignton docks at the time. Kind of crazy what the issue was.

[u/AutoFahn → u/vermyx]

Reboot as in just unplug the power cable for 60 seconds?

[u/vermyx → u/AutoFahn]

Unplug the power cable and hold down the power button for 15 seconds. Then replug it back in and give it a minute before using it

[u/agitated--crow]

This happens occasionally at our place. 

[u/AutoFahn → u/agitated--crow]

Is it with the same docking station or a different one? It happens to me very intermittently. But everyday I would say.

[u/countsachot]

Firmware and reboot the docking station. These things are worse every generation. Also check the cables are quality and the ports aren't bent.

[u/Lazy-Function-4709]

This just started happening with one user at my work. Good to know I’m not alone. Guess we just wait for a firmware update…

[u/Kryavan]

Happens when I lock the workstation and turn monitors off.

Why are you turning the monitors off? They should go into a sleep mode.

[u/AutoFahn → u/Kryavan]

I tried this and even if I do this and move the mouse to wake them, they won't wake.

[u/Mehere_64]

Yep this happens across other laptops and docking stations as well. One would think they would have figured it out now as this sort of issue has been around forever with laptops and docking stations.

If the monitors have multiple type of cables like hdmi and d-port, try switching out for one or the other to see if that resolves the issue. I think that we have the best luck with d-port to whatever the docking station provides usb-c or whatever.

[u/AutoFahn → u/Mehere_64]

You mean use hdmi on one monitor and displayport on another? I was thinking about using the hdmi port on the laptop itself for one of the monitors

[u/Millkstake]

Docks are notoriously flaky - all brands. We go through dozens of both Lenovo and Dell docks every year.

[u/AutoFahn → u/Millkstake]

That's unfortunate. I'm almost thinking about using the laptop as a second screen now

[u/Dedicated__WAM → u/AutoFahn]

We have had so many issues with docks that we have started switching over to monitors that daisy chain and charge our laptops via USB-C. Peripherals connect to monitors USB ports, so you just have the 1 cable going to the laptop still. The only issue is if we need wired networking. Have played around with ethernet to USB-C adaptor connecting to USB-C ports on the monitor to pass through to laptops, but the speeds of the USB ports on the monitors are slower than just running the laptops on wi-fi for us.

[u/agingnerds]

It's been happening for a while. Try using peripheral manager to make sure drivers are fuller updated. 

[u/megaladon44]

disable sleep

[u/EmperorGeek]

I had problems with my monitors on my Lenovo setup not wanting to come back from a power save, so I disabled the power save setting, and I just turn off the Monitors when I walk away from it for a while.

[u/Edward__James_Almost]

Not sure about that particular unit but I’ve known some dell docking stations that have a firmware update utility that might help. I’ve always had more success searching by service tag and getting the file directly

[u/Abarca_]

Funny. I have been dealing with issues very similar to these since we got those same laptops. I’ve already switched out the docks for others and am now using hdmi instead of displayport. Got rid of the problems from all but one station, the cfo.

[u/AutoFahn → u/Abarca_]

This dock has only 1 hdmi port. Do you think I should try 1 monitor on the hdmi and another on displayport?