Compare Prices on 1000's of products. Save money on your online shopping today!
Add Tablet PC headlines to your desktop.
TabletPCBuzz.com - Problem re-docking to the Port Replicator
Make sure you have the right forum when posting! (For example, post your software questions in the software forum, not in any of the hardware forums.) Thanks! ~TabletPCBuzz Moderators
I've been using my M275 for about 5 months now as a Math Teacher with great success. I use MS Journal as a white board and often ink on other files like PowerPoint and Word and other class hand-outs. I've been connecting to my InFocus projector wirelessly via the WiFi (B standard) LiteShow product, which allows me to move freely about my classroom and allowing students to participate more freely in class. All has been wonderful until the last day to two . . .
While I do freely move about my classroom, often I have my M275 "docked" using the Gateway port replicator. Whenever I want to go "mobile" I simply use the start command function to "undock" it and then do so when the bubble from the system tray says it's safe to do so. Sometimes this causes me to loose my Liteshow connection momentarily, though it does come back once I cycle the connection off and back on again (it takes all but two taps with my Cross Pen). However, a more serious problem has happened on two recent occasions . . . when I re-dock the computer, the screen instantly goes completely black and it doesn't simply come back to life. I've even held the power switch for several seconds with no signs of life from the M275. The only way I've been able to get the computer to come back is to remove and replace the battery (I have a spare handy in case I exhaust one). Once replacing the battery, the computer immediately boots up again with seemingly no ill-effects.
I suspect this has something to do with my power management settings (which I've played with lately, but don't recall their previous settings. Up until the last few days, I've had no trouble with performing this simple act and I'm a bit perplexed as how to prevent this from happening again. It's a bit unsettling to have to go through this during class, and one day, I'm afraid my present and unsavory solution won't get the job done.
Hmm.. One possibility that occurs to me is that it may be defaulting to the external monitor hookup when you're docked, or some other configuration of monitors that doesn't make sense. Have you tried screwing with the settings in the first tab of the "Intel Extreme Graphics" control panel, or just hitting Fn+F3 a few times?
Alternatively... What happens to the lights on the bottom of the screen? Does the power light stay on? Can you get the disk light to flash? Or, if you press capslock, does that light toggle? If you press the eject button on the cd drive, does it eject?
Thanks for the response, and the thoughtful suggestions. (BTW, I tried to respond last night to your response, but the board wasn't responding for reason). In response to your comments/suggestions, no, I didn't think to hit the Fn+F3 key, and no, I didn't specifically notice the status of the lights at the bottom of the screen, but I believe they were all off as well . . . though I'm not 100% certain. All excellent thoughts, and I will be more observant next time. I did think to try and see if the CD eject button would have an affect, and, no again, it didn't respond. The M275 for all intents and purposes was dead until I swapped batteries.
I remember pressing several keys, such as Cntrl, alt, del, et. al., to no avail, though I'm not sure I tried the caps lock to see if it had an affect on the aforementioned lights . . .
I returned the power management settings to "Always On" and defaulted all settings to never shut-off (not an ideal configuration for a mobile computer for sure) but it's worked without a problem for the last two days. I haven't had a real opportunity to try out different settings to find out how the system responds, but I'm still pretty nervous about the whole affair . . . it was rather unsettling to have my computer go blank on me for such a innocuous activity.
Again, thanks for the suggestions and sounding board to bounce things off of.
One thing i've noticed about Power settings is that if you have a dock or whatever they are called, windows makes two "profiles" one for docked and one for when its not docked. Powersettings, and devices are all seperate profiles with a docking station (as far as i can remember), you may have the power settings set differently with/or without the docking station connected. Maybe it's just becoming defective, loose wire internally, you may need to have it looked at. wish i could be more help -james
Hmm... System goes abruptly from on to utterly comatose, with no lights, no tray, no turn on? Well, the only times I've ever seen systems go so thoroughly dead as that is when there's a failure affecting the power supply. It's possible there may be a flaky short circuit inside the docking station or the docking station hookup, causing the computer's internal overload protection to kick in. These protections may take the form of fuses, circuit breakers, or more commonly these days, automatically resetting circuit breakers. These activate whenever excessive power is drawn and remain active until the power supply is completely cut off -- i.e., when you take out the battery. So, my suggestion would be to contact Gateway support and see about having that docking station sent in for repairs or replacement. (Another possibility is that something plugged *into* the docking station is the culprit. Try unplugging everything from it.)
Thanks for all the suggestions. Your advise certainly sounds both plausible and reasonable. I'll have to follow up with Gateway as time permits, which won't be for another week (my experience with Gateway technical support has generally been positive, but only after very lengthy phone calls . . . I usually block out an hour or two for these occurances). Thank you very much for offering your thoughts on my situation, you are very kind.
You sound quite knowledgable Micah, is computer troubleshooting in your line of work?
Hehe, I'm flattered you have such faith in my opinions! I am just a computer engineering student, though (but almost graduated! ;). I think my diagnosis is a pretty good guess, but it's still just a hypothesis.
Problem re-docking to the Port Replicator 
Posted - Jan 18 2005 : 8:11:56 PM
. Up until the last few days, I've had no trouble with performing this simple act and I'm a bit perplexed as how to prevent this from happening again. It's a bit unsettling to have to go through this during class, and one day, I'm afraid my present and unsavory solution won't get the job done.
