Day One Problems w/ Setup of Universal Docking Station

Discontinued Products UD-160-A
1

I’m using Windows 7 and have two significant issues as I try to setup my new Plugable docking station …

  1. I am trying to extend my monitor to display to an external monitor. But while I’ve tried every configuration setting for the display, the best I get is a brief flash of the extended desktop (i.e., wallpaper) on the external monitor. Even if I try to “Duplicate” the display, the signal to the external monitor (HPvs17e) will only flash briefly and is gone by the time I hit “Apply” or “Revert”. The fact that I can catch a glimpse of it before the monitor goes dark again and that the Display drop=down recognizes the make/model of the monitor tells me it’s connected, but why can’t it push a constant signal?

  2. I have an external HD (Simpletech) connected by USB to the docking station but there is no sign of it on my laptop. I have turned the drive on/off unplugged/replugged but the laptop doesn’t know it’s there.

Thinking I may be returning this since those are the two main functions I was interested in.

2

Hi Brian,

Thanks for posting your question here on our support forum, we’ll be happy to help.
First off, let’s check that everything is ok with the AC power supply. There’s a blue light on the front of the docking station that should be on when it’s plugged in to AC power. Disconnect everything from the docking station except the AC power and verify that the blue light is on and doesn’t flicker.

Next, plug in the USB cable to the computer. After Windows recognizes and configures the new device, try plugging in a simple USB device like a mouse or thumb drive. You should see a green light under the blue light, it will take a moment to light up while the device is recognized.

As long as both of these steps check out ok, go ahead and reconnect the monitor. You should see a blue square icon in the bottom right corner of your screen, near the clock. Clicking on it will give you options to set the display properties. If the monitor is set to off you can choose extend or mirror from here.

Regarding the hard drive, does it have an external power supply? If not, does it have a cable with two upstream connectors? Be sure that it’s functioning correctly by plugging it in to the computer directly first and then the UD-160-A.

Let me know what you find, and we’ll figure out next steps.

Thanks,
Jerome.

3

Thanks Jerome. I’ve followed your instructions and yes, I see the blue and green lights on the Dock and plugging a mouse in works fine. But plugging in the monitor and configuring the Display options to extend display to the external display does not work. I should note – if I turn the monitor off and then on again, I will see a brief flash of the extended monitor (wallpaper) but it’s gone in 2 seconds. It’s as though there’s a connection but it’s not actively “pushing” a signal to the monitor to keep it on?

You can disregard the external drive issue for now. I’ve tried connecting ti directly to several other PCs and it’s not recognized there either. Appears to be a problem with the drive itself, not the dock. Thank you.

Brian

4

Hi Brian,

Just one more thing to check, can you connect the monitor to the computer directly and have it stay on? Just a sanity check… Anyhow, if the monitor seems to be ok, then send over your Amazon Order Id to support@plugable.com and we’ll get you fixed up.

Thanks,
Jerome.

5

Oh my god, no! It doesn’t stay on when plugged into a laptrop directly either. I’m embarassed. Maybe both of these problems were just faulty hardware on my end! I had this monitor connected to a PC with no problems recently but maybe it went kaput while sitting idle. I’ll have to get a replacement monitor and see what happens. I’ll mark this resolved for now since there’s not an “I’m an idiot” option. Thank you!

6

Hi Brian,

That’s a strange one, the flashing monitor…

Thanks for keeping us updated, just let us know if there’s anything else we can do.

We’re here to help,
Jerome.