Hi Joe and David,
With the wide variance with this issue, we’ve been able to resolve the issue for some customers via hardware replacement, but this hasn’t always fixed the issue.
@davidboodey, thanks for posting that resource. We’ve been aware of this potentially very serious issue and currently investigating how much of an impact this might have with the “disconnection” issue that our customers are reporting with their Lenovo hosts and our docks. Many of our customers have one of the systems mentioned on that list (there are a lot) and the symptoms that we’re seeing match up to what Lenovo states.
For those who would like a short summary of this problem, Lenovo has released “Critical Intel Thunderbolt Software and Firmware Updates” as a result of problematic behavior with the USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 ports on the computer. Problems include:
- Intel Thunderbolt controller not visible in the OS/Device Manager
- USB-C or Thunderbolt docking stations not visible or having connectivity problems
- HDMI output not available
- System battery not charging with a USB-C power adapter connected to the USB-C port
- Intel Thunderbolt pop-up error message
- Intel Thunderbolt safe mode error message
- BIOS Thunderbolt communication error or hang during POST
These symptoms may occur after 6 to 12 months of typical usage.
For those customer who have one of the afflicted Lenovo systems mentioned in Lenovo’s documentation, we recommend ensuring that the system has all latest BIOS and Thunderbolt 3 firmware updates from Lenovo.
For those customers who do not have a Lenovo computer, we would still encourage you to reach out to us directly at support@plugable.com.
Thanks!
Mitchell