I need some help. I’ve been researching this for hours and cannot seem to find a solution. I recently purchased the Plugable Thunderbolt 3 Docking Station for my 2017 Razer Blade (https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Thund…).
After adjusting the settings, managing all the cords/ports, and troubleshooting the device itself, I I finally got everything hooked up and working perfectly: keyboard connected, mouse connected, display port cord to monitor connected, Astros connected (USB + audio jack), Ethernet connected, etc.
All was working as intended until I put my computer in sleep mode. While in sleep mode, the Plugable Thunderbolt 3 Docking Station powered off and was not recognized. The blue light on the Thunderbolt 3 dock - which indicated that it was connected to the computer/receiving data - was off as well. I tried messing with Blade’s power settings, device settings, and even visited the manufacturer’s forum pages but found no solution. It’s imperative that I have the thunderbolt 3 dock always “on” because I use some of USB slots for charging devices while the computer sleeps.
Side note: prior to using the thunderbolt 3 dock, I had all my peripherals connected to the USB ports on my actual laptop and they remained awake in the background while the computer was asleep, thus allowing me to charge my devices and wake my computer using my keyboard/mouse.
Net: is there a way for my 2017 Razer Blade to recognize my Plugable Thunderbolt 3 Docking Station while in sleep mode?
Thank you for posting, and I would be happy to help with your docking station!
Thank you as well for the great detail you provided that is much appreciated. In short, the dock is behaving as expected. To expand further…
The blue light on the front of the dock indicates it is connected to an active Thunderbolt 3 host system (the green light on the front of the dock indicates that the dock is receiving power from its power adapter, and is ‘always on’). The blue light will go out if the host system goes to sleep. When not actively connected to an awake system, the only USB port in the dock that will provide power is the single USB 3.0 port on the front that supports BC 1.2 charging. The four USB ports on the back of the dock will not provide power.
If you require multiple USB devices to charge while the system is in a sleep state, you may want to consider adding one of our USB hubs that offers charging when not actively connected to a host -> https://plugable.com/products/usb3-hu… and using that in conjunction with the dock.
If I’m understanding you correctly, the TB3 dock sleeps when the computer sleeps? Assuming that’s the case, the only USB port that should “stay on” during sleep mode is the one on the front of the dock that’s specifically designed for charging, correct?
I have my headset charging station connected to said port but it still powers down when the computer sleeps. Is this supposed to happen?
Thanks for getting back, and you are most welcome for the help. To your follow-up questions…
The dock itself does not sleep, it will always be ‘on’ while it is connected to power. When the host laptop sleeps, the Thunderbolt connection is disconnected so as a result the USB ports on the back of the dock will not provide power or data transfer.
The front mounted USB 3.0 port supports the BC 1.2 charging standard and will provide only power, no data, to a compatible device (such as a mobile phone that supports BC 1.2) even when the dock is disconnected from the host. Given your description, it sounds like the headset charging station may not support BC 1.2 charging.