Review on 🔌 Portable Universal Docking Station by Kensington 33055 for PC: Optimize Your Search by Chris Long

Bought this unit about a week ago to use as a docking station for a new laptop to use that doesn't have any of the conventional ports. You have to install the software that came with it to use the serial or parallel ports and I had to reboot my computer for the parallel port to work. (Note that the serial port shows up with non-default settings, mine is COM4 so any software should be directed to that location.) I haven't tried the serial port, but the USB and parallel ports work fine . Note, however, that the device's PS/2 ports do not work the same way as the onboard PS/2 ports. The keyboard and mouse connected to it perform their main functions. However, if you have an enhanced mouse or keyboard with extra buttons or other options, they won't work through the dock. Apparently, the docking station's PS/2 ports are wired in such a way that the operating system always treats them as some sort of normal HMI mouse and keyboard, rather than recognizing a connected keyboard as it does with the built-in keyboard. in PS/2 ports. Because of this, I couldn't find a way to get the computer to map the special mouse and keyboard drivers needed for advanced functionality to these devices when docked. Kensington support ignored my first two requests for help on this issue and then suggested contacting the keyboard and mouse manufacturers, which doesn't make sense since the devices work fine all the time except when connected to the docking station are connected. I had to find another way to connect a keyboard and mouse to the USB port to make them work. For this reason I probably would not have bought this device if I had known about this problem. However, if all you need is a parallel port, a serial port, and two USB ports, this box will work just fine.