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Belarus, Minsk
1 Level
704 Review
47 Karma

Review on 433835U MiniDock Plus Docking Station by Ranjit Ghosh

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Quality is dropping but still works

I bought this for my new Thinkpad W510 quad core VMware workstation running Linux as a host. Something to be aware of. Apparently the original Lenovo docking station came with a 135W power adapter. This was for W510+ quad core laptops. Lenovo recently switched the power adapter for the docking station to 175W. According to Lenovo, there is no difference between the two documents - this change only affected the power supply. The reason for this was that a 135W PSU would not be enough if the document was completely filled. The original 135W docking station CANNOT use 175W power adapter. The 175W AC adapter plug has two internal tabs that prevent it from being plugged into a 135W docking station or low-end laptop. However, the opposite is not the case. The 135W AC adapter can be used with the 175W docking station. I've run this document with 135w and 175w power supplies and haven't encountered any issues that I'm aware of. I've since switched back to the 175W power supply that the dock came with. Otherwise it works fine within the limitations of my operating system. plans to do so. I can't tell if it's the OS or the dock, but I'm having trouble with the USB 3.0 dock connector. My 1TB Fortress drive randomly disconnects and hangs whether it's plugged directly into a port or into a hub that's connected to the port. Whatever this issue is, it only affects the dock port. The same drive works well connected directly to the laptop. I suspect there is an incompatibility between the Apricot Fortress and the docking station chips. A limited number of other drives and devices I've tested work properly.

Pros
  • Absolutely amazing!
Cons
  • For a long time