Review on Toshiba PA3542U-2PRP Dynadock USB Laptop Docking Station with DVI Port - Streamline Your Connectivity and Enhance Productivity by Jeremy Reddick

I bought this unit to connect my Toshiba Satellite A135 (running Vista) to a KVM switch to use a monitor, keyboard and mouse with a Mac Mini to share. I have previously connected a laptop directly to the KVM switch. It worked great, but I found screwing and unscrewing the laptop's video jack was too difficult to be practical, so it's time to take a look at the docking station. I ordered this device with an extra power cord. for a laptop so I didn't have to bend down and crawl under my desk to turn off the power every time I wanted to move the laptop. the laptop monitor was also displayed on the external monitor). It wouldn't work for me as the two monitors have different resolutions and the external monitor looked bad with the wrong resolution. With this setting it was not possible to change the resolution on the external monitor. So I played around with the monitor settings. The next setup I came up with was extending the laptop monitor to an external monitor. I did not want. I then made the external monitor the main monitor and extended it to the internal monitor. This was closer to what I wanted, but I only wanted to use an external monitor. Then I tried turning off the laptop monitor and that's when the problems started. At first it seemed to work, but after about a minute the mouse froze. As it turned out, it didn't actually freeze - there was about a 15 second lag between the way I moved the mouse and the way I saw the cursor move on the monitor. It didn't matter if I was using a USB mouse or a touchpad on a laptop. I had to force restart. I couldn't change the configuration to another mode because every time I docked it went to the same mode and then "hung". Time to call tech support. The manual that came with Dynadock lists the phone number in Irvine, California that I called. The receptionist told me to call 800, which I did. I followed the instructions until I got a call from a tech support representative (in India). What follows is an abridged version of the conversation. I said I'm calling about a Dynadock product. "What laptop do you have?" the representative asked. I told him it was a Toshiba Satellite. "Can you read me the serial number of the laptop?" he asked. I read him the serial number of my laptop. "Well, it looks like your laptop is out of warranty, is that right?" asked the rep. I told him that's correct but I'm not calling about a laptop so what's the difference? I'm calling about DYNADOCK, not my laptop, I said. I lost my patience. "Where did you buy Dynadock?" asked the support agent. What difference does it make where I bought it? I need support and you have already told me it is laptop support. Can you just point me to the right place? — Where did you buy Dynadock? The support rep asked again. "WHAT DOES IT MEAN YOU ARE AN IDIOT? I called Irwin's number, which the same secretary answered. I told her what happened. She gave me another 800 number to call. I called this number and eventually received a call from someone who immediately transferred me back to the 800 number I called earlier. Now I'm back to laptop support. My only chance was to explain to the laptop support rep why I was calling and hope he could put me in the right place. Fortunately, this employee had a few IQ points higher than the previous one and actually transferred me to a Dynadock product support representative in Irvine, California. I had to uninstall the software, reinstall it, and then get it working again, albeit not the way I wanted. He then told me that I would have to experiment with the monitor settings, at which point I was basically on my own. Total uptime with Toshiba support was approximately 2.5 hours. I had to play around with this to find out that the cause of the freezing was the laptop monitor turning off, so that's how I wanted to use it. I chose to use an external monitor as the primary monitor and my laptop monitor as the secondary monitor (external monitor extended to laptop monitor) because that's how it works and is closest to my usage. I mostly switched to Mac. I have a few PC programs that I have yet to use that I can use given Dynadock's limitations. I could use a Mac with Parallels or Fusion, but I bought the Mini with an 80GB hard drive which may not be enough to run my Mac and Windows. Meanwhile this solution works for me. I'm not trying to play videos on a PC, which is one of Dynadock's limitations. Someday I'll buy a better Mac with a bigger hard drive, run whatever virtualized Windows software I want, get a Macbook, and get rid of the dynadock and laptop. Until then, Dynadock, despite its limitations, is less of a hassle than having to unscrew the video connector when I want to move the laptop.