Re: [Thinkpad] 770 hotswap docking station error

Michael:

I had this problem with a ThinkPad 770E and a SelectaDock III and was never
able to get the (somewhat loud, and annoying) warning/buzz tone to stop
through any software or configuration changes. My buzzing similarly started
up after I tried to eject a modular unit out of the front of the Dock while
the ThinkPad was on and docked in the station. Eventually, I gave up and
bought a whole other Dock III to replace it.

I have always thought that the buzz tone must be some sort of fail-safe
startup check which is built-in to the UltraBay board of the Dock itself or
into the Main motherboard of the Dock and that replacing just one of those
specific boards might fix it. I've also imagined that someone who was a bit
more electronically-minded than me might be able to reset some kind of
jumper/breaker/switch on the UltraBay or Main boards of the Dock. Both
those ideas are pure speculation, however. When I used the same laptop in a
different Dock, the tone was gone. I haven't tried using a different
ThinkPad in the broken/buzzing dock.

I recall reading in the Hardware Maintenance Manual for the Dock III that a
continuous buzzing like this meant that you should take the dock in for
servicing....obviously, that doesn't help isolate the problem much, and it
is likely that you can buy a new or used Dock III over eBay or something for
much cheaper than it would cost an IBM service centre to repair.

Also, the UltraBay for the 770 series can actually be hotswapped while the
ThinkPad is docked, but this is only true for the UltraBay on the side of
the ThinkPad unit itself (and provided that you have the right UltraBay
drivers installed and you are not trying to hot swap a second hard drive --
hard drives must be in the unit at boot-up). The UltraBay slot on the front
of the SelectaDock III unit cannot be hot or warm swapped. The ThinkPad has
to be turned off in order to replace items in the UltraBay of the Dock
itself. And I think I recall reading something in the Dock III User Manual
specifying this as well.

If anyone on the list knows a cure to this buzzing problem, I would also be
interested in hearing about it -- I couldn't bring myself to throw away my
old buzzing/broken Dock since it seemed to me that it should be perfectly
functional if I could only get that buzzing to stop.

Phil.

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Received on Sat Mar 20 14:59:27 2004