iDock D23 - Video intermittently unavailable till I unplug USB-C Thunderbolt to DP cable from laptop TB port OR till I reboot dock etc

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1

I recently bought an iDock D23 (got it less than 1 week ago).

The dock worked on the first try, and initially everything seemed mostly fine.
HOWEVER, I think once or twice a day I had to switch between PCs using the dock’s front input button and / or unplug the video cable to get video to show up. I was starting to troubleshoot that but got busy.

I realize the D23 is ideally not intended for laptops, but I tried it anyway based on some owner reviews using laptops with it and fact that my laptop has a USB-C Thunderbolt port.
So for use with the D23 dock, I bought a 6 foot UGREEN USB C to DisplayPort 1.4 Cable (8K@60Hz 4K@240Hz Unidirectional Thunderbolt 4/3 to DisplayPort).

More serious issues started on the 4th day (yesterday):
Then, it seems mostly after connecting the second USB-A to USB-B hot cable for PC #2 to the dock and connecting some peripherals, it started to experience more severe issues:
SERIOUS ISSUE 1 My 13th Gen i7 64GB desktop rebooted spontaneously (by itself) a FEW TIMES yesterday; before getting the dock a week ago, this issues has never occurred since I bought the desktop PC almost 2 1/2 years ago.

** SERIOUS ISSUE 2 - And my Windows laptop blue screened (BSOD) TWICE yesterday many hours apart which has also never happened before getting the dock.**

I then switched the desktop host cable from a new highly rated brand name USB 2.0 cable to a new highly rated brand name USB 3.0 .
(I did this even though I do not have my USB 3.0 HDDs etc. connected to the dock (for my external HDDs I have a separate USB 3.0 powered hub
connected to my desktop directly) which has worked fine for years).
Since switching the cable only 5.5 hours ago, I have not had any reboots of the desktop nor BSOD of the laptop, but it is too early to tell since the laptop BSOD and spontaneous desktop rebooting were intermittent and not that frequent.

However, at a minimum, the video not displaying issue after switching between computers persists.

Video for laptop: to dock
1 laptop with USB-C Thunderbolt port and UGreen 6 foot USB-C to DisplayPort cable connect to dock DP in using this Thunderbolt port and cable.

Video for desktop to dock:
Then have my desktop PC connected to the D23 dock using a 10 foot DP cable (10 foot length is due to desktop distance from dock),

Video from dock to monitors:
1 UGREEN 16K DisplayPort cable (2.1 [VESA Certified] DP2.0 40Gbps Support 8K@240Hz 4K@240Hz HDR, HDCP, DSC 1.2a) from D23 dock to Dell U2415H monitor 1 DP input.

Then I use MST / daisy chaining to connect monitor 1 (Dell U2415H to monitor 2 (also a Dell U2415H) via DP to DP cable.

So only 1 DP cable out from dock to monitor 1 DP in.

Any ideas?
Would the C10 work better ort is this more of something else causing the periodic video not appearing issues afteer switching?

2

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching us and we are really sorry for the issues.

  1. As you know that our iDock D23 designed with multiple Displayports so that we are unwilling to recommend use it work with the laptops.
  2. Regarding the DP cable length,it is generally recommended that a single cable should be no longer than 6 feet, as the total length is equal to the input cable plus the output cable.
  3. For your setup, I think iDock C10 maybe more suitable for you which is designed for 1 USB-C laptop and 1 desktop, but it come with HDMI + DP for desktop then output with 2 HDMIs, and only up to 4K@60Hz. But we will have a new similar 8K model, iDock B10 : USB-C for laptop and DP+HDMI+USB for desktop, then output with DP+HDMI.
1 Like
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First of all, thank you for the prompt and helpful feedback Kevin!

Some follow-ups:
So even with a good quality Thunderbolt USB-C to DisplayPort cable connected from my laptop Thunderbolt port to the D23 dock, you do not recommend the D23? Any specific issues / reason for not recommending it? Just for my understanding.

I may also try another USB-C to DP cable.

That said, I do also think, like you, that the C10 dock may be better suited for my needs.
It is too bad that the B10 will not be out till July (estimated date) - I need the dock now, so I cannot wait that long unfortunately.

Thanks regarding the feedback that the total DP cable length includes both input and output DP cables. I knew the length for DP cables should not exceed 10 feet (9.8 perhaps even), but did not count both input and output cables.

I plan to try the C10 and report back with my experience.

4

Update:
I switched to the C10 and it works much better than the D23 for MY use case / MY needs.

Not sure if the C10 is working better than D23 for ME due to one ore mor of the following reasons:

  1. The C10 uses USB-C to USB-C connectivity to dock for laptop video (versus USB-C Thunderbolt to DisplayPort connection to the D23 for my laptop)
  2. The C10 uses EDID emulation, which the D23 does NOT have.
  3. My C10 setup is NOT using daisy chaining from one monitor to the other (each monitor has an independent connection to the dock). On the D23, I was using daisy chaining.
  4. The C10 uses HDMI outputs from dock to both monitors, even for the output path of the one desktop DisplayPort input into C10 dock. By contrast, the D23 uses only DisplayPort for the entire path (input and output) and hence on the D23, I exceeded 10 feet of DP cable (I believe the HDMI standard / protocol is not as stringent in terms of maximum TOTAL recommended cable length as DisplayPort is).

Also: Tip to other users. I suggest using a USB 3.0 cable for the USB-A to USB-B cable used host connection from desktop to dock. It may have been the brand, but I used a top-rated USB 2.0 cable initially and my laptop had BSOD and my desktop had reboots. Both of these severe issue stopped on D23 after I switched from a USB 2.0 cable to USB 3.0 cable.
I am now using the C10 of course, but this tip may also apply to the C10 since it has a host connection for the desktop.