I am using a Framework 16 with AMD dGPU and 7840HS running Archlinux. I’m connecting it to an Anker 568 dock.
When I plug the dock into my laptop, if the laptop charger is not already plugged in, my peripherals connected via the dock start power cycling. The laptop shows charging then not charging over and over.
However, if I plug in the charger first, the dock and all peripherals power up normally and everything is fine.
My suspicion is that the dock is not able to provide as much power as the laptop is demanding and just reboots (brownout). I’m not sure why this would be the case though. The dock is rated for 100W PD and is using the 180W power supply it came with.
Additionally, the two ports closest to the display are no longer able to be used for charging the laptop. Data works fine on these ports, just no charging. If I do a board reset, they start working again but after plugging the dock into these ports, they stop working again. Switching input modules around doesn’t help. The dead ports remain in place.
Dock is updated to the latest firmware version.
Laptop is running firmware 0.0.4.3 (which I believe is the same as 4.03)
This problem happens on Windows too.
Other users have reported this dock working perfectly for them.
Any ideas?
There you go,
Dock is 100w? Charger is 180w and laptop needs to utilise the 180w not 100w. So that explains why dock is flipping out especially when you have dGPU.
Also dock seems to be limiting 180w to 100w to the laptop which is simply cause to why it flips out and due to dGPU needs 180w.
Usually the dock will negotiate a slightly lower power rating to make room for its own power consumption. For example my dock from another brand will broadcast 82W to my FL13 when connected to a 100W charger. If there’s a miscommunication between your FL16 and Anker 568 it may cause overloading or under-utilization.
You can install ectool and use the terminal command $ sudo ectool chargestate show and read the chg_input_current value to calculate the input wattage. Note that on FL16, the value is different than the FL13 because there’s an additional DC-DC converter that converts 36V(180W charger) to 48V(240W charger) to 17.6V or 20V(I don’t have an FL16 so I’m not sure) power rail as explained here and here. For Windows, there’s Framework Control.
You can also use a USB meter that supports 48V with PD trigger function. Do not use the trigger function with computer connected as it may trigger the wrong voltage and cause damage. Instead, use the “PD listener” function to monitor the currently negotiated PD power rating while charging the laptop. If you find a mismatch you discovered the problem.