I just bought a Lenovo Thunderbolt 3 dock (40AC0135US) on sale on Amazon, and I can’t for the life of me get it to be recognized by the Framework 12th gen.
Someone on Reddit had a similar issue with this dock on an LG Gram and it was fixed with a firmware update: Reddit - Dive into anything
I’ve tried in Windows 11 and Manjaro XFCE even with a brand new Thunderbolt 3 cable and it will charge the machine, but nothing else. Lenovo’s firmware update software can’t find the dock, and neither can boltctl.
Basically I’d like to figure out if I should return the dock and wait until I find a known supported unit, or hang onto this one in anticipation of the 12th Gen BIOS update.
Honestly sounds like a defective unit. I have the exact same dock, and outside of having to unplug it a plug it back in after an extended sleep, it works reasonably well. It does have an issue with power delivery. The charging stops after a period of time. Due to these issues I am in the market to upgrade. I would return it.
I picked mine up two years ago for about $119 USD and it worked great with my Lenovo Thinkpad T480s, but not with the Framework. Certain bad habits are enhanced , and the new power delivery issue…well I scoured the USB-C/Thunderbolt Dock Megathread and I think I am going to give the Plugable TS4 Hub a go along with other bits from their offerings.
Additional Notes: I might have to redact my commentary on the dock having continuing issues. Apparently by updating the firmware on the dock (which had to be done on Windows) I have managed to get apparently consistent and stable power delivery. Will update after extended testing with the display wake up.
Update 1: Power Delviery appears to now be stable. Previously it would drop after 5-10 minutes. Up now for over 2 hours. Also displays are not being lost after extended screen locks. It appears to now be doing the right thing. I will update this in 24h, and if everything is still good to go I will add it to the Dock Megathread. It is an old dock, I might want to upgrade it eventually anyway, but if it works well it can wait until I upgrade my switches and need 2.5Gbps Ethernet. These can be had pretty cheap on ebay $50-$70 USD awful friendly for a tight budget.
Update2: 24hours or so later and the Power Delievery is deifnitely stable. Waking up displays mostly works. Not perfect, but it is an elusive creature anyway. If you can pick one up for $50-$70 USD definitely worth dealing with the minor warts. Probably going to explore my options.
Update 3: And last night Power Delivery failed again. So for what it is worth consider this dock as a less than ideal candidate for purchase. If you have one, replacing it shoudl probably be on your to do list.
Got a used Lenovo 40AC TB3 dock just now, CAD 50. Updated the firmware (Hooked up to the FL13 11th gen Windows 11). All went well so far. (Mind you, I don’t mean the 40AC is working well together with the FL13. I meant only the update of the dock’s firmware alone)