Monitor Connected to USB-C Dock Not Always Recognized

Hey all,

I have an Anker hub connected to my Framework 12th gen. My framework sits closed and I have all my peripherals connected to it, including a dell monitor, through the dock. The issue I am having is that sometimes the monitor is not recognized when I am trying to resume the laptop. I have to pull the laptop out and open it. At this point, either the monitor is recognized and I can close the laptop and proceed OR sometimes the monitor is not recognized and I have to start unplugging the dock or restarting the laptop. I have zero clue what could be causing this issue. It seems completely random to me. I used this Anker dock with my Mac and this same Dell monitor for 8 or 9 months without issue.

My current thought is that something with this Anker dock is not meeting some spec but it lists the Dell XPS as compatible so I think it’s probably fine.

Looking if anyone can help me debug this issue!

Framework 12th Gen
12th Gen Intel(R) Core™ i5-1240P 1.70 GHz

Which USB c port is the Anker dock connected? I suggest trying all four ports on the laptop to see if it behaves different. I’m finding the front left port behaves unusually.

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I’ll give that a try. It’s connected to the left rear.

I have a very similar Anker powered USB-C hub. Occasionally it gets into a state where it only connects at USB 2.x speeds. If you’re on Windows (Windows 10 at least) you can look at the “Bluetooth & other devices” settings to see whether the device is connected as USB 3.0 or not. Here’s what it looks like in my settings when USB 3.0 is failing (sometimes there’s also that Port Reset Failed device):

I verified that HDMI does not work when the hub is in this state. Often even rebooting doesn’t work to fix this problem for me. I’ve sometimes had success uninstalling all of the USB drivers and shutting down. And unplugging the hub power. And waiting a while. And then booting up.

I can usually recreate the problem simply by unplugging the hub and replugging it in again while the computer’s on. Or by simply unplugging the power from the hub while it’s plugged in. In fact, that’s what I did to test putting it into this bad state now. Unfortunately all of my normal solutions to getting it back connecting to USB 3.0 have failed. Honestly, I think there are various problems with some Framework USB ports which I’ve posted about here and there in these forums.

Right now, the hub does work correctly in the back right port (doesn’t matter which USB-C module I use):

It’s the left ports that I can’t get to work after doing my test. But I guess they were fragile to begin with.

Edit: I fixed the hub again by performing the following ritual: First, I pulled out all of the Framework USB modules in order to test plugging the hub into each port with each of my 2 USB-C modules one at a time. I took the first USB-C module and plugged it into the back left port and then plugged the hub into it. It did not connect as USB 3.0. I then pulled out the hub and USB-C module and plugged the module into the front left port and then plugged the hub into it. It appeared as USB 3.0. This was a pleasant surprise since the left front had not worked earlier today. Then I moved the USB-C module to the back left port again and plugged the hub into it, and now the USB 3.0 is happy again. Woo.

Intel 12th gen does have the same problems with USB … Shouldn’t there be an firmware update for full thunderbolt compatibility for intel 12th gen? Is there any update about it?