USB-C/Thunderbolt Dock Megathread

General Topics
599

I have the same issue with a CalDigit TS4 dock on a FW16.
After rebooting the laptop, boltctl shows it as disconnected and ethernet does not work. Also, there is some weird image artifacts (noticeable in dark grey images), like if the image is being compressed.
Disconnecting and reconnecting the USB cable fixes it and the dock shows as authorized instead in boltctl.

This does not happen on a Thinkpad laptop, only on the FW.

600

I just noticed that the dock I currently use without issues is not listed:

Eventually someone could add it to the list? I have it usually to use the pinebook Pro I have. And when traveling I tend to always take that dock with me, and honestly, it just works ā€¦
PS: 60W power supply only, but when not gaming, this largely does its job.

601

Framework 13
Windows 11 Pro 24H2 64bit
Intel Ultra Core 7 165H 3.8Ghz
Hi, I can find no specific information in the Community to answer this question:
What external USB hub is recommended please ?
It wil be used almost exclusively at home/office.
Thanks.

602

There are literally hundreds of ones that will work fine with it. Stick with a name brand for the best results. Pluggable and OWC make some of the most robust Thunderbolt ones. I think they have others too.

603

Many thanks, just wanted help to narrow it down a little.

605

Using the Core Ultra 1 Framework 13 with the Lenovo Thunderbolt Dock 3 and can verify the notes mentioned in the top post but the question is: for someone who already has some dock (and supposedly it has some issues), what next? How can I help in any way fix these issues? Can it be fixed on the software side?

606

I have two framework laptops and three anker 778s deployed for my IT department. I have run into the same issue as you with the amd 13" 7840u laptop connected to the anker dock via back left c port. My issue isnā€™t quite so consistent as yours, it appears like when my laptop decides it doesnt like the dock, it will recognize some things from the dock (e.g. my usb and ethernet), but not the video. Or sometimes it wont recognize anything. Sometimes it gets in a loop of disconnecting and reconnecting monitors.

Running windows 11. Resolution is same as what you stated, rebooting laptop/dock a bunch until it works. Seems to happen once a month or so. Mostly seems like when I have been moving the laptop around a bunch, working from home, coming back, going to a different building, coming back, etc. that it does this issue.

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607

I have noticed with my Dell Dock, that it is the protocol that fails.
Unpowering the dock while completely unplugged, waiting 15secs, and it is usable again.
Real PITA, as this is recurrent when booting up sigh

608

For some reason I canā€™t edit the wiki post.

The Dell WD19TB fully works (including after S0ix suspend, canā€™t comment on S3) on dock firmware 01.00.28 (Dec 2024) or newer on Linux with no drivers, specifically on the FW16 with Ryzen & USB4.

You are still limited to updating firmware over USB only, not TB (which is a limitation of the dock itself, not the host / OS).

609

The G5 dock has been very problematic for me. Iā€™m not quite 100% certain itā€™s the dock, but my problems only happen at my office where I use the dock. Never had a problem at home yet (FW16 less than 2 weeks old).
I have weird behavior where the windows taskbar stops responding, and I cannot fix it without a hard power off. Reboot will just fail at a blank screen, but the laptop is still on.

610

Hi!
anybody using the one below?
Itā€™s the smallest one with HDMI, DP, Ethernet am from a well-known manufacturer that could find.
Does it work?

Lenovo USB-C Dual Display Travel Dock (40B9)

inkl. 65W-Netzteil, USB-C 3.1 [Stecker] ab [ā‚¬ 84,68]

[https://geizhals.de/lenovo-usb-c-dual-display-travel-dock-40b9-40b90100eu-a3264421.html?hloc=at&hloc=de#offerlist]

40B90100EU

Thanks a lot in advance!

611

Hey @gido5731. I just came across your post for the Dockcase 10-in-1 as Iā€™m about the purchase this myself. How do you feel about it after all this time?

I have the AMD Framework 13 myself so hoping itā€™ll be a good fit.

I currently have a Pluggable hub but it only supports one monitor and everything else seems to use DisplayLink.

612

Itā€™s alright, a few notes about it:

  • The screen has helped with troubleshooting problematic parts, though at one point I think I got the config in a mode where it was having my displays reconnect oftenā€¦ that problem was fixed with a reset but still sorta dumb and wouldnā€™t have happened on a dumber hub.
  • Every once in a while displays disconnect, it might just be the cable it came with is worn out or the port on the hub is worn out, not sure, itā€™s really only an issue on my Linux setup since monitor adjustments are all manual (I have a script for my desk and thatā€™s sort of all I need)
  • I still donā€™t charge it via the hub due to the grounding issue, I think itā€™s mostly a charger issue but I havenā€™t had a reason to check, and it does happen even with the limit-battery-charging disabled if I remember correctly. My charger is some 140w aukey brick I bought like 2 years ago I think.
  • Also, if you leave the hub plugged in to power and unplug your laptop, it sometimes doesnā€™t smoothly handle reconnecting, so you have to unplug power from the hub, plug in laptop, plug in powerā€¦ I just charge separately
  • I sort of wish it had faster ethernet connectivity now, so at this point I have a 5GbE adapter plugged into one of the hubā€™s ports and that works fine. The 1GbE port has worked whenever I needed it to.
  • Also, it having a detachable cable means that I can use it in weird cases where I need an odd type of USB hub/adapter, like using a USB A-C cable (which is not officially supported but will work as a standard hub) to get a USB-C output to connect something elseā€¦ yeah itā€™s not a normal thing to do but I have had to do it and it does (generally) work for oddball devices.
  • I was in college dorms for the first year I owned it and it was in view of the sun, it actually managed to bleach the black off of a lot of it (you can see where the cables were plugged in.) This doesnā€™t bother me but is worth noting.
  • This might not be the dockā€™s fault, but my Blue Yeti microphone just will not play nicely with it. I donā€™t think my blue snowball had the same issue but I canā€™t remember right now and thatā€™s at the other house.

This dock lives on my desk, and when I travel between houses (a few times a year) I put it in my suitcase, take it to the house, put it on the other desk, and resume what I was doing. My monitor setups are almost identical (not the same panels but same orientation and cable order, ie right horizontal is DP, left vertical is HDMI.) I donā€™t usually think about it which I guess is the highest praise you can give. Most of the issues I have are honestly not that surprising, all USB-C docks Iā€™ve seen act stranglely in certain cases, it just is what it is.

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613

Thank you, @gido5731 . What an incredibly detailed response. I was not expecting that. Thanks for taking the time.

I could not agree more - thatā€™s the sign of a well designed product. It just gets out of the way.

All your listed ā€œissuesā€ sound minor and something Iā€™m happy to deal with. I think Iā€™ll pull the trigger.

Cheers.

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614

Hello! I am just jumping in and have noticed that there are no recommendations for the FW12. I was wondering, given the 12s capabilities, what would be a good dock for it?

My intention is to make the jump from my Surface/Surface Dock setup to Framework, but I need to update the home station before I can do that.

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615

Depending on what you have the existing dock may already work, both gen2 tb3 and tb4 docks tend to have working usb+displayport fallback.

616

Is anyone using an HP Thunderbolt Dock G4 with the Framework 13 AMD AI 300 (Fedora 42)?
Iā€™m experiencing occasional issues with the USB-A ports on the dock. Sometimes, after connecting the dock, all USB-A ports stop working. Reconnecting it or powering the dock off and on doesnā€™t help. The only solution seems to be disconnecting the dock for several hours ā€” after that, the ports work again.
Iā€™m not sure whether this is a compatibility issue with the Framework laptop or if the dock itself is faulty.

617

FYI incase anyone is curious, Iā€™m using TS4 with my new 13 inch (AI 370) and on Fedora Plasma KDE 42.
At start it was shaky, could get black screen after 20-30 min and best case after a few hours but it much more stable and has been working for 2-3 days with no issue.
I really like the TS4. Has worked very well with my Macbook pro and other windows laptops like my Dell Latitude.

618

Update: I got replacement Dock G4 from HP. Its working now, so the Dock was faulty.

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619

As a contrast, I tried the Revodok Pro 313 with Fedora 42, and had a bad experience. Charging and DisplayPort worked, but none of the USB-A ports worked, and Ethernet didnā€™t work. (No device showed up, and nothing in dmesg.)

(I tried editing the wiki, but itā€™s over the size limit and additions fail.)