Monitors on Dell Thunderbolt docking station not active after reboot

[German]Quick note to owners and administrators of Dell docking stations connected to notebooks via Thunderbolt. A reader informed me about problems with the WD22TB4, in connection with Dell notebooks (5530, 5430, 5431). After a reboot, monitors attached to the docking station remain inactive and cannot be activated. The remedy is to change the Thunderbolt port. Dell told this user that they are already working on this issue. But it seems to affects other vendors also.

I am posting the information, which reached me via blog reader Martin F. in a private Facebook group (thanks for the tip), here on the blog. Maybe there are more affected people. Martin wrote in the Facebook group:

Hello,

we have recently started having problems with Dell Thunderbolt docking station, mainly the WD22TB4, in conjunction with Dell notebooks (5530, 5430, 5431).

When rebooting, the monitors attached to the dock are not active and cannot be activated. Most of the time it helps to change the Thunderbolt port. Eventually the monitors will be back. Firmware of the dock and drivers on the devices are up to date.

And he asked if other users happened to have similar issues? Doing a quick search, I saw on the internet that the Thunderbolt docking station issue is also occurring with other manufacturers such as Lenovo or HP.

Inquiry at Dell Support

Martin naturally searched the Internet and came across similar problem reports. He then contacted Dell support with the following problem description:

Dell Latitude 5431 problems with video display.

Hello,

we have problems with the Thunderbolt controller with the mentioned device (and other devices of this model). The WD22TB4 docking station is connected. After rebooting the notebook, the monitors attached to the station are no longer visible in Windows.

Unplugging and reconnecting solves the problem. Drivers are up to date. BIOS version 1.10.1. If the Thunderbolt controller is disabled in the BIOS, the monitors work permanently. Firmware problem?

There is already a workaround in the problem description above: Unplugging the connector and plugging it into another Thunderbolt port usually helps. Or disable the Thunderbolt controller in the BIOS/UEFI. Martin explains the latter like this:

For us, it helps to disable the Thunderbolt controller in UEFI on the affected devices. The docking stations then fall back to USB and the monitors work permanently. Dell 5530, 5430, 5531 and 5431 were affected.

Martin has also received a reply from Dell support, which says: "Our colleagues are already working to fix that issue. Until then, please continue with the workarounds you described." Maybe it will help someone affected.

But other German blog readers commented, that the issue has been present at Dell devices since years – so no hope for a quick fix. And other users reported similar issues from other brands.

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