There seems to be some key differences in the way that Vista works with a
docking station (from what I am accustom to in XP). All these articles relate
to a Dell Latitude D505 using a Dell docking station.

1) Dual displays with a docking station.
I use a 19" display with my laptop screen so I have two displays. This works
great, I shut my laptop down and turn it on again and it remembers this
setting. I then shutdown and take the laptop home to do some work. I am now
working without a docking station on the laptops own display, this works
fine. The next day when I come into work and put the laptop onto the docking
station it does not remember the display I had setup. I have to go into the
Personalize area and "extend the desktop onto this monitor". This is a
feature I am used to in XP which no longer seems to occur, is there a way of
making this happen?

2) Physical network connection and wireless connection.
In XP I used to have the wireless connection disabled when I was on the
docking station (and Intel NIC enabled). When I went home the laptop knew I
wasn't on the docking station so it would use my settings which were wireless
enabled and Intel NIC disabled. When I went back into the office it would see
I was docked so reverted to the docked settings. I cannot seem to replicate
this behaviour in Vista. If I take it off the docking station and boot up the
wireless is disabled. So I enable wireless and disable Intel NIC and all
works fine. Until I plug it into the docking station and it leaves the
wireless enabled and Intel NIC disabled. This is a feature I am used to in XP
which no longer seems to occur, is there a way of making this happen?

3) Power Schemes.
I don't seem to fully understand how the power schemes work in Vista. In XP
if I unplugged the power adapter it would do things like reduce the
performance of the laptop, screen brightness etc and give me longer battery
life. In Vista it appears that I need to click on the power icon and change
the power plan manually. Is there a way to automate this? It seems to be
counter productive and I later forget that I plugged back into power and
didn't change it back to High Performance.

Thanks

Troy

Surely I'm not the only person who has experienced this behaviour. Am I
posting my request into the wrong forum ???

Troy Lee,

I have the same problem with my extended monitor. My monitor is a ViewSonic
1680 by 1050 resolution via the digital interface via a Dell docking station.
But my laptop is a D620. Works great except when I wake it up, or sometimes
turn it back on - the remote monitor reverts to a lower screen resolution -
usually, but not always.

Did you ever get a response, or have you found a solution?

Ray

"Troy Lea" wrote:

> There seems to be some key differences in the way that Vista works with a
> docking station (from what I am accustom to in XP). All these articles relate
> to a Dell Latitude D505 using a Dell docking station.
>
> 1) Dual displays with a docking station.
> I use a 19" display with my laptop screen so I have two displays. This works
> great, I shut my laptop down and turn it on again and it remembers this
> setting. I then shutdown and take the laptop home to do some work. I am now
> working without a docking station on the laptops own display, this works
> fine. The next day when I come into work and put the laptop onto the docking
> station it does not remember the display I had setup. I have to go into the
> Personalize area and "extend the desktop onto this monitor". This is a
> feature I am used to in XP which no longer seems to occur, is there a way of
> making this happen?
>
> 2) Physical network connection and wireless connection.
> In XP I used to have the wireless connection disabled when I was on the
> docking station (and Intel NIC enabled). When I went home the laptop knew I
> wasn't on the docking station so it would use my settings which were wireless
> enabled and Intel NIC disabled. When I went back into the office it would see
> I was docked so reverted to the docked settings. I cannot seem to replicate
> this behaviour in Vista. If I take it off the docking station and boot up the
> wireless is disabled. So I enable wireless and disable Intel NIC and all
> works fine. Until I plug it into the docking station and it leaves the
> wireless enabled and Intel NIC disabled. This is a feature I am used to in XP
> which no longer seems to occur, is there a way of making this happen?
>
> 3) Power Schemes.
> I don't seem to fully understand how the power schemes work in Vista. In XP
> if I unplugged the power adapter it would do things like reduce the
> performance of the laptop, screen brightness etc and give me longer battery
> life. In Vista it appears that I need to click on the power icon and change
> the power plan manually. Is there a way to automate this? It seems to be
> counter productive and I later forget that I plugged back into power and
> didn't change it back to High Performance.
>
> Thanks
>
> Troy
>

Still dont' have an answer unfortunately.

I have worked out with the power schemes that there is a "on power" and "on
battery" setting per power scheme. It appears the addition of the power
schemes is an enhancement.

I'm thinking that these docking station issues will get resolved in the
first service pack of Vista. Clearly Vista is a better product than XP
however being such a re-write of code there's always going to be things they
miss.

"Ray Mint" wrote:

> Troy Lee,
>
> I have the same problem with my extended monitor. My monitor is a ViewSonic
> 1680 by 1050 resolution via the digital interface via a Dell docking station.
> But my laptop is a D620. Works great except when I wake it up, or sometimes
> turn it back on - the remote monitor reverts to a lower screen resolution -
> usually, but not always.
>
> Did you ever get a response, or have you found a solution?
>
> Ray
>
> "Troy Lea" wrote:
>
> > There seems to be some key differences in the way that Vista works with a
> > docking station (from what I am accustom to in XP). All these articles relate
> > to a Dell Latitude D505 using a Dell docking station.
> >
> > 1) Dual displays with a docking station.
> > I use a 19" display with my laptop screen so I have two displays. This works
> > great, I shut my laptop down and turn it on again and it remembers this
> > setting. I then shutdown and take the laptop home to do some work. I am now
> > working without a docking station on the laptops own display, this works
> > fine. The next day when I come into work and put the laptop onto the docking
> > station it does not remember the display I had setup. I have to go into the
> > Personalize area and "extend the desktop onto this monitor". This is a
> > feature I am used to in XP which no longer seems to occur, is there a way of
> > making this happen?
> >
> > 2) Physical network connection and wireless connection.
> > In XP I used to have the wireless connection disabled when I was on the
> > docking station (and Intel NIC enabled). When I went home the laptop knew I
> > wasn't on the docking station so it would use my settings which were wireless
> > enabled and Intel NIC disabled. When I went back into the office it would see
> > I was docked so reverted to the docked settings. I cannot seem to replicate
> > this behaviour in Vista. If I take it off the docking station and boot up the
> > wireless is disabled. So I enable wireless and disable Intel NIC and all
> > works fine. Until I plug it into the docking station and it leaves the
> > wireless enabled and Intel NIC disabled. This is a feature I am used to in XP
> > which no longer seems to occur, is there a way of making this happen?
> >
> > 3) Power Schemes.
> > I don't seem to fully understand how the power schemes work in Vista. In XP
> > if I unplugged the power adapter it would do things like reduce the
> > performance of the laptop, screen brightness etc and give me longer battery
> > life. In Vista it appears that I need to click on the power icon and change
> > the power plan manually. Is there a way to automate this? It seems to be
> > counter productive and I later forget that I plugged back into power and
> > didn't change it back to High Performance.
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Troy
> >