Dell thunderbolt TB16, User Manual

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Frequently asked questions
1 The fan is not working after connecting with the system.
• The fan is triggered by temperature. The dock fan will not rotate until the dock is hot enough to trigger a thermal threshold.
• Vice versa, if your dock is not cool enough, the fan will not stop even when you disconnect the dock from the system.
2 The dock does not work after high-speed fan noise.
• When you hear a loud fan noise, it is warning you that the dock is in some kind of a hot condition. For example, the vent in the
dock may be blocked or the dock is working in a high working-temperature environment (> 35C), etc. Please eliminate these
abnormal conditions from the dock. If you do not eliminate the abnormal condition, in a worst-case situation, the dock will shut
down through the over-temperature protection mechanism. Once this happens, please un-plug the Type-C cable from the
system and remove dock’s power. Then, plug in the dock power to recover the dock back online.
3 I hear a fan noise when I plug in the dock’s AC adapter.
• This is a normal condition. First time plugging in of the dock’s AC adapter will trigger the fan to rotate, but it will subsequently turn
off very soon.
4 I hear a loud fan noise. What’s wrong?
• The dock fan is designed with two different rotate speeds. Normally, the dock will work on low fan speed. If you put the dock in a
heavy loading, or in high working-temperature environment, the dock fan may have a chance to work at a high speed. But, this is
normal and the fan will work at a low/high speed depending on the work loading.
5 What is the charging station feature?
• The Dell Thunderbolt Dock TB16 can charge your mobile or power bank even without being connected to the system. Just make
sure your dock is connected with external power. The dock fan will rotate automatically if the dock gets too warm. This is normal
working condition.
6 Why am I asked to approve Thunderbolt Devices after the Windows logon and what should I do?
• This is for Thunderbolt security. You are asked to approve a Thunderbolt device because the Thunderbolt Security level on your
unit is set to “User Authorization” or “Secure Connect” in the BIOS Setup. You will not see this page if the Thunderbolt Security
level on your system is set to “No Security” or “DisplayPort Only”. Also, if you checked “Enable Thunderbolt Boot Support” in the
BIOS Setup and power-on the system with TB16 attached, you will not see this page because the Security level is overridden to
“No Security” in this case. When you are asked to approve a Thunderbolt device, you may select “Always Connect” if you do not
have any security concerns to always allow the Thunderbolt device connection to your system. Or you may select “Connect Only
Once” or “Do Not Connect” if you do have concerns.
7 Why does it take a long time for the system to recognize all the peripheral devices which are attached to the docking station?
• Security is always Dell’s highest priority. We ship our systems with “Security level - User Authorization” setting by default. This
allows our customers to review the Thunderbolt security conditions of their systems so they can make selections accordingly.
However, this also means the Thunderbolt dock and the devices attached to it will need to pass Thunderbolt driver security
permission checking to get it connected and initialized. This normally means some extra time is needed before these devices can
be accessed by users.
8 Why does the hardware installation window show up when I plug in a USB device to the docking stations ports?
• When a new device is plugged in, the USB hub driver notifies the Plug and Play (PnP) manager that a new device was detected.
The PnP manager queries the hub driver for all of the device's hardware IDs and then notifies Windows OS that a new device
needs to be installed. In this scenario, the user will see a hardware installation window.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/drivers/install/step-1--the-new-device-is-identified
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/drivers/install/identifiers-for-usb-devices
9 Why do the peripheral devices, which are connected to the dock station, become unresponsive after recovering from a power
loss?
• Our Thunderbolt dock is designed to operate in AC only and it does not support system power source back (powered by system
type-C port). A power loss event will make all devices on the dock fail to work. Even when you restore the AC power, the dock
may still not function properly because the dock still needs to negotiate proper power contract with the system Type-C port and
establish a system EC-to-dock-EC connection. A Type-C cable re-plug is needed to initiate the power contract negotiation and
establish system EC-to-dock-EC virtual I2C connection. As a result, after a power loss, the user needs to unplug type-C cable, re-
plug in AC power, and then re-plug-in Type-C cable to system to restore dock back to normal condition.
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32 Frequently asked questions