Dell E5450 quirky behavior with Dell E-Port Plus 430-3114

Question

I bought a Dell E-Port plus for my old Latitude E6400 a few years back and have recently upgraded to a newer E5450. Since the docking station says it supports E-series Latitude models, I docked the E5450. The laptop display and my two monitors worked, but the keyboard and mouse weren't detected unless I plugged them into the laptop itself.

When I took my PC home where I don't have a docking station, I hooked up my mouse, keyboard, and my two monitors with a VGA and DVI cable. Worked fine.

When I came in to the office today and docked my laptop, it now doesn't detect my second monitor (still have to plug mouse and keyboard into laptop directly).

Amazon says my docking station is Compatible with: Dell Latitude E6400, Latitude E6400 ATG. I can only assume that there's compatibility issue here, but I am hoping there's something I can do to make this work. The monitors worked the last time I was in the office, so I don't see what could have happened to keep my second monitor from being detected. Finding out why the mouse and keyboard aren't being detected would also be a plus.

Update

I found a VGA cable and plugged it into the dock and now my other monitor works. I also discovered that plugging my mouse/keyboard into different USB ports on the dock now allows them to be detected. Looks like an issue where the new laptop dock port isn't interfacing with the docking station pins. Still trying to figure out why my second DVI port was working Friday, but not now.

Answer 1

Check the dock connector on the bottom of the laptop for any bent pins.

If any are bent, the laptop will not connect to the dock properly and random things may not work when docked. Unfortunately the dock connector is soldered on the motherboard so you're looking at replacing the laptop or its motherboard if you have bent pins on the connector.