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Technical Details
- Works with widescreen and standard LCD Monitors up to 30 inches, or maximum 2048 x 1152 pixel resolution or 1080p
- Auto-Install design makes the initial installation a true "plug-n-play" experience. No CD software required. Perfect for office space shared with multiple users.
- All the port connectivity you need including 10/100 ethernet to maintain internet connection and avoid wireless hang-ups
- Hot pluggable, so you can connect to the dock and swap devices without shutting down
- Mini Tower design reduces desktop footprint, Kensington security slot allows you to secure your dock and its connected peripherals (via security cable and cablesaver)
Product Details
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Product Description
From the Manufacturer
Turn your notebook into a desktop in one simple step with the Kensington Universal Notebook Docking Station with VGA/DVI and Ethernet. Simply plug a single USB cable into your notebook and you are instantly comfortable and connected to internet via a wired connection. Share this setup with any user. Auto-install design makes the initial installation a true "plug-n-play" experience. No CD software required.
Which Docking Station Is Right for You?
- Auto-Install design makes the initial installation a true "plug-n-play" experience. No CD software required. Perfect for office space shared with multiple users. Auto install supported by all PC running Windows® XP and Windows Vista®
- Universal compatibility with all brands of notebooks via USB: Acer®, Asus®, Compaq®, Dell®, Gateway®, HP®, IBM®, Lenovo®, Sony®, Toshiba® and more
- All the port connectivity you need including 10/100 ethernet to maintain internet connection and avoid wireless hang-ups
- Connect to your high resolution monitor, printer, keyboard and mouse, external hard drive and more from your notebook
- Plug-n-play and hot pluggable, so you can connect to the dock and swap devices without shutting down
- Mini Tower design reduces desktop footprint
- Kensington docks & multi-display adapter are compatible with Windows 7. If needed, updated drivers can be downloaded at http://us.kensington.com/html/12118.html
Which Docking Station Is Right for You?
Product Description
Turn your notebook into a desktop in one simple step with the Kensington Universal Notebook Docking Station sd400v. Simply plug a single USB cable into your notebook and you are instantly comfortable and connected to internet via a wired connection. Share this setup with any user. Auto-install design makes the initial installation a true "plug-n-play" experience. No CD software required. HD screen capable so you can connect to a very large external monitor and drastically increase your visual workspace. Front Dualview button makes dual screen setup easy. Front Audio ports and back speaker port lets you connect both 2.1 stereo speakers and internet chat headset. Docking station will not provide power to your laptop, but provide connectivity to peripherals and network via a single USB cable. Universal compatibility with all brands of notebooks, including netbooks, via USB: Acer, Asus, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, HP, IBM, Lenovo, Sony, Toshiba and more. Operating Systems Compatibility: PC including Windows XP (sp2, sp3, including Tablet PC editions), Windows Vista sp1 (32-bit and 64-bit editions) or later. Auto install supported for all PC running Windows XP and Windows Vista. NOT compatible with Mac computers. Security cable slot on side panel: add a Kensington security cable (sold separately) and combine it with a cable saver to secure both the docking station and its connected peripherals. Front LED indicator: Green indicates docking station is working and connected to computer. Package content: USB docking station sd400v, USB cable, 2.5Amp wall power adapter, DVI to VGA adapter, quick start guide.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
85 of 86 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
Updated Nov 2010 (updates at the end)
I bought this to replace the similarly featured lenovo dock that wasn't DisplayLink certified. Compared to the Lenovo, a non-displaylink certified product, this product supports monitor rotation and the image quality looks very much like a direct connection to my laptop and not plagued with compression artifacts and discoloration.
Even though this is suppose to be plug-and-play, they should at least provide instructions on what to expect and what to do when things don't occur as expected. When I plugged mine in, nothing happened. I did notice a new cd-rom appear so I tried to install the drivers manually. It ran but gave no indication that it completed. Then I installed the drivers from DisplayLink and it still didn't work. I finally rebooted and it started working but stopped when I rebooted again. It may have been an incompatibility with remnants of the old Lenovo dock drivers and DisplayLink drivers so I tried to uninstall all that stuff, reboot, and start fresh. Now it seems to work better.
One rough edge is that if my laptop turns off my monitor after a period of idleness, I can't get the kensington-connected monitor to come back. Unplugging and replugging the device didn't help and the only solution was to reboot. I sometimes experienced the same issue if I bring my laptop out of hibernation, especially if I had cut power to the kensinton while my laptop was hibernating (no point in wasting power...). I installed Service Pack 3 onto my XP SP2 and hibernation seems to work more reliably, but the monitor power save feature will still cause the monitor to go blank. Very annoying. For now, my only workaround is to set my monitors to never turn off.
I contacted Kensington support regarding the issues with hibernation and power save and the response was unhelpful and not very technically relevant:
KENSINGTON: "We apologize for the inconvenience caused. We would like to inform you that when the computer goes into hibernation mode, all the active applications will be saved in the primary memory which can be restored when the computer wakes up from Hibernation mode.
In this regard, we would like to inform you that the Docking station model # 33926 does not have any internal memory to save the settings/active applications. Hence, when the computer wakes up from Hibernation mode, the external monitor screen will go blank."
I asked for clarification on the matter since DisplayLink themselves says their technology supports all power management modes:
ME: "I believe the problem is with the software/drivers rather than the hardware since unplugging and then replugging the device from usb/power does not bring the monitor back. Lets keep it simple:
Does K33926US support:
1) PC Hibernation?
2) PC Sleep/Standby?
3) Screen saver power save?"
The response was basically a copy-and-paste of the original response:
KENSINGTON: "We would like to inform you that when the computer goes into hibernation mode, all the active applications will be saved in the primary memory which can be restored when the computer wakes up from Hibernation mode.
The computer will not save any information about the external monitor. Due to this the external monitor will not work after hibernation.
We would like to inform you that the Docking station model # 33926 does not have any internal memory to save the settings/active applications."
It's like talking to a recording.
PROs:
+ DisplayLink certified and thus supports all their features
+ Great performance
+ Perfect quality
CONs:
- Installation may not be plug-n-play
- Not compatible with DisplayLink drivers
- May not work with your power management features
- Tech support is very much lacking
UPDATE Nov 2009:
I had continued to try to get Kensington support to fix the problem or look into ways to fix it, but it appears that anything out of the ordinary automatically gets classified as a limitation. I did find a way to prevent the device from not working when coming out from hibernation/sleep and it's to go to device manager and disable Network Adapters/LAN9500 USB 2.0 to Ethernet 10/100 Adapter. If you need the ethernet port, then this workaround is not for you. I told support about this workaround and how the issue may be related to the ethernet device/driver, and the response was basically thank you for trying to troubleshoot the issue but we have no interest in why it doesn't work and are happy to mark this as a limitation and close this case. I'm guessing the device and its drivers are made for Kensinton to resell and they themselves don't have enough technical control to affect development of drivers or troubleshoot the hardware.
UPDATE Dec 2009:
New drivers on the Kensington site that resolves the monitor power-save issue. WONDERFUL! (One more star added) The hibernate/sleep issue due to the ethernet port seems to work better now, but I did have it not work one time so I'm keeping that device disabled (ethernet drivers are still from Feb 2009). Interesting how the 'update notification' feature of the drivers wasn't able to tell me that new drivers were available.
When installing new drivers for this, sometimes an additional phantom display may appear in the display properties. I'm guessing this may happen if you install the drivers when the kensington is plugged in. Fix is to uninstall all kensington / displaylink devices from device manager, disconnect the kensington, uninstall all kensington / displaylink software from control panel, reboot, install the new drivers, and then plug in the kensington.
UPDATE Nov 2010:
Still working great (still not using the included ethernet). The latest Kensington driver is 5.2 while DisplayLink is at 5.5. According to DisplayLink, you should be able to install the latest over it but that wasn't the case for me. I installed 5.5 over the Kensington drivers, rebooted, prompted for another reboot, and the result that the display was blank and no icon in the tray to indicate that it even is working (all non-video functions are still working). I installed the kensington drivers again and so now both displaylink and kensington drivers are installed. I go into device manager, find the DisplayLink Mirror Adapter, and manually update the driver to what is here: C:\Program Files\DisplayLink Core Software\MirrorDriver\. I reboot and it now works and DisplayLink support confirms that I have the latest version installed. Maybe the manual update of the mirror driver is not necessary, but I guess I'll find out next time.
I bought this to replace the similarly featured lenovo dock that wasn't DisplayLink certified. Compared to the Lenovo, a non-displaylink certified product, this product supports monitor rotation and the image quality looks very much like a direct connection to my laptop and not plagued with compression artifacts and discoloration.
Even though this is suppose to be plug-and-play, they should at least provide instructions on what to expect and what to do when things don't occur as expected. When I plugged mine in, nothing happened. I did notice a new cd-rom appear so I tried to install the drivers manually. It ran but gave no indication that it completed. Then I installed the drivers from DisplayLink and it still didn't work. I finally rebooted and it started working but stopped when I rebooted again. It may have been an incompatibility with remnants of the old Lenovo dock drivers and DisplayLink drivers so I tried to uninstall all that stuff, reboot, and start fresh. Now it seems to work better.
One rough edge is that if my laptop turns off my monitor after a period of idleness, I can't get the kensington-connected monitor to come back. Unplugging and replugging the device didn't help and the only solution was to reboot. I sometimes experienced the same issue if I bring my laptop out of hibernation, especially if I had cut power to the kensinton while my laptop was hibernating (no point in wasting power...). I installed Service Pack 3 onto my XP SP2 and hibernation seems to work more reliably, but the monitor power save feature will still cause the monitor to go blank. Very annoying. For now, my only workaround is to set my monitors to never turn off.
I contacted Kensington support regarding the issues with hibernation and power save and the response was unhelpful and not very technically relevant:
KENSINGTON: "We apologize for the inconvenience caused. We would like to inform you that when the computer goes into hibernation mode, all the active applications will be saved in the primary memory which can be restored when the computer wakes up from Hibernation mode.
In this regard, we would like to inform you that the Docking station model # 33926 does not have any internal memory to save the settings/active applications. Hence, when the computer wakes up from Hibernation mode, the external monitor screen will go blank."
I asked for clarification on the matter since DisplayLink themselves says their technology supports all power management modes:
ME: "I believe the problem is with the software/drivers rather than the hardware since unplugging and then replugging the device from usb/power does not bring the monitor back. Lets keep it simple:
Does K33926US support:
1) PC Hibernation?
2) PC Sleep/Standby?
3) Screen saver power save?"
The response was basically a copy-and-paste of the original response:
KENSINGTON: "We would like to inform you that when the computer goes into hibernation mode, all the active applications will be saved in the primary memory which can be restored when the computer wakes up from Hibernation mode.
The computer will not save any information about the external monitor. Due to this the external monitor will not work after hibernation.
We would like to inform you that the Docking station model # 33926 does not have any internal memory to save the settings/active applications."
It's like talking to a recording.
PROs:
+ DisplayLink certified and thus supports all their features
+ Great performance
+ Perfect quality
CONs:
- Installation may not be plug-n-play
- Not compatible with DisplayLink drivers
- May not work with your power management features
- Tech support is very much lacking
UPDATE Nov 2009:
I had continued to try to get Kensington support to fix the problem or look into ways to fix it, but it appears that anything out of the ordinary automatically gets classified as a limitation. I did find a way to prevent the device from not working when coming out from hibernation/sleep and it's to go to device manager and disable Network Adapters/LAN9500 USB 2.0 to Ethernet 10/100 Adapter. If you need the ethernet port, then this workaround is not for you. I told support about this workaround and how the issue may be related to the ethernet device/driver, and the response was basically thank you for trying to troubleshoot the issue but we have no interest in why it doesn't work and are happy to mark this as a limitation and close this case. I'm guessing the device and its drivers are made for Kensinton to resell and they themselves don't have enough technical control to affect development of drivers or troubleshoot the hardware.
UPDATE Dec 2009:
New drivers on the Kensington site that resolves the monitor power-save issue. WONDERFUL! (One more star added) The hibernate/sleep issue due to the ethernet port seems to work better now, but I did have it not work one time so I'm keeping that device disabled (ethernet drivers are still from Feb 2009). Interesting how the 'update notification' feature of the drivers wasn't able to tell me that new drivers were available.
When installing new drivers for this, sometimes an additional phantom display may appear in the display properties. I'm guessing this may happen if you install the drivers when the kensington is plugged in. Fix is to uninstall all kensington / displaylink devices from device manager, disconnect the kensington, uninstall all kensington / displaylink software from control panel, reboot, install the new drivers, and then plug in the kensington.
UPDATE Nov 2010:
Still working great (still not using the included ethernet). The latest Kensington driver is 5.2 while DisplayLink is at 5.5. According to DisplayLink, you should be able to install the latest over it but that wasn't the case for me. I installed 5.5 over the Kensington drivers, rebooted, prompted for another reboot, and the result that the display was blank and no icon in the tray to indicate that it even is working (all non-video functions are still working). I installed the kensington drivers again and so now both displaylink and kensington drivers are installed. I go into device manager, find the DisplayLink Mirror Adapter, and manually update the driver to what is here: C:\Program Files\DisplayLink Core Software\MirrorDriver\. I reboot and it now works and DisplayLink support confirms that I have the latest version installed. Maybe the manual update of the mirror driver is not necessary, but I guess I'll find out next time.
36 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this dock to use with my new Dell Studio 1555. I planned to take advantage of display link technology and be able to run a 2nd monitor through the dock, as well as stream line my other USB devices to just one connection. Since reviews of this dock were mixed, I was a little wary of how it would function but figured it was worth a shot. For reference, I am running Windows 7 professional 64-bit on a dual core p8700 computer with 4gb of ram.
Unfortunately, this dock just doesn't cut it. It immediately recognized all of my USB devices and installed drivers for them, and then launched the displaylink installer which crashed half way through. I restarted the installer manually, and this time installation completed successfully. However the secondary monitor never turned on. I rebooted, and this time the monitor did come on, but only at 1024x768 resolution. The default for my monitor is 1920x1080 so that was obviously not satisfactory. I did quite a lot of messing around with both Catalyst Control Center (for my AMD graphics card) as well as with Window's built in display manager, but could never get the resolution correct no matter what I tried. I went to Kensington's web-page hoping to find some solutions, but their page has nothing at all useful for this dock. They did have a newer driver package (Nov. 2009), so I downloaded that hoping it would fix the resolution problem. After installing it and rebooting, the secondary monitor stopped working altogether!
I tried a variety of things to trouble shoot the non-working 2nd monitor, but nothing fixed the problem. I went to the displaylink webpage hoping they had support or a potential fix, but again, nothing. I then tried plugging the monitor directly into my computer using an HDMI cable and was able to get it to display immediately at full resolution. The Kensington dock couldn't get it a signal at all, even after multiple restarts of both my computer and the dock (in different orders hoping that would make a difference--it didn't).
Long story short, this dock does support all the USB devices I needed to connect, but so does my much cheaper powered 8-way USB hub. The main reason I wanted this was to streamline the number of things I need to plug into my computer when I want to use it at my work station. I've just gone back to the hub, knowing that I'll also need to plug in an HDMI cable and Ethernet cable, which really isn't that big of a deal since I cable-banded them together so they're all ready to go when I sit down.
I wasted about 6 hours of my life trying to get this dock to work. Your mileage may vary with different hardware/OS but I was seriously not impressed with this device nor the poorly laid out (and slow I might add) webpages of Kensington and Displaylink. I'm used to robust support sites from the likes of Asus, Crucial, etc., with real information and forums for solving problems. Kensington and Displaylink support pages are laughable, so if you do have an issue outside their 8 arbitrary FAQs, good luck getting your problem fixed.
I would not waste your money on this dock unless you are willing to spend a lot of time to MAYBE get it to work correctly. Right now it doesn't appear that there are any really good docks out there, so I'll probably just skip using one altogether until something much improved comes out (along the lines of the Harmony remote which actually DOES what it is supposed to and makes your life simpler!).
1/5 Stars. An overpriced USB hub.
Unfortunately, this dock just doesn't cut it. It immediately recognized all of my USB devices and installed drivers for them, and then launched the displaylink installer which crashed half way through. I restarted the installer manually, and this time installation completed successfully. However the secondary monitor never turned on. I rebooted, and this time the monitor did come on, but only at 1024x768 resolution. The default for my monitor is 1920x1080 so that was obviously not satisfactory. I did quite a lot of messing around with both Catalyst Control Center (for my AMD graphics card) as well as with Window's built in display manager, but could never get the resolution correct no matter what I tried. I went to Kensington's web-page hoping to find some solutions, but their page has nothing at all useful for this dock. They did have a newer driver package (Nov. 2009), so I downloaded that hoping it would fix the resolution problem. After installing it and rebooting, the secondary monitor stopped working altogether!
I tried a variety of things to trouble shoot the non-working 2nd monitor, but nothing fixed the problem. I went to the displaylink webpage hoping they had support or a potential fix, but again, nothing. I then tried plugging the monitor directly into my computer using an HDMI cable and was able to get it to display immediately at full resolution. The Kensington dock couldn't get it a signal at all, even after multiple restarts of both my computer and the dock (in different orders hoping that would make a difference--it didn't).
Long story short, this dock does support all the USB devices I needed to connect, but so does my much cheaper powered 8-way USB hub. The main reason I wanted this was to streamline the number of things I need to plug into my computer when I want to use it at my work station. I've just gone back to the hub, knowing that I'll also need to plug in an HDMI cable and Ethernet cable, which really isn't that big of a deal since I cable-banded them together so they're all ready to go when I sit down.
I wasted about 6 hours of my life trying to get this dock to work. Your mileage may vary with different hardware/OS but I was seriously not impressed with this device nor the poorly laid out (and slow I might add) webpages of Kensington and Displaylink. I'm used to robust support sites from the likes of Asus, Crucial, etc., with real information and forums for solving problems. Kensington and Displaylink support pages are laughable, so if you do have an issue outside their 8 arbitrary FAQs, good luck getting your problem fixed.
I would not waste your money on this dock unless you are willing to spend a lot of time to MAYBE get it to work correctly. Right now it doesn't appear that there are any really good docks out there, so I'll probably just skip using one altogether until something much improved comes out (along the lines of the Harmony remote which actually DOES what it is supposed to and makes your life simpler!).
1/5 Stars. An overpriced USB hub.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
After reading about this product it seemed perfect for my home office since I am 50/50 working on the road and at home. Following the Spartan installation instructions -- the assumption is that your system will install the needed drivers and everything will be plug-and-play -- my experience was not that simple, however. The USB hub functionality was identified OK, however the Kensington Dock software did not install, Ethernet did not work and external monitor did not work. Keep in mind, no software comes with this unit and there were no downloads that I could find on Kensington's website. Checking around a bit, I found a reference to "DisplayLink" technology for this product. I searched on DisplayLink, and found the main site for this technology. The site has downloads for my OS, Vista 64 bit Pro, so I downloaded the software. Drivers installed... then the Kensington software was automatically installed and everything was working fine. So, might have been something specific to my system... but I had to do the legwork myself.
If your monitor and Ethernet do not work with this product, I suggest going here and downloading the drivers for your OS[...]
After fixing that... so far so good. I will post back if I have any issues or other observations.
If your monitor and Ethernet do not work with this product, I suggest going here and downloading the drivers for your OS[...]
After fixing that... so far so good. I will post back if I have any issues or other observations.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
bluescreened/crashed multiple laptops - DO NOT PURCHASE
This stupid little piece of technology that was supposed to help me and streamline my desk blue-screened two of my laptops and has cost me countless hours in issues and recovery. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Kristin
problems
I got this docking station a few years ago when I had an HP laptop. It worked great.. no problems at all. I then bought a Lenova laptop. Read more
Published 4 months ago by OK49
Kensington Docking Station
Easy plug and play. Can't go wrong here. The price is very affordable. One of the first Technical things I have purchased on the Web. Highly recommend
Published 6 months ago by einekec
Kensington Universal Notebook Docking Station
The docking station works for me and I am happy with it. I use dual monitors and extend my desktop to a led monitor. I have Bose speakers setup on this station as well.
Published 7 months ago by D. Hein
Garbage
I've given this thing six months before I decided that I needed to share with you what a turd this product is. Read more
Published 7 months ago by J. Carnegie
Didn't know really what to think.........
Since I decided to swith from a desktop pc to a laptop. Been searching for a few weeks for some kind of a "hub" to handle all the "accessories" that I want to use on my PC desk. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Joe Sr.
Don't waste your money.
I bought this product from Dell because it was the only option available for my laptop. Beware that Dell does not support or troubleshoot the product. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Alison Sedler
docking station
It's not really plug and play. If you want to use the video port you need to download the drivers. Tech support helped me with that but when it still didn;t work their solution was... Read more
Published 11 months ago by bruceg2
Works great - but do not update drivers!
We followed the instructions, the drivers automatically installed, rebooted the device when asked, and it worked. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Daniel E Stalker Jr
Excelente equipo
Es una excelente elección, facil de instalar y cumple con lo ofrecido en la propaganda. Lo utilizo actualmente para mi conexión de un laptop DELL XPS 15 en el puesto... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Sergio Marin
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