Customer Reviews

Lenovo ThinkPad Advanced Mini-Dock Port Replicator (250410U)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This Thinkpad Dock, built for the IBM Thinkpad T60, works very well - it is an excellent port replicator, short of the full-sized advanced dock by only 1 USB port and the expansion bays. The design is also a lot more attractive than that of the T-43 Port Replicator. There is an "undocking" system, but I usually, just eject the Thinkpad, without any ill effects to either the dock or my laptop. (The ejection process is annoying because my external hard drive sometimes does not stop immediately). My own wishes for this product are: 1) It included FireWire ports, and 2) It was cheaper. Just like all proprietary products, it sells for a lot more than it's worth.

Last note: The dock has these ports and features

4 USB 2.0
DVI
VGA
Ethernet
Phone jack
PS2
Serial
Microphone (Audio In)
Headphone (Audio Out)
S/PDIF
Power adapter
Lock

and couple more that I have no use for and will not even bother to look at. Full specs are at the company website.

I was unsure about this myself, so I am happy to confirm that this product *does* let you use two external monitors under Linux. (You may have to disable the built in display panel to do it, though...I don't think the Intel GMA integrated card can support all 3 at once).

I would have given this 5 stars but it only comes with 1 ps2 port and my keyboard and mouse both need one so I knocked it down a peg because there's all kind of ports I don't use, it would have been nice to have one that I do use. Really though, it's a well made unit and I have no complaints thus far. It's a big time saver without having to unplug cords from the unit and if you don't need the add-on cd drive it's a much better value then the full size dock.

I bought this for DVI output. And for that purpose, its perfect. The build is of the same quality as the laptop. The price is a bit high, but this is the cheaper way to do DVI on the T60. The two problems I have with it is heat and mic-in.

I always have my T60 on a laptop cooler that blows air from underneath the laptop. The cooler works really well. Unfortunately, this dock manages to cover up the hottest parts of the laptop. To give you a comparison, my laptop cooler will keep my battery at 34C (not charging). With this dock, the battery is around 42C (not charging and cooler blowing on it). Without the cooler it can only be getting hotter, but considering there hasn't been a recall of any sort, its reasonable to say your laptop is not going to melt, but I still don't like the idea of it running hot.

Another problem I noticed was that the dock's mic-in seemed to be of poor quality. For example, anything you put on the mic-in sounds like the gain has been boosted to where it sounds distorted (almost like you have the mic-gain feature selected, and no that wasn't the problem.) The solution to this problem is to just use the audio out built into the laptop. This takes away a little bit from the ease of docking experience.

Overall, I feel like the DVI (compared to the jittery VGA on my 24" Dell WFP-2705 some weird conflict with this monitor) was well worth it. 4 more USB ports are nice. Can never have enough USB 2.0 ports.

This docking station will lock up your laptop if you loose power. We purchased 20+ of these for company laptops and every one exhibited the same behavior. We placed a call to Lenovo and they said it is working as designed. Tell that to an engineering who lost an hour or two of work.

If you don't need DVI, and can live without the un-docking feature or built-in sound port, I would go with the standard model as it does not do this. If you do purchase this, I would recommend a power supply.

I bought one of these for my Lenovo T61 four months ago, mostly to add a "real" serial port, which is still widely used in the embedded development field in which I work (USB-to-serial converters add unacceptable overhead to data transfer rates). The serial port works at full speed with true RS-232 levels--no complaint there. Since then I've also appreciated the four extra USB ports, and the convenience of being able to leave all cables still connected to the Mini-Dock when I take my laptop off-site. I've had no mechanical issues, and I dock/undock on almost a daily basis.

However I've had enough OS problems with the undocking process (running WinXP SP3), that I've learned it's less problematic to just Shut Down the T61 before undocking. Also, if you happen to shut off power to the dock while undocking, that will definitely lock up the OS.

Except for the serial port and Ethernet jack, I haven't used any of the other ports (legacy parallel, audio out/mic in, DVI, VGA, modem, PS/2) so can't comment on those. The dock comes with a 90W AC adapter.

It would be nice if the Mini-Dock also included a stand (like the Lenovo ThinkPad Adjustable Notebook Stand, which I have on order); right now I have it propped up on a homemade stand to get a comfortable angle on the T61's keyboard.

Of course the ultimate question is, 'Would I buy it again?'. The answer is yes--I've just ordered another one for home office use.

2 years ago I bought this product along with my ThinkPad T60 and it worked perfectly without any issues full desktop experience with my laptop before this I always use to have a desktop + a notebook now just a ThinkPad notebook will do 2 years later I upgraded my ThinkPad from T60 to T61 and the docking still works 100% this is a great solution from Lenovo to us ThinkPad owners, all in all a high quality product that deserves more than 5 stars!

I purchased a Lenovo ThinkPad T500 laptop brand new one year ago (November 2009). I really like the T500, and recently I needed the mini-dock port replicator that Lenovo made for it. I assumed this would be no problem to purchase direct from Lenovo, since they make a big deal about service, support, and upgrades on their website. Silly me. One year ago I could have purchased it from Lenovo, but no longer. It seems Lenovo has stopped supporting last year's models with periphery hardware and now only offers a mini-dock for their newest line of ThinkPads, such as the T410 & T510, and that mini-dock will not work with the T500 (confirmed by a Lenovo support rep). Now they offer only a USB port expander for the older machines, which isn't what I needed. Thank goodness for Amazon and their third-party retailers, for that is where I found the exact model "Lenovo ThinkPad Advanced Mini-Dock - port replicator (250410U)" that I required (I specifically needed the serial and parallel ports that only the mini-dock will provide).

The retailer was offering this as "factory refurbished", and the price was less than half of what the manufacturer had been selling them for just a year ago, and since the purchase was being made through Amazon, I did not hesitate. The retailer, located in Rhode Island, shipped the item quickly (I think I had it within 4 days of placing the order, with "Amazon free super-saver shipping"). It arrived in a sealed Lenovo box, with a "refurbished" sticker on it, but honestly, it looks brand new to me, and functions the same. The mini-dock came with the 90 Watt power supply/battery charger, which was a bonus since most of the other used and so-called "like new" 250410U mini-docks that I found for sale on the internet did not include the power supply (this would not be a deal breaker, though, since you can also just use the 60-Watt power supply that came with the laptop, as long as your power needs don't get out of hand).

I am pleased with this purchase, pleased with the retailer who shipped it, pleased with Amazon, and pleased with the operation of the mini-dock. These Lenovo mini-docks have a relatively small footprint (as the name implies)compared with the older-style docking stations, and are very easy to dock and un-dock the laptop. The mini-dock adds the serial port, parallel printer port, 4 additional USB 2.0 ports (there are already three on the laptop), VGA and DVI monitor ports (both can be used at the same time for a dual-monitor hook-up), modem and LAN ports, one PS-2 port for a mouse or keyboard needing that functionality, sound-out and microphone port. All ports and peripherals that are already on the laptop, such as the 3 USB ports, card reader, headphone and mic ports, and optical drive remain functional while the laptop is docked. If you use an external monitor, keyboard and mouse plugged into the mini-dock, you need-not even open the laptop, as there is a "start" button right on the mini-dock to turn-on the laptop, and small colored LED lights to tell you the status of the dock . There is also a key lock on the dock which allows you to lock the laptop to the dock and take the key with you, and of course, the dock has the standard attachment for a cable lock to secure the mini-dock to a desk.

If you own a ThinkPad T400 or T500, I can highly recommend this mini-dock if you need the additional functionality, or if you use an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse at your desk.

I plan on using this for a dock next to my TV to run my Thinkpad T400 as a HTPC. The dock adds ports that the laptop itself supports internally but doesn't physically have the ports on the T400. The main ports I was looking for on this were the DVI out and the SPDIF out. Just to give you an idea of how I planned on using this for a HTPC. This will be my setup to give you an idea:
- Built in charging
- DVI port for video (Amazon basics DVI to HDMI cable is about $8)
- SPDIF to speakers
- 3.5mm to wireless headphones
- Wired LAN
- External USB hard drive
- Logitech unifying receiver for wireless keyboard with trackpad
- Wired Samsung laser printer

I just exchanged Google TV for this setup since it will allow a full Windows computer on the TV rather than some unnecessary interface that is 3x more expensive even at the $99 price reduction. I would recommend this product used because you can save a ton of money and there are a lot out there.

In short, it works as it should. Check out the pictures I uploaded for the port layout. I'm using it with a T60 (bought May 2007) running Windows 7. I am not using any ThinkVantage software.

It comes packaged with an additional 90W power adapter, which is nice because now I can route the cable neatly when it's plugged in at my desk and not worry about the cable's inconvenient location when I go mobile.

The DVI and VGA outputs allow me to use a dual-monitor setup. It works well with my two 24" (1920x1200) monitors.

There are some nuances to the USB ports on the dock. I put the T60 to sleep when not in use and I used to wake it up by pressing buttons on my keyboard or mouse (which were connected to the laptop via a non-powered USB hub). When the keyboard and mouse are plugged into the dock they do not wake up the laptop. I now plug my mouse into the laptop instead of the dock.

In fairness, I suspect the above problem is a limitation of how the dock implemented its externally-powered USB hub. The dock's ports are powered--my USB-powered HDD's work fine.