Customer Reviews

Toshiba Dynadock V, Universal USB Docking Station with Video

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

March 2011 -- just an update: my original review incorrectly referenced the "V" unit and not the "U" unit -- thanks to those folks who set me straight. Apparently, the "V" unit doesn't have an Ethernet port, and mine did. I sent the unit back before I wrote my comments... all of my remarks are unchanged, however, based on the "U" and not the "V". Nice, clear branding job, Toshiba, too...

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I bought this Toshiba Dynadock **U** in Nov 2010, thinking that it would help me avoid the headache of connecting my Ethernet cable, video cable, mouse/keyboard cable, and speakers to my laptop each day. This unit has ample USB ports for connecting other peripherals, like my Windows phone and a USB flash drive. And it's compact, which is great.

But here's the real problem, and there are TWO of them:

First, if you have a high-end laptop, which I do for work (an HP Pavillion dv7t quad-core running Windows 7 64-bit OS), the integrated video card cannot keep up with the laptop's display. Every time I pg up/pg down in PowerPoint, or attempt to move objects in a slide, the rest of the slide goes blurry, so you can't see what you're doing. In the end, the real-time imaging is so poor that it is basically useless. You can't have all of this high speed data crawling through a USB 2.0 connection. There's just not enough bandwidth. Bad enough by itself to return it.

Second -- and this one really took me by surprise -- this docking station has it's own MAC address. So what, you say? Well, it means that it appears as a separate device on your network, and in doing so it masks your laptop's true MAC address. Many software packages I use in my work do an online license check when they launch to validate the installation, which is tied to my machine's MAC address. But the software now thinks that I've installed the programs on another machine, and invalidates the licenses! And then they won't launch, even after I disconnect the docking station!! This happened to me with THREE different programs. I had to explain my situation to all three companies so they could re-activate my licenses. Took me hours...

So, if you have an average machine, with a mediocre display, and are running MS Office and nothing else, this might work. But I cannot warn you strongly enough that this unit brings with it a minefield of problems. The folks at Toshiba got this one very wrong. I returned the unit.

Purchased this docking station to use with my new Toshiba Qosmio X500, and so far it's been very impressive. In the past, I had always purchased laptops with a dedicated docking port, and the matching docking station to go with them. While this has the advantages of being a more direct connect to my peripherals and makes it much easier to undock the laptop for travel, those docking stations cost 2-3 times as much as the Dynadock V, and I've always ended up having to get a new one every time I replaced my laptop. The Dynadock V has all the same ports as my old docking station, but connects to the laptop through a USB connection instead of a dedicated docking port (something fewer and fewer new laptops have these days).

In comparison to a dedicated docking station, the Dynadock V has several advantages, as well as a few minor disadvantages. Advantages include (1) it's cheaper - a lot cheaper, (2) it's much smaller and takes up a lot less space on the desk, and (3) it will work with just about any laptop that has a USB port. In other words, you won't have to buy a new one every time you upgrade your laptop. The only disadvantages I've noted so far are that (1) you can't power or charge your laptop through it, and (2) video performance is somewhat degraded by pushing it through a USB connection. The power issue is prominently displayed on Toshiba's advertising materials and shouldn't surprise anyone. Basically, you'll have to plug the Dynadock and your laptop in separately. This is only an issue when you need to unplug the laptop to take it on the road. I'll probably just get an extra power supply to stash in the travel bag.

Video performance is also less than perfect. The Dynadock includes an onboard video card to help with the graphic performance, and for most applications this works just fine. However, I did notice that HD video performance was affected when using the Dynadock. The Dynadock only has a DVI port, but also comes with a VGA-to-DVI adapter if you need it. Using a VGA cable to connect to my external monitor, I did note choppy video performance, although this might have been affected by the fact that I'm running the laptop's monitor and an external monitor simultaneously. Since my laptop also has an HDMI-Out port, the simple solution was to run an HDMI cable from the laptop directly to the external monitor and bypass the Dynadock. It's one more cable to unplug when I want to travel, but the increase in video performance is definitely worth the minor inconvenience. It would be nice if the Dynadock had an HDMI port, but there really isn't any room on the unit for any more ports.

Overall, it's a great product and a real bargain, too. Highly recommended!

This dynadock docking station is not likely the one you want. The Universal "U" has all of these features, plus an additional 2 USB ports, including an additional USB Sleep/Power port in the front. I mistkenly ordered this one thinking this was the only version with a vidoe card to run three monitors at the same time. Unfortunately, Amazon's website isn't that clear. But after confirming this with the manufacturer, I chose to purchase the U version. Hope that helps.

Used with Sony VAIO F Series running Windows 7 64-bit OS. Although this does mostly what it says it does, the video link to a large Dell monitor was so tenuous, I just resumed plugging it directly into the laptop; we've had the same problem with the U (along with some odd background pixelation), but it has more USP ports. The sleep-charge feature is nice though and I can still route the monitor's built-in USB hub through the Dynadock for more convenient docking. The software is less than feature-rich and not particularly intuitive either. Lastly, the Windows 7 driver needs LOTS of work -- I get freezes, so I can't hook up the wireless mouse and the external drives on the USB hub tend to drop out of sight periodically. Definitely not typical Toshiba -- I've come to expect far more from them. It would be nice if laptop manufacturers went back to just creating port replicator/docking stations for their models instead of making so many models that it's impractical to make a dock for each one.

I bought 2 of these, one for the desk, and one for the home theater setup (separate set of speakers/display/keyboard and mouse/other controllers). So now, depending on where I want to watch movies or play games, I can just move my (desktop replacement) laptop to either place and just plug in one usb plus the power cord. Everything works almost perfectly. The only minor annoyance is that my usb desk mouse jumps around a bit from time to time, but this might be because it's quite old and there aren't current drivers for it. Other than that, I've only had one instance of messed up video display in about a month's time. Using Win7 64 bit.

See my 5 star rating for the Dynadock U. This V series did not compare though ~$30 cheaper than the U. I don't think the wireless model is necessary especially since it is only wireless for a few feet and costs so much more. The U is excellent. Not enough USB outputs on the V and not as good quality of video.

When connected to the docking station, the attached monitor would go out of focus whenever the screen changed (such as scrolling up or down). The focus would return after a moment but the effect is unpleasant. If I connect the monitor to the port on my laptop, the monitors work fine together. For two weeks I've been attempting to resolve the issue with Toshiba. If you wish to test your ability to withstand frustration, try dealing with this band of idiots. From the start, when there is no number listed for anything other to Toshiba Laptops on their website to the eventual promise of a callback from their "specialist department" the experience is enough to make the Dalai Lama scream. Though a docking station would be a nice convenience, I'm giving up and returning it. The only bright spot is Amazon's returns policy.

Based on this experience, I would only recommend a Toshiba product to someone I truly despised.

I had this product for a few months with it working fine. After a while the external monitor was no longer working through the Dynadock (although it worked fine through the computers port) After 2 days of tech support trying to fix the problem, they determined it needed to be recovered under warranty. Unfortunately, the warranty process is long and obnoxious and is not worth the time they require. When I tried to resolve the issue with customer service, they refused to help out any further and tried to send me back to amazon to get fixed. I don't remember the last time I spoke with a customer service agent that was so unhelpful.

This is a good product. All my peripherals work just fine with it. I especially like that it adjusts the display resolution automatically; I don't have to keep toggling back and forth between the laptop resolution and the external display resolution. On the minus side, it crashes (hangs) occasionally, maybe every 4-6 hours. Fortunately, the fix is easy (disconnect and reconnect the power); the crash does not affect the computer session, and the reboot only takes 10-15 seconds.

I really regret not doing my research before buying this product. I read the description on Amazons site and thought, "I NEED THIS!" I have a Toshiba Satellite Laptop and I thought since this was made by Toshibe I shouldn't have a problem right? WRONG!!! Blue screen of death everytime I turned on the laptop. When I looked on Toshiba's website to see if I can correct this issue, there were none. Just a bunch of bad reviews on their own website about this dynacrap. $75 bucks down the drain. Thanks Toshiba, for NOTHING. I love the laptop though.