I have a setup with a home office and a work office in which I have a Dell SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Docking Station at each location. Mysteriously about two to three weeks ago the Dell Gigabit Ethernet connection on BOTH docs just stopped working - it briefly connects, tries to identify the network and then shows no connection.
The laptop is an XPS 15 but to debug I also tried a Latitude E5470 - both laptops act the same way on both docks. On the XPS 15 I updated all of the drivers from Dell and Intel. TCP stack reset, adapters deleted and re-added, etc, etc.
When the Ethernet is connected directly to the latitude it works just fine at both locations.
I called Dell support and was told if the Ethernet works on the Latitude then I have to go back to the retailer where I bought the dock and ask them how to fix it because the dock and the laptop are out of support [I offered to pay but was told that the dock isn't covered regardless]... STUPIDEST TECH SUPPORT RESPONSE EVER (and I'm in tech support myself so I've heard it all) for multiple reasons as noted above - two docks and two laptops.
At roughly the same time the WiFi throughput on the XPS built-in adapter dropped to kbps speeds (well documented but no real solution - google "dell Wireless-N 7260 performance issues").
On the XPS I even upgraded from Win 8.1 to Win 10 to see if a "fresh" OS would flush out any bad drivers, etc - no help, same issue.
The only workarounds I found were :
- used USB3 Gigabit adapters on both docks. NOTE : after you get the external adapter connected, you can move the Eth cable back to the Dell Eth port and it works! But, the next time you plug and unplug the doc, it reverts back to failure.
- removed the latest Intel drivers for the 7260 WiFi and let the OS load the default Microsoft drivers. Speed on the Wifi jumps from about 2mbps to 60mpbs or more depending on the wifi network.
I know there has to be a solution somewhere but to the best of my ability I have tried everything I know. I am missing something - can anyone help??
