After using an E7440 in a eDock for a few month now, there are still many unresolved issues. All of them are deeply investigated and Dell support was contacted without helping results. All drivers are updated to the latest provided by Dell. The intention of this post is not to ask for support, but to inform other users that those issues are only solvable by Dell.
1) Nothing shown on external DVI monitors before Windows 7 64 Enterprise boots.
Alle suggestions in the knowledge bade article about this issues didnt' help (and the article is outdated, by the way). Worst of all, it worked most of the tome with BIOS A10, but broke again with the current A12. It is the 2nd time a new BIOS reintroduces this issue. So far about regression testing fro new BIOS releases.
In my particular case this is very annoying because there is a regultaory-mandated disk encription in place, which shows a user interface before OS boot, nothing of it is visible on external monitors so I cant enter my credentials without opening the lid and than closing it before Windows boots. And no, it is not related to disc encription, the same thing happens to all bootable medias (rescue, live CDs, ...) relying on legacy video output nor is the BIOS POST output shown.
2) External screens go blank for about 2 seconds every time Windows 7 shows an UAC dialog
3) The wired GB LAN connection on eDock doesn't work after resume from system hibernation. The only way to recover is a reboot or disabling/enabling the interface in network settings.
4) From time to time, the internal GB LAN connection in the eDock stops working completely. Link LED on connector is still on, but nothing works. Recovering procedure as described for 3)
4) From time to time, WiFi refuses to work after undocking. No connection, no available networks shown.The only way to recover is as a reboot without being docked.
5) Two finger scrolling on the touch pad is unusable. It is unresponsive, it continuous scrolling for seconds although no finger on the touch pad, it triggers left klicks while scrolling. For someone knowing touch pads from a company in Cupertino, this is just laughable.
6) From time to time, the system completely locks a few seconds after an external HDMI device is connected while undocked. Display content freezes, mouse pointer not moving, no reaction on keyboard, nada. The only way to recover is to press the power button until it switches off.
7) From time to time, the cooling fans keep running at high levels making annoying noise although there is no CPU load and all internal sensors are showing temperatures quite low. Recover: Power-cycle.
8) The display glass glue below the display is loosing contact and the glass can be pushed with the finger what makes it slightly moving. This seams to be a manufacturing issue, as the device was already replaced once for exactly this reason. The new one shows the same issue after about 3 months.
The customer support is friendly, but clueless and some of theme speak a very bad English. If I want to talk to friendly Indians knowing nothing about IT I prefer to go to the Indian restaurant around the corner. Promised call backs are never happening. Email about issue 1) above celarly stating that following the knowledge base articel didnt help are answered with a linkt to the same knowledge base article. Thanks, I know Google too.
I am a professional SW developer for almost 30 years using almost only Dell HW. I was happy with it. Than my last machine (E6400) had overheating issues never really solved during its life time and the newest E7440 has that many issues.
It is pretty obvious the quality of DELL HW and customer support went downhill during the last years.
