Kensington Notebook Expansion Dock with Video; USB Connection 33367

I spent several hours attempting to get the video form my new Toshiba Laptop- new HP display along with the normal geek stuff- i.e. PDA phone, HP printer, Scanner, sound system - mouse and key board. In the end tossed the Expansion Dock in the heap of older out dated computer stuff- in the end used a powered seven USB hub and ended up with (4)plugs to laptop- 1. Power, 2. Video 3. Sound cable to HP display and 4. The USB Hub.
I feel the conflicts are a result of the Expansion Dock attempting to work with the new VISTA operating System. Just a paint to get the things to play together upon shut down to re- boot.

In the end a Toshiba laptop owner might have to wait for Toshiba to get its Tower Port System a little better engineered- from most reviews it has a way to go- I have not tried it - wasted far too much on hardware and some degree software that does not work as stated.

Looked like a nice docking station but is not compatable
with Windows Vista 64 bit

This is the sort of product that should be a no-brainer, but there were a couple of unintended benefits from getting it. Since my laptop has replaced the tower, the level and angle of the keyboard had taken some getting used to, and the dock raised the angle enough to make typing much more convenient. Also, the airflow under the laptop has increased, keeping it a little cooler. The software is simple to understand and easy to install. Definitely a worthwhile purchase.

I bought this expansion dock on sale for $99.00, and I am happy with the value for the money. When I plug my laptop into the dock, my printer and monitor are instantly available. (The dock I had before was worthless; I had to reboot my printer every time I reconnected to the dock.) Moreover, I've noticed no lag time in the connectivity. The only weird thing I've noticed is that I seem to have to readjust the resolution on my monitor each time I reconnect to the dock. There must be a way to get around this, but I haven't discovered it yet. There are expansion docks that are much more expensive, but this one works really well for my use.

I bought this product to use my laptop like a do a regular desktop computer but retain the ability to pick it up and step away from the office whenever I want. I connected my old CRT monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse, and ethernet cable to this device. I had a problem with the software included on the cd, so I had to download the latest software from Kensington's website. After that, it worked great!

The reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because of three quirks:

1) The cd with the software didn't work for me. Had to download the latest version from their website.

2) After unplugging the dock and then wanting to use the laptop (without a restart), the function key seems to be enabled. So when I type the letter "O" it gives the other option that is written in blue ink on that key. Solved with a simple function + function lock.

3) The CRT monitor I use is not widescreen, but my laptop is. This means that what is displayed on my CRT is in widescreen form. So to see the full screen, I have to take my mouse and move left or right to shift the screen. If there is a way to eliminate this issue I would like to know. The plan is to buy a widescreen monitor eventually and that will resolve the problem, but in the meantime this is the most annoying problem/quirk with this product.