Toshiba PA3542U-2PRP Dynadock USB Laptop Docking Station with DVI Port

The docking station worked perfectly with my monitor and vista. Very easy to set up. The only drawback was that it doesn't supply power to the notebook as well.

Its Okay.....I purchased this unit to avoid unhooking several connections when I leave from work everyday. The unit does not charge/power the laptop so you still have to connect your power cord. In addition, the Video does not work with 64bit Vista. I was told this after talking to Toshiba's technical support. I was also told they have no plans to release any updates for this unit as it has reached its life cycle....wasnt too happy to hear this... Soooo, I have to connect my external monitor (VGA - as no laptops have DVI connects) direct to the laptop....

The Toshiba Dynadock went from barely useable to unusable. Support is non-existant.
Until the most recent updates the unit worked 80% of the time on one of our two laptops. The update on the Toshiba-Dynadock main web page is for V2.3. That did not work, and a search of the Toshiba site had a newer 2.3c. It did not work either,i.e., the same video problem.
Our first attmept at tech support, July 2007 met with stunned silence, "never heard of the product." Now, Toshiba tech gives a number, but it is to an individaul's line, and he has not answered, or returned a call.
Toshiba Tech main line can only suggest calling the Toshiba company's main switch board.
Toshiba PA3542U-2PRP Dynadock USB Laptop Docking Station with DVI Port

I needed to replace the old, slow CPU tower that drove my desktop system. A family member asked me if I really needed two computers. I concluded that the answer was a definite "No" and, rather than spend $600-800 on a complete new setup, I bought the Toshiba Dynadock for less than $100, including shipping. Now, my newer, faster and more powerful Toshiba laptop is my only computer, and I continue to use my existing monitor and a separate wireless keyboard and mouse. Undocking is easy when I need to take the laptop with me away from home or just away from my desk. When undocked, my system works perfectly to permit remote connection via LAN. The Dynadock is a great device and has significantly improved my system performance at a very economical price. A very good solution for me!

I bought this unit to connect my Toshiba Satellite A135 (running Vista) to a KVM switch in order to share the monitor, keyboard, and mouse, with a Mac Mini.

I previously had hooked the the laptop directly into the KVM switch. It worked great, but I found that screwing and unscrewing the video plug into the laptop was too much of a pain for it to be practical, so it was time to look into a dock.

I ordered this unit, along with an extra AC cable for the laptop, so I didn't have to bend down and crawl under the desk to unhook the power every time I wanted to move the laptop.

After installation, I had a a setup where the video was mirrored (everything that I saw on the laptop monitor was also showing on the external monitor). This wouldn't work for me because the two monitors have different resolutions and the external monitor looked bad set at the wrong resolution. There was no way to change the resolution on the external monitor with that setup.

So I played with the monitor settings. The next setting that I came up with had the laptop monitor extended onto the external monitor. That's not what I wanted. Then I got the external monitor to be the main monitor and extending onto the internal monitor. This was closer to what I wanted, but I only wanted to use the external monitor. Next, I tried turning off the laptop monitor, and that's when the problems started.

At first, it looked like it was working but after about a minute, the mouse appeared to freeze. As it turned out, it didn't actually freeze--there was about a 15 second lag between the time that I moved the mouse and I saw the cursor move on the monitor. It didn't matter if I used the USB mouse or the touchpad on the laptop. I had to force a reboot.

I couldn't get the configuration into any other mode because every time I docked, it would go into the same mode and then "freeze." Time to call tech support.

The manual that comes with the Dynadock has a phone number in Irvine, CA, which I called. The receptionist told me to call an 800 number, which I did. I followed the prompts until I got a tech support rep (in India) on the phone. What follows is an abbreviated version of the conversation.

I said that I was calling about the Dynadock product. "What kind of laptop do you have?" asked the rep. I told him it was a Toshiba Satellite.

"Can you please read me the serial number of the laptop?" he asked. I read him the serial number of my laptop.

"Well, it seems that your laptop is out of warranty, it that correct?" asked the rep.

I told him that was correct but that I wasn't calling about the laptop, so what difference did it make?

"This is laptop tech support."

"I told you right at the beginning of this call that I was calling about the DYNADOCK, not about a laptop," I said. I was losing my patience.

"Where did you buy the Dynadock?" asked the support rep.

"What's the difference where I bought it? I need support and you already told me that this is tech support for laptops. Can you just get me to the right place?"

"Where did you buy the Dynadock?" asked the support rep again.

"WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE, YOU IDIOT? $*@!!&!!!"

That's when I hung up. I called back the Irvine number, where the same receptionist answered. I told her what happened. She gave me a different 800 number to call. I called that number, where I eventually got someone on the phone, who promptly transferred me back to the 800 number that I had called previously.

So now I'm back at laptop support. My only chance was to explain to the laptop support rep why I was calling and hope he could get me to the right place. Luckily, this rep had a few more IQ points than the last one and he actually transferred me to a support rep for the Dynadock product, in...Irvine, CA.

At least the US support rep had a clue but ultimately, all he had me do was uninstall the software, reinstall it, and then get it to where it was working again, although not the way that I had wanted. Then he told me that I would have to experiment with the monitor settings and I was basically on my own at this point.

Total elapsed time with Toshiba support was about 2 1/2 hours. I had to play around with it in order to realize that what was making it freeze up was turning off the laptop monitor, which is how I wanted to use it. I've settled on using the external monitor as the main monitor and using the laptop monitor as the secondary monitor (the external is extended onto the laptop monitor) because it works this way and it's closest to the way that I wanted to use it.

I've basically switched to Mac. I have a couple of PC programs that I still need to use and I can use them given the limitations of the Dynadock. I could use the Mac with Parallels or Fusion, but I bought the mini with an 80GB HD, which may not be big enough to run my Mac and also run Windows. In the meantime, this solution works for me. I'm not trying to play video on the PC, which is one of the limitations of the Dynadock.

One day, I'll buy a better Mac with a big hard drive, run any Windows programs with virtualization, get a Macbook, and get rid of the Dynadock and the PC laptop. Until then, the Dynadock, even with its limitations, is less of a hassle than having to unscrew the video plug whenever I want to move the laptop.