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paulthepilot_5
14th September 2009, 05:26 PM
G'day have just been looking at the bottom of my laptop, and have found this port/socket underneath a rubber bung.

What is it? and what is it used for?

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5563/1010145l.jpg (http://img7.imageshack.us/i/1010145l.jpg/)


Cheers
Paul
maca
14th September 2009, 05:47 PM
At a guess, I would say its for a docking station.
Blknight.aus
14th September 2009, 05:53 PM
correct docing station depecited by the lappy pic on the left and given away by the power contact buttons below.
paulthepilot_5
14th September 2009, 06:04 PM
ok cheers, what is it used for? I'm guessing for trouble shooting
loanrangie
14th September 2009, 06:16 PM
Its where you plug in the flux capacitor, or maybe the docking station that you leave at work/home with kb/mouse/ external monitor connected to.
Blknight.aus
14th September 2009, 06:20 PM
it allows you to turn your lappy into a desktop...

leave the docking station in one place with all your usualy perepherials plugged in (network, monitor, keyboard, speakers, printer, yada) and it all works, then when you need to be somewhere else hoick the lap top and run.

Almost redundant now with 90% of that stuff being bluetooth or wifi networkable.
Narangga
14th September 2009, 06:42 PM
Almost redundant now with 90% of that stuff being bluetooth or wifi networkable.

But our Dave will never be :D:D:D
paulthepilot_5
14th September 2009, 08:31 PM
Cool, thanks for the info, you learn something new every day :D

Paul
Bushwanderer
15th September 2009, 03:52 PM
SNIP
Almost redundant now with 90% of that stuff being bluetooth or wifi networkable.

I'm glad you said "almost" as I still use one. :(
Blknight.aus
15th September 2009, 04:44 PM
have you tried getting a laptop with a docking port and station these days?


I like the old school ones where you could have a more powerfull gcard, sound card network card in the docking station so your laptop turned to a fully fledged desktop along with additional hard drive space.
djam1
15th September 2009, 05:03 PM
Dave we buy hundreds of them a year they are still available for professional use.
Cheap laptops dont have them, they are far from redundant in the corporate world.
Utemad
15th September 2009, 05:20 PM
Qld govt still has bazillions of them.
They're for the people who only need a desktop but like to take their laptop home after hours so they don't need to buy a computer for their home.
That's where I used to work anyway.
Blknight.aus
15th September 2009, 05:50 PM
Outstanding.

Last time I tried to get one setup for it the Toshiba Tech line gave me the "you want what?" line..

Might have to look into it again for the next round of upgrades at home.

Anyone got any direct model numbers and purchase locations they can dial me in on?
djam1
15th September 2009, 06:08 PM
Dave find another Toshiba tech the last Toshiba series I bought with a dock was a TECRA in fact most professional products will have it.
The Dell Latitude Series D430 thru D830 and beyond have this ability.
Pretty well all of the Professional IBM T Series have the ability.
We are not talking the sort of stuff you get buy in Harvey Norman but it is available.
Utemad
15th September 2009, 06:19 PM
Ours were all from Dell.
Blknight.aus
15th September 2009, 06:28 PM
no offence but I dont do dell....

its mainly a brand loyalty thing.
warren9981
15th September 2009, 06:35 PM
How about HP. That's what I use for work. The dock is great.
Psimpson7
15th September 2009, 06:39 PM
My HP Compaq 8710W has a docking port too.
awabbit6
15th September 2009, 06:46 PM
I'm on a laptop in a docking station at the moment! It's a Lenovo (X200T).
The docking station has a DVD drive (the laptop doesn't have one), digital video out (video port) as well as a LAN card and more USB ports than I know what to do with. An extra HDD is an option instead of the optical drive. Blueray drive was another option (but I wasn't going to pay Lenovo's price for one!)

It's great. I come home from work, drop it on the docking station and it gives me a desktop and charges up for another day at work.
Blknight.aus
15th September 2009, 06:57 PM
nice to see its not as redundant as I belived. It might be worth looking at implementing the setup I was looking at when I was led to believe that it wasnt supported.
Narangga
15th September 2009, 08:02 PM
nice to see its not as redundant as I belived. It might be worth looking at implementing the setup I was looking at when I was led to believe that it wasnt supported.

Which is why forums like this is where you get real world advice - on any subject!
Bushwanderer
16th September 2009, 04:47 PM
Hi Dave,
My laptop is a Toshiba TECRA M7 (I think).

The docking station is a Toshiba Advanced Port Replicator III, model No. PA3314U-1PRP.

HTH,
Peter