How to Use and Troubleshoot Dell Thunderbolt Dock TB16

The Dell Thunderbolt Dock TB16 can charge your mobile or power bank even without being connected to the PC. Make sure your dock is connected with external power. The dock fan rotates automatically if the dock gets too warm. This is normal working condition.

This is for Thunderbolt security. You are asked to approve a Thunderbolt device because the Thunderbolt Security level on your unit is set to "User Authorization" or "Secure Connect" in the BIOS Setup. You will not see this page if the Thunderbolt Security level on your PC is set to "No Security" or "DisplayPort Only". Also, if you checked "Enable Thunderbolt Boot Support" in the BIOS Setup and power-on the PC with TB16 attached, you will not see this page because the Security level is overridden to "No Security" in this case. When you are asked to approve a Thunderbolt device, you may select "Always Connect" if you do not have any security concerns to always allow the Thunderbolt device connection to your PC. Or you may select "Connect Only Once" or "Do Not Connect" if you do have concerns.

Security is always Dell’s highest priority. We ship our PCs with "Security level - User Authorization" setting by default. This allows our customers to review the Thunderbolt security conditions of their PCs so they can make selections accordingly. However, this also means the Thunderbolt dock and the devices that are attached to it needs to pass Thunderbolt driver security permission checking to get it connected and initialized. This normally means that some extra time is needed before these devices can be accessed by users.

When a new device is plugged in, the USB hub driver notifies the Plug and Play (PnP) manager that a new device was detected. The PnP manager queries the hub driver for all the device's hardware IDs and then notifies Windows OS that a new device needs to be installed. In this scenario, the user sees a hardware installation window.

• https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/drivers/install/step-1--the-new-device-is-identified
• https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/drivers/install/identifiers-for-usb-devices

Our Thunderbolt dock is designed to operate in AC only, and it does not support PC power source back (powered by PC type-C port). A power loss event makes all devices on the dock fail to work. Even when you restore the AC power, the dock may still not function properly because the dock still needs to negotiate proper power contract with the PC Type-C port and establish a PC EC-to-dock-EC connection. A Type-C cable replug is needed to initiate the power contract negotiation and establish PC EC-to-dock-EC virtual I2C connection. As a result, after a power loss, the user needs to unplug type-C cable, replug in AC power, and then replug the USB-C cable to PC to restore dock back to normal condition.

The fan is triggered by temperature. The dock fan will not rotate until the dock is hot enough to trigger a thermal threshold. Conversely, if your dock is not cool enough, the fan will not stop even when you disconnect the dock from the PC.

When you hear a loud fan noise, it is warning you that the dock is in some kind of a hot condition. For example, the vent in the dock may be blocked or the dock is working in a high working-temperature environment (> 35C). Eliminate these abnormal conditions from the dock. If you do not eliminate the abnormal condition, in a worst-case situation, the dock shuts down through the over-temperature protection mechanism. Once this happens, please unplug the Type-C cable from the PC and remove dock’s power. Then, plug in the dock power to recover the dock back online.

This is a normal condition. First time plugging in of the dock’s AC adapter triggers the fan to rotate, but it will subsequently turn off soon.

The dock fan is designed with two different rotate speeds. The dock works on low fan speed. If you put the dock in a heavy loading, or in high working-temperature environment, the dock fan may have a chance to work at a high speed. But, this is normal and the fan will work at a low/high speed depending on the work loading.