Just bought a laptop with Thunderbolt 4. My older dock doesn't work with it. I'm suspecting it's Thunderbolt 3 maybe?
I can't get it to work. Any thoughts? I'd rather not go spend hundreds of dollars on a new dock.
My Thunderbolt 4 Laptop Doesn't Work with My Thunderbolt 3 Dock. Is That Normal?
BadGiraffe on 17/08/2023 - 22:30
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Tried looking for drivers. There's only firmware available for download. I tried installing the latest DisplayLink drivers though… no luck.
Does it show up under Device Manager?
No, but it picks up the peripherals connected to it. I haven't checked it when it was connected to my work docks.
Displaylink is not Thunderbolt, it’s another proprietary standard.
Have you tried using the latest Disaplaylink VGA driver?
https://www.synaptics.com/products/displaylink-graphics/down…
Check you are using the thunderbolt port on your laptop. For many models theres a specific USB port thats thunderbolt enabled and the others aren't.
There's no technical reason why a thunderbolt 3 dock will not work with a thunderbolt 4 laptop.
I saw from you comments that you may have purchased an HP X360. Note that some models show a lightning bolt next to the USB port but this is only a charging port not a thunderbolt one.
If you bought a MacBook Air it's actually USB4/thunderbolt 3 and will only support a single external monitor.
Yup! HP X360. Good hardware… not good experience.
I can use the exact same port on my portable Switch dock, and it works fine. I can use other laptops on my desk dock, and they work fine. It's just the combination of these two that doesn't work.
This X360 also works with my work docking stations. Just not the one on my desk at home.
I'll try for another week, and if I can't get it working, I'll look at selling it. There are other weird things going on.
Saw your post below. You laptop does NOT support any Thunderbolt (let alone TB4).
Your dock is a USB-C Dock NOT Thunderbolt 3.
Your entire post is incorrect. No wonder why you're having issues and no one has been able to help you with this!
That said the HP x360 with 11th gen i5 does have a USB-C port and the Acer USB-C dock should work with it. Try using windows update while the dock is connected to see if any extra drivers are available
Should start by providing Laptop and dock model information.
HP Pavilion x360 11th Gen i5 and Acer USB-C Dock III.
Seller says dock and laptop could be using different protocols or something. Could be right.
Thunderbolt 3 is a standard but that being said I have had intermittent issues using Dell WD15 dock with Intel NUC laptop. It works but on a rare occasion does not work.
So that's not a TB3 dock. It's a USB-C dock. Your dock is actually the kind which has the best compatibility out there - all ports are spanning from a USB hub, display outputs are duplicated from a DP MST hub which is connected via USB-C Alt Mode DP. Plus your host computer is an Intel TB4 port. These kind of docks should work out of the box even with Macs (though because of the DP MST hub it will only output 1 external display on Macs).
You did mention above that peripherals connected are working. So I assume the display outputs are not working as you expected?
Docks with USB-C ports can be a mess depends on how it duplicates its ports. If there's no display output, you may try to connect your displays using a USB-C to HDMI or DP dongle and see if it's the problem of the dock or the port on the computer instead.
Thanks. That's really good to know. Well… the dock works with all the other laptops at home, even a Chromebook.
The laptop works on other docks I've tried, even my cheap portable Switch dock.
There's nothing wrong with the laptop or the dock, I guess, so I'm going to either contact the seller and see if I can return it, or see if I can sell the laptop.
@BadGiraffe: You should try a different cable instead - sometimes it's just the cable.
Search "USB 4 cable" on Amazon and find the cheapest one should do.
Do you just need drivers?