HP Laptop will not restart while connected to HP Thunderbolt Dock

[Old-Tech]

- Customer has multiple HP ProBook 450 G10 laptops using HP Thunderbolt Dock W120 G4. Purchased at the same time.
- Starting mid January, they started experiencing a problem.

- If you restart the laptop while it is NOT connected to the dock, the laptop restarts properly.
- If you try to restart the laptop while connected to the Thunderbolt, the laptop would shutdown, start up, but then hang at the HP Wolf Security screen. We have let it sit at that screen for hours and it doesn't progress.
- They have to force the power down by holding the laptop power button. Wait 10-20 seconds, then start the laptop.  Then the laptop boots properly and lets the user to sign in to Windows.
- Ran through the steps below on all three machines.  Two of them worked properly for a week or two, but the issue returned.  The third is still working OK so far, but on the second week.

STEPS:
- Download HP Image Assistant (not crumby Support Assistant), extracted, and analyzed computer.
- Installed firmware update for Thunderbolt and laptop.
- Installed driver updates (e.g. Intel video, Intel WLAN, and Realtek HD Audio)

- Techs before me had manually installed the drivers from the Thunderbolt website.

https://support.hp.com/ie-en/drivers/thunderbolt-docking/model/2101085539
- Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth completes with no issues.
- SFC /scannow finds no problems.

- Also went through these steps on the computers that started having the issue again.
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-Notebooks/HP-ProBook-450-G10-not-powering-up-when-connected-t...

- Earlier this week, on a machine where the issue returned, we went through the following.  Laptop restarted properly each time and can now restart while connected to the dock.  But who knows for how long.  😞

Always get a good restart of the laptop before troubleshooting:
1) Unplug laptop from computer
2) Restart computer
Process of elimination:
3) Unplug everything from the dock except power. Might want to take a picture or take notes as to where everything is plugged in.
4) Plug dock into computer.
5) Restart computer.
- If the computer fails to restart while connected to the dock, and the dock is only connected to power and the computer, then it's likely the dock that's causing the issue.
- If computer restarts successfully, restart it again just to be sure it works.
- If laptop restarts successfully while connected to the dock, and the dock is only connected to power and the computer, maybe something we are connecting to the dock is causing the issue.
6) Plug one item back into the dock, wait about 10 seconds, then restart the computer.
7) If computer hangs, go through our normal steps to get the computer running again. Then unplug the item that was just plugged into the dock. Restart the computer to see if it restarts OK.
- If computer restarts while connected to the dock, with nothing plugged in. But computer doesn't restart with the most recent item plugged in, then that item may be the culprit.
😎 Repeat steps 6 and 7 until we find something plugged into the dock results in the computer not restarting.

Laptops and docks are outside of warranty, so can't **bleep**.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

[Jupitero]

Hello.

If problems started in all computers roughly at the same time, I would first suspect a BIOS update that HP these days automatically pushes through Windows Update. HP has for the last couple years produced very shoddy BIOS updates causing all sorts of dock problems and even bricked some laptops.

Check the BIOS versions in the laptops. Latest version is 1.08 - released in February 2025, so if you have 1.07 (released in December 2024), try the latest version first. If it didn't help, try rolling back to earlier version than 1.07.

The HP docks are not updated automatically through Windows Update, but they have received a lot of firmware updates as well in the past years. Keep in mind: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", so don't update the firmware unless you have a problem the updates specifically fix.

[Old-Tech]

Hello Jupitero
Thank you for the info.
This customer has 31 of these HP ProBook 450 G10 laptops, all using the HP Thunderbolt Dock W120 G4. They were all bought at the same time.
All laptops were running 1.07 or 1.06 BIOS.
Only these three started having this issue. I resorted to updating drivers and then firmware, on the laptops and docks, because there were no errors pointing to the cause of this issue.
One of the three machines is still restarting OK after completing the "STEPS" above, but the other two still have the same problem intermittently.

After the "STEPS" above the laptops are running 1.08.00 and the docks are running 1.5.25.0.

Pretty sure I did this already, but I've got three tickets with a LOT of notes. So I've asked one of the other employee's (who is not having any issues) to try restarting when connected to one of the docks owned by a user having this restart issue. This should help determine whether the issue lies with the dock or the laptop. Unfortunately the customer is going through an audit and a major software migration. So I'm still waiting for them to do this test.

I will update the post with the results.

These port replicators, that they call "docks", have been a giant pain in the azz. Several other of our customers have had a variety of issues with the Thunderbolts.  When I was issued my ZBook G9 and a Thunderbolt w280 G4 last year, I spend the first four months working with HP support trying to address flickering monitors. I REALLY wish they would stop making these POS port replicators and go back to creating true docking stations.  I don't recall having issues like this with the true docking stations.

[GFBr]

I'm having this problem with new G11 laptops connected to USBC docks from HP (G5 Essential dock) and Dell (WD19TB). 

PC out of box will not restart out of the box while connected. It hangs right after the HP wolf security screen. It doesn't effect shutdowns, only restarts while the lid is closed and connected to a dock. If you plug in an external keyboard and mouse and connect a monitor through HDMI on the machine, it will restart with the lid closed.

My troubleshooting so far:

Have updated all firmware on PC and dock, including BIOS

Have downgraded BIOS to older version

Have used band new dock and Laptop straight out of OOBE with new dock

Have used a new dock with PC completely updated on windows and HP support assist

I have other laptops that have all the same updates and same dock and they do not have this restart issue.

Have gone all the way back to BIOS version 01.03.03 for the laptop

Only G11 models of two different varieties are doing this as far as i have seen yet.

Laptop must be force powered down to come back up, as no amount of waiting will see it coming up.

If you press the dock button, it turns off and another press turns the PC back on.

This problem does not occur if you leave the lid open and perform the restart and so far this is our only work around to the issue.

Only things plugged into dock are generic wired HP keyboard and mouse from this years lineup.

[RogerB67204]

Try the following:

Go into your BIOS setup (F10). From there, navigate to Advanced > Power Management Options.

Uncheck Runtime Power Management, Extended Idle Power States and Power Control.

Go back to Main BIOS and save/exit.

This completely solved my HP Laptop HP EliteBook 860 16-inch G11 Notebook (8N369AV) Model A2CV0UA issue with connecting to a HP WSB-C Dock G5

[Old-Tech]

We implemented this yesterday. So far so good.
I'll update next week.

[Old-Tech]

Thank you for the recommendation RogerB

Sorry for the delayed reply.  I was hoping to have more information.

Disabling those three Power Management options did get her laptop restarting while connected to the dock.

Unfortunately she also reported that her computer had multiple performance issues (very slow startup and intermittent performance throughout the day) after disabling those settings.

About a week later we re-enabled the BIOS Power Management settings.  The performance issues went away.  Unfortunately the laptop started having problems restarting while connected to the dock again.

Our next step may be a fresh install of Windows and programs on her laptop.  But before we go down that path we are going to test restarting her laptop while connected to a co-workers HP dock 5-6 times.. Just to be sure the laptop is the point of failure and not her dock.

[EdwinF1]

Hello all, i'm having the exact same problems. Today I had a ProBook 450 model that wouldn't start or restart when connected to a HP Thunderbolt Dock G4 120W with the lid closed. Lid open and no problems. Newest firmware and drivers installed on notebook and docking.

I had the same problem a couple of months ago. Tried a brand new PB450 notebook and the same problem occured after a few weeks. Sometimes this new notebook also has a weird problem of flickering HP E24 monitors on the same docking station.

For now I tell people to have the lid open when booting. When they have to insert their password they can close the lid.

[Old-Tech]

Hi EdwinF1
For most of the laptop and dock combos the following resolved the restart issue.

- Update all drivers and firmware for laptop and dock.

- Follow steps below to "reset" the dock.

"Reset" HP Thunderbolt dock

1. Close programs and save your work. Don't sign out.
2. Unplug the dock from your laptop.
3. Unplug everything from the dock.  Consider labeling the cords if you think it will be difficult to reconnect them in the same ports.
4. Unplug the dock from power.
5. Wait a full minute.
6. Watching the light/button on the top of the dock, plug the dock back into power.
7. The light may flash several times. Wait for at least 30 seconds. If the lights still flashing, wait until the flashing stops and it goes dark.
8. Restart your laptop and sign in.
9. Connect the dock to your laptop and wait 20 seconds.
10. Reconnect all the cables to the dock, one at a time. Waiting at least 10 seconds between connecting each cable.
11. Now the dock should be plugged into power, all the cables should be connected to the dock, and the dock should be plugged into the laptop.
12. Restart your laptop.

A couple users still need to do the dock reset every month or so.

Flickering monitor? I ran into an issue a while back.  If the following symptoms match your situation, then see my resolution below.  If your symptoms are different, then you should create a new HP forum thread. Keeping it separate from the restart issue.

- You have multiple monitors connected to your HP Thunderbolt dock

- The monitors (individually) will go black for 3-5 seconds every so often.

- When the monitors go black neither Windows display settings nor the Device Manager show any change (meaning it's not the display adapter going offline).

I had this issue about a year ago. HP finally put out a dock firmware update that resolves the issue, but only after I switched my cables and monitors so that the cables and monitor input matched the port on the dock.  DisplayPort to DisplayPort, HDMI to HDMI.  No conversion or adapters.