Unable to charge Spectre Pro 13 G1 from HP Thunderbolt 3 Dock

[Purpleteapot78]

Hi All,

We've recently bought a Spectre Pro 13 G1 and we're really pleased with the notebook.

However, we also bought the HP Thunderbolt 3 Dock to go with it as was recommended and although it connects the Spectre to the various devices plugged into the Dock, it does not Power the Spectre as it should.

I also notice that the power light on the dock doesn't come on and pressing the power button on the dock does nothing.

The Specs for the Spectre Pro 13 G1 advertise 2 of the 3 USB-Type C ports as being Thunderbolt ports that also support Power Delivery, so there should be no reason why this doesn't work.

We've ensured that the BIOS is upto date on the Spectre and that all the drivers are upto date (including the Thunderbolt Drivers).

We can see the Dock in the List of Devices in the Thunderbolt Device Manager utility, and since devices plugged into the dock are available to the Spectre, it seems to be fine, apart from the Power issue.

Has anybody managed to find a solution to this?

Thanks in advance,

Jan

[iMaxx]

Can you send me a link to the dock that you got?

Is it this one?

[Purpleteapot78]

Hi iMaxx,

Yes that's the one.

Cheers,
Jan

[iMaxx]

Found the problem. 🙂

That one is for the ZBooks only and it cannot power via the TB connection.

You will notice that the connection coming out of the dock has a TB connection and a power connection. The ZBooks need that extra power.

To quote @soccer_dan

--------

USB-C is a new standard that tends to be all things and fix all issues with usb. however, it is also complex and very confusing and can supports a variety of implementations. So, usb-c standard has 2 versions:

    * usb-c 3.1 gen1 - compatible with usb 3.0 in all respects except for new connector

    * usb-c 3.1 gen 2 - compatible with usb 3.0 +

               - PD (Power Delivery) to charge a device up to 100 watts

               - support for protocols other than usb, like thunderbolt, displayport, pci-e pass-thru (really thunderbolt)

               - higer performance

So, guess what the Spectre Pro 13 supports? gen1, which does not have PD or other protocols support. That is why you can see devices, which appropriate drivers with the usb-c dock, but not charging.

Commercial product today supporting both USB-C dock and TB docks are HP Elite x2 1012 tablet and EliteBook Folio G1. The HP ChromeBook 13 also supports the usb-c dock (not TB dock)

---------

[iMaxx]

I want to add that the USB travel dock will charge either, however.

[Purpleteapot78]

Hi iMaxx,

Thanks for the info.

The version of the dock that I have has a tb connector plus power pin that plugs into the dock itself but the other end of the tb cable, which plugs into the notebook, only has the tb connector, no separate power pin, so it's possible that the one we have is a variation.

Also, the specs of the Spectre Pro 13 G1 list the 2 tb ports as having support for power delivery, which suggests that they should be USB-C 3.1 Gen 2.

[iMaxx]

Yeah that cable is for the newer Elite Books, I believe.

These are not my product but I have a Spectre Pro 13 G1 here. Let me play about with it and see what I can figure out.

[iMaxx]

On my setup, using the Spectre Pro 13 G1, the  dock and the cable that as TB and power on one end and only TB on the other gives me nothing. The charging LED is off.

Power isn't being send down that TB connection from the dock.

On the ZBooks, for which the dock was designed for, the cable with the two ports on each side are needed as the ZBooks need the power.

I am not 100% familiar with the other units that this dock was set to work withbut I know that those units can use this dock with the cable you have, but I think it also has AC conencted to is. 

I am confirming this.


EDITS: product clarifications

[soccer_dan]

the Technical Specs for the Spectre Pro G1 show these usb-c ports

USB Type-C port

USB Type-C™ with Thunderbolt™ Gen 3 technology

and the power supplied is a 45W adapter

The USB-C standard grouping that supports Thunderbolt includes PD (Power Delivery) to be able to charge the device from an external source. The HP Thunderbolt dock with the 65W power brick should be able to power/charge the Spectre Pro.

Another prerequiste i am aware of to be able to power/charge is the voltage levels negotiated betwen the device/laptop and the external power source (power supply, dock, etc). If the Thunderbolt dock does not happen to be able to supply the correct voltage to the laptop, then no power will be drawn. Now, since the power adapter supplied with the Spectre Pro is of type USB-C, then perhaps there is a mismatch here we are not aware of.

It is also possible that the power behind the Thunderbolt dock is not sufficient to support the laptop and therefore, since the laptop is asking for more wattage than the dock is capable of supporting, it will not produce it. We have just released an updated version of the 65W Thunderbolt dock with a 90Watts adapter instead. So, maybe that is the problem?

[iMaxx · Accepted solution]

So I got more information to add to the above post and this does get confusing so my answers will be as simple as possible.

To the way I understand it, there are different ways to supply power through the USB-C connection according to the standard.

Short answer: It's an Incompatibility of the pass through option on that laptop.

Long Answer: So the USB C standard can do "all these wonderful things" but they have to be programed to do so.
So the dock can supply the power needed.

The Laptop can accept power given through the port on the far end.

But the two cannot talk to each other because the port on laptop wasn't designed to take power the way the dock is trying to deliver it. (But both are still adhering to the standard.)


USB C versions and standard is so confusing.

So there are no docks that will charge the Spectre Pro 13, sadly. 😞