Spectre x360 Thunderbolt docking station randomly disconnects, requires reboot

[simmoja3]

New laptop (bought it last week).

Using a USB 3 / Thunderbolt external docking station (CalDigit TS3 Plus, but have tried with another one and same issue), the machine seems to be randomly shutting off the port several times a day. Configured and working great with external devices (camera, keyboard/mouse, multiple monitors, etc.) and power, then disconnects out of the blue.

What's particularly frustrating is reconnecting the cable seems to work for all peripherals except monitors... device doesn't detect them again without a reboot, so essentially I have to restart the machine a few times a day.

Have tried disabling "Allow computer to turn this device off to conserve power" under USB controllers, though not sure how to tell if I've actually covered this particular device. Also set my power settings to never sleep/hibernate when plugged in, which is terrible from a power management perspective but just trying to get this issue sorted out.

Any advice greatly appreciated!

[erico]

What is the complete product name or product number?  You have only given a partial identification.

See my post's signature where I have given a description of the keystroke combination to use to invoke the system info dialogue window that provides the product name.

Post the product number in your next reply. Without knowing the hardware platform your notebook has, it is difficult to help you.

[simmoja3]

Su re thing!

Product name : HP Spectre x360 Convertible 14-ea0xxx

Product number : 1H9M0UA#ABA

[erico]

Thanks! That does help.

This issue appears to be present across the spectrum of USB3 connective docks regardless of manufacturer.

The usual suspects are the USB driver crashing or the BIOS.

To start, I suggest verifying that you have the most recent Thunderbolt driver and most recent BIOS version installed.

Here is a link to the HP provided drivers and software for your Spectre x360 convertible laptop PC

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-spectre-x360-convertible-laptop-pc-14-ea0000/356...

[simmoja3]

Thanks for the suggestion. Confirmed all drivers are up to date (HP latest drivers) and reflashed latest BIOS just to be sure. Since the issue is intermittent it's difficult to tell whether or not it's resolved without waiting and seeing, but alas I just experienced it again :(.

Near as I can tell there's no trigger; it seems to happen quite often when I'm on a video call... but that may be because I spend a significant chunk of my time on video calls these days. 

Further exacerbating the issue, unplugging and reconnecting the dock doesn't result in monitors being detected and activated; other devices (all USB devices) will reconnect, which makes it just an annoyance, but since the monitors won't reconnect without a reboot, it essentially means shutting down the laptop and starting fresh several times a day... real productivity killer.

Just upgraded from another Spectre laptop (Folio) that never had this issue, so am confident it's not the dock.

[erico]

Which build and version of Windows 10 is installed? 

[simmoja3]

Version 10.0.19041 Build 19041

[erico]

Why not update to version 20H2? 

My Spectre x360 13-ap0xx is running that version of Windows 10 Professional without issue.

It is stable.

[dcdruck]

I have a similar issue with my x360 14t-ea000 with my TB3 dock (Plugable TBT3-UDC1): my USB devices cut out frequently, maybe once every minute or two, for anywhere between 5 and 30 seconds before magically coming back to life.

This same dock works perfectly with my x360 13t-aw100 from last year. Note that  It seems maybe there's a Thunderbolt issue with the new 14-inch models since I've seen others report similar issues. Your x360 13-ap0xx is a couple years old (early 2019 I think), so the hardware is different and it's no surprise yours works (like my late 2019 does) while the new ones don't.

Both machines are running Windows 10 20H2. My 14 is running Pro, my 13 is running Home. Both are fully up-to-date with updates.

[Martin-Akerlund]

I have similar problem with my new HP spectre x360 14 (2W0S4EA#UUW)

The dock station is a Targus410 (usb-c dock station).

The dock station also supplies power to the docked computer. As long as the HP spectre x340 14 is charging

(from the dock station), everything works fine, but when the battery is fully charged it gets into trouble.

The "x360 14" has a "cut out" from the dock station with an interval about a minute or so. You can not work with it!

My old HP spectre x360 13 (with usb-c) works fine towards same dock station (and a bunch of other computers).

The new HP spectre x360 14 is updated with latest drivers/bios. 

The workaround is to attach another power (USB-C) cable to the HP spectre x360 14 (!)