XP won't start while laptop is docked

[pagjsp]

My boss has a Dell Precision M60 laptop with a dual XP/Win2K operating system environment. A couple of days ago, the laptop would not boot on battery, and Dell replaced the motherboard under warranty. Now, if you startup the laptop while docked under XP, it will get all the way to the XP splash screen, then hang at a blank screen immediately after that. It boots fine while undocked, boots fine to XP safe mode, and boots fine either docked or undocked from the Windows 2000 side. If you boot undocked into XP, then hot dock it, all functions are normal, but it hangs at the "Windows is shutting down" screen. I spent (3) hours on the phone last night with a Dell tech, and we tried just about everything. I'm considering either an XP repair of in place upgrade. Any ideas?

 

[bcastner]

Check you hardware profile for the docked state. It may be necessary to disable some docked state hardware items until driver issues are resolved. What you are describing is either:

. a video driver issue for an external monitor;

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324764

. a USB device error

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=313644

 

[pagjsp]

Pretty much trouble shooted all that the other night with the tech. Totally baffling, but thanks for the reply.

 

[bcastner]

If the hardware profile for both docked and un-docked state are made to match in Device Manager, then you are looking at a hardware issue with the docking station itself.