I’ve been using the 120B-USBC-MULTIPORT for a couple of months to drive a couple of monitors from my Inspiron P125G without any issues. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve discover that the laptop stops charging while everything is still connected to power. If I disconnect the multiport adapter and plug the Dell charger directly to the laptop, charging retstarts. The problem is intermittent.
Hello @Parasys
Thank you for posting on our StarTech.com Community forum!
I am sorry to hear you are having this issue using our 120B-USBC-MULTIPORT and I would be happy to help and provide some possible testing and troubleshooting steps to see if we can find a resolution and what could be causing this behavior. Here are some initial steps and questions:
- Do you have any other laptop that supports Power Delivery (USB-C laptop charging) that you can test this with to see if it has the same behavior?
- Do you notice any specific context or trigger in which this behavior happens? (When waking from sleep, on reboot, if disconnected and reconnected, etc.) Or does this happen completely at random, even when actively in use?
- When this does happen, what do you have to do to get it to work again?
- Have you checked Dell’s support website to ensure all system drivers, BIOS, and Firmware updates have been applied to the laptop?
- Do you have just the one of these 120B-USBC-MULTIPORT adapters? If you have access to another, can you test with it to see if it has the same behavior?
Also, please feel free to contact our Technical support services via our Live Chat if you would like to speak with one of our Technical Advisors for any additional assistance!
Adam S.
Answers as follows:
- This is the only laptop that I have.
- It’s happened on 3 occaisions when the system is in active use. I’m stiing at my desk working and suddenly the “Low Battery” warning appears and I become aware that the laptop was not charging. I don’t yet recognize a pattern.
- It just happened right before my post. I unplugged it from my laptop, shutdown, plugged in the Dell charger and let it charge for 2h. Rebooted, plugged everything back into the Multiport and it is working (ie. charging) now.
- Not yet. But I will now.
- I have only one.
Thank you for providing this information. Now depending on the outcome after applying any outstanding updates from Dell for the laptop, we may be able to look into some more testing. But definitely do want to confirm first that the laptop is fully updated and if this issue continues after that. I will wait to hear back from you with these results!
Adam S.
All updates have now been applied. I will monitor to see if the issue reoccurs and report my findings. Thanks,
It just happened again this morning. I moved my laptop to another office to particpate in a Google Meet. I plugged in one external monitor to the Multiport as well as my Dell power adapter passing power through. Before the meeting when I moved the laptop the battery was fully charged. I got the low battery message about 1h 15m into my my meeting and my laptop shut down a few seconds later. I disconnected from the Multiport and plugged my Dell power adapter directly and the battery resumed charging. At about 70% charge I reconneced the Multiport and my regular two external monitors plus passthru power and everything is now working and the battery is charging.
Thank you for this update! I am very sorry to hear this is still happening. Do you notice whether the 120B-USBC-MULTIPORT stops charging after a disconnect and reconnect of the adapter while the computer is running?
Would you be able to tell at all if this has ever happened after the 120B-USBC-MULTIPORT adapter with the power supply is connected to the computer during a fresh startup without being disconnected?
Again I look forward to hearing back from you!
Adam S.
Just tested: Scenario 1: Unplug Multiport from laptop while running, wait 10 sec, plug multiport back ito laptop - result: charging resumes ok. Scenario 2: Unplug Dell power adapter from Multiport while running, wait 10 sec. plug Dell power adapter back into multiport - result: charging resumes ok.
I have not monitored for you second situation. I belive it has but I am not sure. I will monitor and report my findings.
The second situation just happened. On a fresh startup I confirmed that the laptop battery was charging. Approximately 1 hour later I noticed that the battery was now at 30% charge and was no longer charging. With everything still plugged in, I restarted the laptop. Upon restart the laptop battery returned to charging, however the two external monitors did not reconnect. Opening the Multiple Monitors control and using the “Detect Monitor” function did not recognize any external monitors. Unlugging each HDMI cable and re-plugging into the Multibus did not rectify the monitor connection issue. I shut down the laptop, unoplugged the multibus from the laptop, unplugged the laptop power supply from the multibus. Unplugged the HDMI cables from the multibus and waited 20 seconds. I replugged everyhing back ogether and restarted the laptop. Everything is now working.
Can I jsut get a replacement multibus? I don’t have time to continue with this.
Thank you for this update and I am very sorry about this issue still ongoing.
We can absolutely look into replacement options here for you. I will kindly ask that you do contact us directly via our Live chat on our website, or by email to support@startech.com making sure to reference case # CAS-130816 which I have created here for you so we can gather just a few more details from you to be able to confirm warranty details and arrange a replacement device. We look forward to hearing from you!
Adam S.
No word on the RMA. When do I get a replacement Multibus?
You were sent an email from our RMA team about the RMA yesterday. If you do not see that in your email inbox, please do check you junk/spam folders just in case it was sent there.
You were also sent the replacement notification email today which includes the tracking number for reference. If you did not receive these emails and are not in you spam/junk folders, please do let me know and I will have them resent to you.
I hope that the replacement does resolve these issues for you, but if you continue to see any issues with the replacement, please do contact us directly via the Live chat referencing your same case number (CAS-130816) and we will be happy to assist further.
Adam S.