HP laptop about 1 year old has USB-C port which did work OK - until ...

.... it was connected to a Dell WD19TBS docking station, using the USB-C
cable integrated into the docking station.

Is this a known incompatibility that causes the HP USB-C port to be damaged?

TIA

--
Graham J

On 2/7/2023 7:45 AM, Graham J wrote:
> HP laptop about 1 year old has USB-C port which did work OK - until ...
>
> ... it was connected to a Dell WD19TBS docking station, using the USB-C cable integrated into the docking station.
>
> Is this a known incompatibility that causes the HP USB-C port to be damaged?
>
> TIA

The description of the docking station is not inspiring.

https://www.dell.com/community/Latitude/WD19Tb-USB-port-broken-Dell-refuses-repair-customer-damage/td-p/7897881

I would check both items (with a magnifying glass)
for physical damage.

Sometimes USB-C ports get damaged by dodgy adapter cables.
These would be stand alone cables. There was a guy at Google
who used to test the cables, until one day his laptop was
damaged by a cable he was testing. That is when he stopped
testing brands of cables.

This is to give you some idea of the kind of adaptation
cable that gets mis-wired.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/02/google-engineer-finds-usb-type-c-cable-thats-so-bad-it-fried-his-chromebook-pixel/

Connecting a VBUS to ground should not kill it, because
there is normally a silicon fuse for a path like that on
a laptop. Connect TX+/TX- pins to VBUS, that would likely
be bad because it exceeds the compliance voltage range.
Normally, the signals next to data pins are grounds
(as part of signal integrity control).

The pinout here, you can see there are VBUS all over the place,
and they're next to signal pins. This means there is no room for
mistakes or "bent stuff" on that connector. If you examine the
article text, the USB-PD involves more pins than that, and
the VBUS is programmable. Some other pins are involved in
bring-up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C

And eventually you will learn something about "thin" laptops.
If all the components are soldered to the mainboard, the mainboard
has a very high replacement cost. A modular board (RAM comes off,
CPU comes off), might only cost $300. Whereas a "thin" laptop
mainboard might cost as much as the entire laptop. They can do
things like solder the CPU to the mainboard, solder the RAM
to the mainboard, solder eMMC storage to the mainboard, and so on.
This means "connector damage" could be a very expensive thing,
And you could have a warranty denied for any number of reasons,
which tends to make the warranty a bit useless. These are the
kinds of things I factor into the "attractiveness" of laptops.

Some aspects of laptop design actually improved. The usage
of tiny "power connector boards", meant if you damaged
the power connector, it was only a few bucks for a replacement
assembly that the power connector sat on. That was clever.
But the general lack of repair-ability on the stuff now,
is "not good". If they wanted to, they could make a separate
"redriver board" for the USB-C if they wanted to, so that
if it was damaged, only the redriver board would need replacement.
That's how you could improve the design.

Paul

On 2/7/23 08:36, this is what Paul wrote:
> On 2/7/2023 7:45 AM, Graham J wrote:
>> HP laptop about 1 year old has USB-C port which did work OK - until ...
>>
>> ... it was connected to a Dell WD19TBS docking station, using the USB-C cable integrated into the docking station.
>>
>> Is this a known incompatibility that causes the HP USB-C port to be damaged?
>>
>> TIA
>
> The description of the docking station is not inspiring.
>
> https://www.dell.com/community/Latitude/WD19Tb-USB-port-broken-Dell-refuses-repair-customer-damage/td-p/7897881
>
> I would check both items (with a magnifying glass)
> for physical damage.
>
> Sometimes USB-C ports get damaged by dodgy adapter cables.
> These would be stand alone cables. There was a guy at Google
> who used to test the cables, until one day his laptop was
> damaged by a cable he was testing. That is when he stopped
> testing brands of cables.
>
> This is to give you some idea of the kind of adaptation
> cable that gets mis-wired.
>
> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/02/google-engineer-finds-usb-type-c-cable-thats-so-bad-it-fried-his-chromebook-pixel/
>
> Connecting a VBUS to ground should not kill it, because
> there is normally a silicon fuse for a path like that on
> a laptop. Connect TX+/TX- pins to VBUS, that would likely
> be bad because it exceeds the compliance voltage range.
> Normally, the signals next to data pins are grounds
> (as part of signal integrity control).
>
> The pinout here, you can see there are VBUS all over the place,
> and they're next to signal pins. This means there is no room for
> mistakes or "bent stuff" on that connector. If you examine the
> article text, the USB-PD involves more pins than that, and
> the VBUS is programmable. Some other pins are involved in
> bring-up.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C
>
> And eventually you will learn something about "thin" laptops.
> If all the components are soldered to the mainboard, the mainboard
> has a very high replacement cost. A modular board (RAM comes off,
> CPU comes off), might only cost $300. Whereas a "thin" laptop
> mainboard might cost as much as the entire laptop. They can do
> things like solder the CPU to the mainboard, solder the RAM
> to the mainboard, solder eMMC storage to the mainboard, and so on.
> This means "connector damage" could be a very expensive thing,
> And you could have a warranty denied for any number of reasons,
> which tends to make the warranty a bit useless. These are the
> kinds of things I factor into the "attractiveness" of laptops.
>
> Some aspects of laptop design actually improved. The usage
> of tiny "power connector boards", meant if you damaged
> the power connector, it was only a few bucks for a replacement
> assembly that the power connector sat on. That was clever.
> But the general lack of repair-ability on the stuff now,
> is "not good". If they wanted to, they could make a separate
> "redriver board" for the USB-C if they wanted to, so that
> if it was damaged, only the redriver board would need replacement.
> That's how you could improve the design.
>
>    Paul
It's scary to think that this manufacture may not be the only one out there. Granted it was a hit & miss chance he
found this but it could be the same for us.

Graham J wrote:

> HP laptop about 1 year old has USB-C port which did work OK - until ...
>
> ... it was connected to a Dell WD19TBS docking station, using the USB-C
> cable integrated into the docking station.
>
> Is this a known incompatibility that causes the HP USB-C port to be
> damaged?

mechanical damage or electrical damage?

In article <trth5h$3o3ev$1@dont-email.me>, Graham J
<nobody@nowhere.co.uk> wrote:

> HP laptop about 1 year old has USB-C port which did work OK - until ...
>
> ... it was connected to a Dell WD19TBS docking station, using the USB-C
> cable integrated into the docking station.
>
> Is this a known incompatibility that causes the HP USB-C port to be damaged?

what cable did you use?

some usb-c cables can cause damage.

On 2/7/2023 7:45 AM, Graham J wrote:
> HP laptop about 1 year old has USB-C port which did work OK - until ...
>
> ... it was connected to a Dell WD19TBS docking station, using the USB-C
> cable integrated into the docking station.
>
> Is this a known incompatibility that causes the HP USB-C port to be
> damaged?
>
> TIA
>
>
Does the port work with other devices, like Thumbdrives, etc?

nospam wrote:
> In article <trth5h$3o3ev$1@dont-email.me>, Graham J
> <nobody@nowhere.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> HP laptop about 1 year old has USB-C port which did work OK - until ...
>>
>> ... it was connected to a Dell WD19TBS docking station, using the USB-C
>> cable integrated into the docking station.
>>
>> Is this a known incompatibility that causes the HP USB-C port to be damaged?
>
> what cable did you use?
>
> some usb-c cables can cause damage.
>

The cable integrated with the Dell WD19TBS docking station, as written
in the originaml post.

--
Graham J

knuttle wrote:

[snip]

>>
>>
> Does the port work with other devices, like Thumbdrives, etc?

None available to test with, as yet ...

--
Graham J

On 2/7/2023 3:22 PM, Graham J wrote:
> knuttle wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
>>>
>>>
>> Does the port work with other devices, like Thumbdrives, etc?
>
> None available to test with, as yet ...
>
The "dead" port, may be a protocol problem in the information be
exchanged between the dock and the computer.

So it may pay to get a $5 thumb drive and check that out before getting
involved with a Fix that cost big bucks