If you are looking to set up your new docking station for your mobile workforce initiative, there are a few things you need to know. Here is how to set up your Dell docking station:
First and foremost, you need three open wall outlets or a surge protector. The docking station will charge the laptop, so there is no need to plug in the laptop’s own charger. When opening your monitor, there are two important cables for you to recognize. The power cable will plug into the back of your monitor on the very left-hand side. The other end will plug into a wall outlet for power. The next is the display port video cable, which will plug into the port.
Both ends of this cable look the exact same, so it doesn’t matter which end you use. Note that this cable only has one notch on it on one side. This is how you can tell a display port cable apart from an HDMI cable. One end will plug into this port, and the other end will plug into your docking station in the same type of port.
The two cables on the right of the docking station are your video cables coming from the monitors. Both of your monitors should plug in right about the same location. To the left of the video cables is the power cable. This will attach to a power brick, which will attach into a wall outlet or surge protector and provide power for both the docking station and your laptop.
Looking at the back of the docking station, we have three plugs that are important. The circular one near the right-hand side is our power cable. We’ll plug that in right now. Remember, we’re not using the laptop’s charger; we’re using the docking station’s charger. If you have a black laptop, you likely have a charger that looks like this small one. We won’t be using that if you’re using a docking station, though.
If you have a silver laptop, your charger probably looks a little bit thicker, but still not what we’re looking for. The docking station has its power supply, which is part of this brick that you’ve already seen plugged into the back of the docking station. Remember, this powers both the docking station and the laptop when it’s plugged in.
Once you’ve got that plugged in, you can plug in your two displays or one, depending on how many you have, into the leftmost ports on the back of the docking station. On the left side of the docking station is a cord that will plug into the left side of your laptop. This is what it’s going to look like if you have a silver laptop. Simply plugging this in from the docking station will both charge your laptop and allow it to display on the monitors. The location of this port should largely be the same whether or not you have a silver model laptop or a black model laptop.
Finally, we have the wireless keyboard and mouse. These plug in through a single USB that can either be placed in the docking station itself or into the laptop’s main USB ports. If everything has been plugged in correctly, you can open your laptop and press the power button to power on. Alternatively, you can press the power button located on the docking station itself for the same effect.
Occasionally, when booting up your multi-screen system for the first time, your screens will not be lined up properly in Windows. To fix this, simply minimize all of your applications to get to your desktop. Right-click and click on display settings. This will bring up all of your displays and how they are currently formatted. Hit the identify button and take note of what each screen says in the bottom left-hand corner. In this window, make sure that these boxes are lined up just like how they are in real life. We can drag and drop the one over to the left so that way they match one two three one two three.
I hope this guide helped you set up your new Dell docking station for your mobile workforce initiative. With this setup, your laptop has turned into a desktop computer with two monitors. If desired, you can arrange this in different ways. Some people prefer only having two screens at a time. In that case, you can close the laptop and set it aside while it is still plugged in. The docking station will continue to display from the laptop to the two screens as well as keep your laptop nice and charged for whenever you need to take it on the go.