How to use the Docking Stations | Cambridge Forum for Legal and Political Philosophy

A number of desks on the second and third floors have been equipped with a laptop docking station and monitor. You can use the docking station to charge your laptop and make use of an additional screen. The docking station is manufactured by Dell but it will work with Windows and Apple Mac laptops. Their configuration depends on what capabilities your laptop has.

The docking station itself is the black box. It has USB connections at the front and back so you can plug in your own devices such as USB keys, keyboards and mice in if you wish.

At the left side of the docking station, there is a USB-c lead that can provide power to charge your laptop and can also take video output from your laptop if it supports it.

There is also an HDMI cable provided that plugs directly into the monitor. If your laptop doesn't support video output via USB-c, if it has an HDMI connector, you can use this to make use of the monitor as an additional screen.

Once you've plugged the USB-c lead into your laptop, if the docking station doesn't power-up automatically, press the power button at the bottom-right corner. The button will light up to show it has switched on.

The power button for the monitors is either on the back at the bottom-right (looking from the front of the monitor) or at the bottom-right corner of the frame. If they don't come on when the docking station powers-up, press the power button on the monitor.

Laptops that have a USB-c connector

You can use the docking station to charge your laptop's battery

My laptop's USB-c supports video output

When you plug the USB-c cable in to your laptop, it's screen should display on the monitor.

My laptop's USB-c doesn't support video output

My laptop has an HDMI connector

Plug the USB-c cable in to charge the battery and the HDMI cable into the HDMI socket. Your laptop screen should display on the monitor.

My laptop does not have an HDMI connector

Plug the USB-c lead in to charge the battery. You're not able to make use of the additional monitor.

Laptops that don't have a USB-c connector

You can't use the docking station to charge your laptop's battery

My laptop has an HDMI connector

Plug the HDMI cable into the HDMI socket. Your laptop screen should display on the monitor.

My laptop does not have an HDMI connector

You're not able to make use of the docking station. You would need to buy an adapter that converts whatever video output connector your laptop has, to HDMI so you can plug it into the monitor cable. You can ask at the Computer Office in S7 or S8 for advice.

Video Options when using the Additional Screen

If your laptop supports it, you can use the second monitor as an additional screen (extended mode), rather than a duplicate of your laptop screen.

Windows

Press windows-p to display a menu of screen configurations at the bottom-right corner of your screen. Choose ‘Extend’ to use the monitor as an additional screen. Choose ‘Duplicate’ to display the same image on your laptop and monitor screens.

Apple Macintosh

Go to the Apple menu / System Preferences / Displays, then click ‘Display Settings’. Click on the additional monitor and choose ‘Extend Display’ from the pop-up menu.

Depending on which MacOS you have, you may not see the 'Extend Display' option. You might need to press the 'Arrange Displays' button. This opens a window that allows you to arrange the monitors to display in extended mode, or you can set it to 'duplicate' by holding down the Command or Function key and dragging the second monitor over the top of the first one. The text at the top of the window tells you how to do it.

Using Accessories

The docking station supports several accessory types that you can plug in and use with your laptop:

On the front of the docking station:	On the rear of the docking station
USB type A USB type C	USB type A USB type C Thunderbolt USB type C

However, depending on your laptop and docking station compatibility, not all accessories may work.