Dell's Thunderbolt TB16 Dock Can Work With Linux & Drive Dual 4K Displays

[M@GOid]

jasondclinton & GOid

Thank you for your replies. I opened my laptop and indeed the battery is swollen (surprise surprise, what else could it be?). Removing the battery resolved the deformity, but it doesn't power on without it.

I looked into it furter and there are numerous reports of this problem. Since I've no warranty anymore I ordered a replacement.

I was being lazy about an issue that could have severe implications.

Also check with Dell to see if there is a recall on your model. It may have a defect in other part and that cause the damage on the battery.

[Venemo]

I'd personally love to see a Thunderbolt dock that includes a discrete GPU though, that'd be really useful for me as well.

There are several of those, and they are called external GPU enclosures. Take a look at egpu.io for more info.

[starshipeleven]

Dude, asjasondclinton said, that probably is a battery problem. Just take it to a shop to have it verified. You do not want that thing to explode, even less while you are near to it.

Lithium batteries don't explode, they burst into flames. They won't kill you on their own, but they will likely start a fire.

[Beraqqu]

jasondclinton & GOid

Thank you for your replies. I opened my laptop and indeed the battery is swollen (surprise surprise, what else could it be?). Removing the battery resolved the deformity, but it doesn't power on without it.

I looked into it furter and there are numerous reports of this problem. Since I've no warranty anymore I ordered a replacement.

I was being lazy about an issue that could have severe implications.

Any chance to test KDE Plasma on the 13 XPS with dual 4k screens?

[caligula]

Thunderbolt 3 uses a displayport passthrough to do connected displays, so that's most likely what's being used to drive the displays. (Thunderbolt 3 specs explicitly include the requirement to be able to drive twin 4k screens)

I'd personally love to see a Thunderbolt dock that includes a discrete GPU though, that'd be really useful for me as well.

Ah, true. I somehow mixed this with USB-C and thought the dock somehow communicates TB via USB-C.

[M@GOid]

phoronix Be aware that having your xps closed a lot of the time while running can lead to a bulge under the keyboard.

On my xps 9350, I use thermal pads on the heatsink and nvme drive for better heat distribution, but after about a year running it daily for 14 hours closed this happened: https://s8.postimg.cc/4ljklslmt/xps_9350.jpg

Apart from the appearance I haven't noticed any other deficiencies.

Dude, asjasondclinton said, that probably is a battery problem. Just take it to a shop to have it verified. You do not want that thing to explode, even less while you are near to it.

[M@yeulC]

It's nice that it suits your usage! Those things are working surprisingly well out of the box under Linux.

For what it's worth, the dock I have at work for my lattitude 5580 is working perfectly (I do not recall the model, but it is thinner, the wattage is lower and it doesn't have HDMI, micro DP nor micro USB; not sure if it uses thunderbolt or USB 3.1, I'll have to look into this).

The way you setup your laptop is nice, but I'd personally try to use the screen. Maybe the laptop could be mounted upside down fully opened? That would be a bit more complicated to setup, though. Maybe a nice use-case for these "convertibles" with 360° hinges?

I'd be interested in some benchmarks too, though I am not sure how you could measure all of this. Maybe with some really good USB storage device, with and without your 4K monitors playing movies?

[jasondclinton]

phoronix Be aware that having your xps closed a lot of the time while running can lead to a bulge under the keyboard.

On my xps 9350, I use thermal pads on the heatsink and nvme drive for better heat distribution, but after about a year running it daily for 14 hours closed this happened: https://s8.postimg.cc/4ljklslmt/xps_9350.jpg

Apart from the appearance I haven't noticed any other deficiencies.

That looks like standard Li-ion battery failure, to me. Can be accelerated by long periods of little use.

[Beraqqu]

phoronix Be aware that having your xps closed a lot of the time while running can lead to a bulge under the keyboard.

On my xps 9350, I use thermal pads on the heatsink and nvme drive for better heat distribution, but after about a year running it daily for 14 hours closed this happened: https://s8.postimg.cc/4ljklslmt/xps_9350.jpg

Apart from the appearance I haven't noticed any other deficiencies.