Dell USB 3.0 Ultra HD/4K Triple Display Docking Station (D3100), Black

I am a grad student and like most i am having to do school from home because of covid. I have an office in my house that i setup to be equal to what i had at work when i was as an engineer. The only problem is my wife who is also an engineer is working from home and is now the primary user of the home office. This created a huge issue as i need access to the main house computer, need a attend remote grad school, and need an area to do hw. I purchased a dell inspiron 3493 core i5 (14 in screen) to be a mobile pc for school and to be used as a secondary main house computer when i don’t have access to my primary one. I took over my wife’s vanity table and converted it to my new work area. Working on a 14 in screen on the go is good, but working on it for hours is a pain due to lack of screen size. The dell d3100 was the solution and allowed me to repurpose two old monitors i had lying in the attic. No usb 3.0 docks on the market charge a laptop because they were designed for laptops that do not have usb-c or thunderbolt ports on it (my exact laptop) which actually make them more/true universal compared to usb-c/thunderbolt docks. Saying that i love this dock as it has allowed me to work/study without strain and my productivity isn’t hampered because of lack of screen(s). The dock has also allowed my work area (a small vanity table) to be clutter free which is essential to maximize space. I have dual monitors, logitech c270 cam, wireless keyboard (logitech k360), ethernet, and dual speaker with amp all attached to the dock; plus three free usb 3.0 ports that are easy to access. Change a few power settings to prevent the laptop from automatically falling asleep when plugged in and the lid closed. Don’t turn the laptop off, just manually put it to sleep when you are done using it, and you can wake it up via the wireless usb keyboard or mouse which makes this very convenient. I did notices that when you use both monitors on the dock, internet speeds are reduced (but honestly it isn’t noticeable) probably due to thru put of the usb 3.0 cable and the dock does get warm with use i have noticed.
Because this docking station does not charge, it is 100% universal compared to the ones that do. I noticed that all these brands of docking stations advertise how much charging power they supply only to their brand of laptop but they do not state this at first or second glance. It is very misleading when they are calling it universal. 210 w charging for our brand but 90 w max only to other brands (you have to really dig for this information). You might end up sending almost $400 on a dock that is no better than a $140 dock.
My wife needed a truly universal dock to work on her hp zbook 15 g5 and to work on a dell equivalent when her company changes their laptops and is demanding the return of all their docking stations. She currently is using a hp 230 w dock which will only supply 90 w to the dell equivalent laptop (same is true for a dell 240 w dock on a hp laptop) meaning the laptop will need to be also plugged into its power brick when docked. So i figured why buy a $400 dock that will require her to plug in the laptop’s power brick to use it when i can buy this dock (dell 3100) for $140 and be in the same situation but for much less money. For convenience, but buy a second power brick for $40/50 and it will still be cheaper than a $400 dock that only supplies 90 w to laptops that aren’t the same brand as it is. **update: my wife’s work laptop has an integrated nvida quadro p2000. My biggest fear was bc of the dock being usb 3.0 vs. The others, the laptop would use the integrated graphics on the cpu only and bypass the integrated nvida quadro p2000 as i have read would happen. Good news: the integrated nvida quadro p2000 gpu is being utilized and there was no bottle necking. The setup works perfectly.**
the dell 3100 docking station has been great and is an excellent value that solved all my problems and needs (and my wife’s too). For those that have spoken poorly about this docking station simply haven’t done research on docking stations period.

Installed quickly with very little trouble setting it up

Works and saves time plus wear and tear on computer ports. Just connect one usb to computer. Would purchase again.

Needed no driver installation for:
dell inspiron 3521 running windows 10.
Dell precision 3561 running windows 10.
Needed driver for: microsoft surface pro 3 running windows 10 pro.

The dock connected each computer to:
monitors:
lg 27′ tv (hdmi)
dell 24′ p2422 he (dp, dock has ports for two)
ethernet
kensington expert mouse trackball mouse
kinesis freestyle 2 keyboard
and still had unused usb 3 ports on the other side.

New job, first macbook. I tried in vain to find a docking station to hook up multiple monitors to the macbook provided to me. This one does get the job done. You will have to download the display link drivers from the display link website (not from dell). When i power down my macbook, i do have to initiate the display link manager to get the monitors to register again – but once i do that it’s all good. So this is a solution to an obvious flaw in the macbook design.

Bought this for my wife to use when she works from home. We have 3 monitors connected to it and it works great. Setup was easy. Love it.

Over a year ago, i purchased a microsoft surface book 3 with a surface dock 2. For the past several months, the two external monitors attached to the surface dock 2 got increasing buggy, and ultimately would no longer display. I did all the troubleshooting (e.g., updated firmware, deleted selected registry items, used ms software to clean the cache). I even invested in top-of-the-line cables. Nothing worked. I suppose i could have asked for a replacement from microsoft. But working with the sales folks at microsoft can sometimes be a challenge. Out of desperation, i purchased the dell usb 3.0 ultra hd/4k triple display docking station (d3100). I left the charging port connection between the laptop and the ms docking station 2 (for charging purposes, printer connection, and external hardware connection). In addition, i plugged the dell dock into one of my two left usb type a ports on my microsoft surface book 3 – where i connected two individual hdmi cables to the dell dock and my two monitors. This gave me three total monitors – one from the laptop and two external monitors. Given the countless hours i previously spent trying to get the ms surface dock 2 to work, i was astonished that the dell dock simply worked. Not sure what else to say. Some days are just good days.

I should have gotten this one from the beginning. Because of the price i tried another brand and it only lasted a few months. After too many problems, i decided to go ahead and get this one. Haven’t had any problems since. I use it for about 8hrs a day with my work laptop (hp elitebook) and another few hours a day with my personal laptop (hp touchscreen notebook). The old one would run hot after only a few hours, required constant driver updates, change my display settings and often disconnect without reason. I don’t have these problems anymore. Highly recommend getting this one…you’ll likely regret the cheaper versions after a few months and get this one anyway…lol

Been looking for a way to extend my surface pro 3 to my 3 acer monitors. My surface pro 3 doesn’t have a usb-type c connection since this was made before usb-type c was a mainstream connection. It only has a mini-display port and one usb 3.0 connection and there weren’t many adapters with mini-display port that were going to let me extend to 3 monitors. I’ve found one’s with dual display but those weren’t the ones i needed. I however bought one that was connected through usb-type c and figured i could use a usb-type c to mini display port adapter to it but was not able to make it work.

So i decided to go all in on this docking station not knowing if it would work or not and i must say i am very happy with my purchase. All you do is plug the usb connection to the usb port of the surface pro 3 and even my existing usb hub that was previously connected to the surface pro 3 also works the same without issues as all you have to do is connect it to the usb port of this docking station although i don’t currently have it connected anymore since i just moved everything from the previous hub to this docking station which has plenty of usb ports on it.

Right now, i am using 2 of the hdmi ports to 2 of my acer monitors and am still using the mini-display port on the surface pro 3 toconnect to my 3rd acer monitor. I plan to get a display-port to hdmi cable and use the display port on the docking station to connect to the 3rd monitor and free-up my mini-display port connection even though it’s not necessary but i take my surface pro 3 alot with me so if i get this display-port to hdmi cable, would just mean one less connection to hook up to my surface pro 3 once i’m back at my desk. Basically, i just prefer more convenience.

I have 2 screens and 1 laptop and a desktop. I regularly need to share keyboards, mice and one or both of the screens between the desktop and laptop.

I have a dell thunderbolt connection (tb16 docking station). The tb16 only has 1 hdmi and a display port. I bought hdmi switches thinking that i could use a connector to hdmi for the display port. I was wrong.

I then found this thing. It is cheaper, has 2 hdmi ports and is compatible with every computer i use. I’ve used a lenovo t480, asus chromebook and the xps 13 (9360). Ironically, the xps is the one that has trouble. The xps does not pick up the ethernet and the dimensions of the connected monitors look funny. The background image is just larger on the monitors but otherwise works well and there might be a way to fix this but it hasn’t bothered me enough to figure it out since my wifi connection is strong enough.

It is otherwise truly and awesome solution and has eliminated several other more complicated solutions to share 2 screens across 2 monitors (each monitor only has 1 hdmi). It even works with my corsair k95 and logitech g502 (which can be fussy with docking stations).

Btw, i only use this for hd not 4k or any higher resolution. Also – i wouldn’t recommend going used because the vendors take forever and mine came without the usb type a to type b cord. The hdmi switches that i’m using are the roofull 5 in 1. I’m also using a usb 3.0 switch (ablewe).

My only complaint is i wish i would’ve found it earlier.

Download the displaylink drivers and you’re off to the races on windows or mac. Installed the ubuntu drivers but didn’t work out (everything except displays worked though). I don’t fault dell for things not working on ubuntu though. All around good device.

This product works great and just what i needed. I can work more efficiently by connecting my two monitors, to one unit.

This dell dock is an easy plug and play device, but it should be noted that it will not provide power to your pc/tablet.

Also, i use a newer dell tablet that does not have any usb 2.0 adaptors, so i needed to purchase a usb type b 3.0 to usb c cable so i didn’t have to deal with connecting through a godforsaken dongle.

Note: i bought a dell inspiron 7590 2in1 laptop that converts to a tablet. I bought this doc as it was recommended by the amazon sales algorithm of ‘frequently bought together.’

this docking station is in fact compatible with my dell laptop and does work as designed, but it does not offer the features i thought it did. The two features i thought it had was the ability’s to power my laptop and pass data back and forth to my laptop all with one cable. This dock does not do that. The docking station that does this connects to the laptop through a usb-c cable, not a usb-3 cable. Also, the second feature that i thought i was buying was that the docking station is only a 60 wat ac adapter. I thought that could power my laptop at my desk, and then i would be able to use the ac adapter that came with the laptop as a ‘travel adapter.’ unfortunately, this is wrong on two points: first, the dock does not power my laptop directly through the data cable, and secondly, the laptop i bought requires a 90 wat ac adapter. This means the ac adapter that came with the dock, only powers the dock, and the ac adapter that powers my laptop must be used at my desk and on the road. Further, this means crawling under my desk to plug and unplug the ac adapter every time i need to take the laptop with me. That is a hassle i would like to have been able to avoid. (many a time i have left the house only to have found i forgot to bring my ac adapter. It is better to have an extra one that always lives in the laptop bag.) as a final note, i am not returning the dock just yet. Before you can use this dock it requires a driver download before first use. On the download page, it asks what os you are using? Windows, macos, android, chrome os, or ubuntu. As i said earlier, it does function as designed. I likely will be able to use this on a different device. Hope this helps.

The usb-c cable or whatever would be better it if was longer than 12” and also i thought this would give my laptop power but it doesn’t. Other than that this thing is fine.

This required an adapter for my newer hp laptop, but this has been great to run my two monitor system. It does not charge the laptop and does not appear to be able to do that. So you must have your charger and this unit going at the same time. However, given this is an older model and the cost difference between this and the proper generation of this product is steep, the inconvenience is worth it. Overall i’ve had an issue or two, but nothing catastrophic or really much more than a temporary annoyance. Good product!

The dock helped me extend my work laptop to two monitors and some other peripherals. Only downside is that it doesn’t power the machine, for that you’ve got to double what you’re looking to spend. Dock does come with a power cable

This product worked fine; as advertised. However, i looked at so many docking stations that i missed a critical missing feature: this docking station cannot charge your laptop. So, as far as i’m concerned it is not fully a docking station. To me, that means plugging or unplugging a single cable ‘twixt laptop and dock so you can go/start quickly without having to fish the laptop charger from wherever it is plugged in. If you’re okay with that shortcoming, it seems like a good product at a reasonable price.

I have a pair of ultra wide monitors with a recommended resolution of 2560×1080. I could only get one of the monitors to work with that resolution, while the other would only go to 1920×1080, regardless of using both hdmi or one hdmi and one display port. I do think the issue is more my laptop than the dock. I have just figured i’d get used to the lower resolution, which isn’t terrible. Maybe when this laptop craps out and my company replaces it with a newer one i’ll get the high resolution, but for now, it’s fine.

I ordered my dell d3100 docking station via amazon and have been very happy with it. I run a thinkpad for work and managed to successfully run 2 additional monitors from this docking station as well as a third linked directly to the laptop. Overall i have been very happy with the fact that it actually works with the thinkpad since they are notorious for being difficult with docking stations.

All that said, i purchased this item on 1/8/2020 and today is 1/6/2022 and it suddenly quit working. It seems to be that the unit is no longer able to get power. I’m a little annoyed that it only lasted under 2 years but if you need a docking station that will cooperate with lenovo thinkpads then this is a solid contender.

I got a bunch for our business.
I can connect multiple monitors without any issues, which is great. Overall it’s a good product considering
the price.

The biggest issue is wireless keyboards. It can’t process the signals. It misses characters, it is slow and sometimes doesn’t work at all. I have to plug and unplug the keyboard usb. Also it should be very close to the keyboard like 4inches.