I have a Dell E7450 laptop that's may main machine, with docks at home and work. I've had irregular problems with the one at work - the dual monitors will suddenly go black, the machine will reboot, come up saying "something's wrong, let me repair Windows or reboot?" (I always choose Reboot), then things are fine.

Until it happens again.

I think I figured out yesterday that the laptop angle in the dock wasn't quite right and putting some shims under it seems to have fixed the problem.

Isn't Apple's philosophy to have a USB port to allow a USB hub, and a Thundermumble port for a dock for everything else? It should be more robust than the eleventy thousand tiny pins used in typical PC laptop docks.

We've got a USB hub for peripherals for J's MBP in her office. It works fine (scanner, keyboard, mouse, etc.).

Presumably all this stuff is going to be wireless one of these days anyway (especially stuff from Apple).

Cheers,
Scott.