Many friends have been wondering:

Why won't the laptop turn on the next day after using the laptop external monitor for one night? The boot progress bar keeps reading halfway and then restarts, and can't be turned on?

Why can't the laptop be charged after using the laptop external docking station for a few days, and no matter how you press it, it doesn't respond?

Usually, this situation is caused by the laptop motherboard being burned, but why would the motherboard be burned when the laptop is in good condition?

The root cause is that you charge the laptop through the docking station, so the motherboard is burned!

1. Why does charging through the docking station burn out the laptop motherboard?

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Whether the docking station will burn the motherboard is a concern for many people. Many users have also reported that the motherboard of the laptop suddenly burned out during the use of the docking station. These cases have one thing in common: the power is being transferred to the laptop through the docking station to charge the laptop.

The reason for burning the motherboard is not complicated. The docking station itself has no power and only acts as a transfer between the power supply and the laptop. Only when the power supply is abnormal (such as overvoltage, overcurrent, excessive surge), the docking station protection circuit fails, and the motherboard protection circuit fails at the same time, the motherboard may be burned.

The problem of burning the motherboard is generally not the responsibility of the docking station. The culprit is actually the power supply itself. Using a high-quality docking station (MOKIN, Apple, Belkin, etc.) can also play a certain protective role in the current and voltage input.

There are two main reasons:

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A. Short circuit

When we directly insert the docking station into the laptop, the internal PCB board of the docking station is directly connected to the laptop motherboard. Therefore, when we charge the laptop through the docking station, the entire internal circuit is connected. If the internal circuit design of the docking station is unreasonable (such as desoldering, continuous welding, etc.), it may cause a short circuit and burn the motherboard.

B. Instantaneous high voltage

Nowadays, most docking stations support PD fast charging. Some PD fast charging can reach 80W or even 100W. When using PD fast charging, if the input voltage is unstable or the internal design of the docking station is not reasonable (such as the lack of an isolation cover), the laptop motherboard may be directly broken down due to excessive instantaneous voltage.

2. How to avoid the docking station from burning out the laptop motherboard?

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Two directions:

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A. Try not to charge through the docking station

Since we already know that the laptop motherboard will only be burned out when we charge the laptop through the docking station, then as long as we try to avoid charging the laptop through the docking station, we can reduce the chance of the motherboard being burned out.

b. Choose a docking station with reliable quality

Since we cannot avoid charging through the docking station, we should work hard on selecting the docking station and try to choose a brand with reliable quality and reputation.

It is best to use official accessories from each notebook. For example, MacBook users can first consider Apple's own converter accessories. However, Apple's own converter does not have rich interfaces and is also expensive. When I chose it, I did not choose Apple's official converter for cost-effectiveness, but chose the third-party docking station brand on Apple's official website---MOKIN.

3. Why Chose MOKIN?

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The reason why I chose MOKIN is mainly because its reputation is still very good. MOKIN is a cost-effective brand that I personally recommend. Its docking stations have passed international authoritative certifications such as EU CE, US FCC, RoHS, UKCA, EMC, etc., and the quality is among the best.

Moreover, all the new docking stations of MOKIN are designed with all-round metal shielding covers to ensure the connection and transmission stability of external devices. Such materials are rare in docking stations that do not exceed US$100.

It is worth mentioning that MOKIN has a workstation-level 15-in-1 docking station (MOKIN 15-in-1 Dual Monitor DisplayLink Docking Station), which features the same multi-screen display performance as the Thunderbolt docking station through DisplayLink technology. It is not a problem to expand up to 3 screens of 4K display. It is quite powerful, and it is compatible with both Window and Mac, and there is no hard requirement of Thunderbolt interface. It is very suitable for productivity scenarios with multiple screens such as programming, editing, and stock trading.

The MOKIN 16-IN-1 Thunderbolt™ 4 supports Compatible with Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 3, USB4, and DP Alt mode devices. Intelligent power distribution can avoid the problem of burning MacBook and motherboard. There has been no such problem in user feedback in recent years. Of course, if you still don’t trust the docking station, the power supply can be directly connected to the notebook without the docking station.

There are many other docking station brands on the market, and the quality should be good. When choosing, you can pay more attention to the posts in the forum or post bar.(MOKIN Blog ; Forum;)