Back in April 2021 I purchase a Kensington SD5700 Thunderbolt 4 dock and until today had been fairly happy with it’s function. Today the ethernet died on the SD5700T in the most annoying way. It didn’t just stop working for the computer that the dock is plugged into, it puts out interference on the network so that everything plugged into the switch dies as well.

After running around with my iPad and a USB C dock to check where the issue was I tracked it back to this ethernet noise issue. I’m not alone with this ethernet issue on USB or Thunderbolt devices, in fact the reason I tracked it down so fast is that I have another USB C dock that did the same thing to me late last year.

Add to that the fact that the Kensington SD5700T can get a terrible coil whine, which I do have but only if the machine is powered down, and I’m going to look for a replacement.

While I do a bit of research a USB C ethernet adaptor works just fine to fix the issue so I stole one from another desk in the house and I’ll get more in a few days.