I'm having trouble getting my Lenovo P16v2 to connect to the network through my Lenovo Thunderbolt 4 Workstation Dock before I sign in to Windows. It seems that the dock's driver isn't loading until after I log in, which only happens with Windows 11. When I switch to Windows 10, everything works fine after installing the driver. While other devices connected to the dock, like my mouse and keyboard, work immediately, the network only connects after I've logged in. If I restart the notebook, I face the same problem; I have to log in to get a network connection, even though a direct LAN connection works perfectly. I've already tried updating the dock's firmware, different drivers, changing network driver settings, and several other troubleshooting steps without success. Does anyone have suggestions on how to resolve this?
2 Answers
It seems like your Thunderbolt device isn't being trusted until after the OS starts. Try toggling the Thunderbolt security settings around and see if that helps. Just be careful with the TPM settings; you don't want to trigger BitLocker!
It sounds like this might be related to the Thunderbolt security settings in your BIOS. Check if you can change the Thunderbolt configuration to 'User Authorization'—that might let the dock connect before you log in. If that doesn't work, look into your TPM settings as they can sometimes influence Thunderbolt behavior too.
I already checked that but didn't see any relevant security options for Thunderbolt. Just the basic PCIe tunneling settings.
Unfortunately, I don't see any security settings for Thunderbolt in the BIOS, only options for the PCIe tunneling and I/O access of the port. I tried disabling secure boot, but that didn't make a difference either.