Why every laptop should have at least two USB ports of each kind

Some background, I work full stack while we also man the support email from users. I'm manning the support email this week, but today I was also tech support for a fellow developer.

We use HP docks to connect everything from screens to keyboards. But today a dock would not do anything when my colleague attempted to use it.

Being the nosy kind, I went and asked the usual

• Did you reboot?
• Did you remove the power to the dock?
• Try messing with the drivers?
• lock the screen before unplugging?
• Tried another dock?

All yes, none worked. Our IT support hadn't opened for the day yet and he was looking into updating the specific dock driver.

So I asked, did you try the other USB-C port? And what do you know, that worked. Then he just plugged right back into the first USB-C port and everything was back to normal. I don't know who made the drivers, but it's pretty danning when they can brick a specific USB port until it's forced to redo whatever config that messes it up, by using another USB port...

If anyone wonders, the docks have a magnetically joined charging and USB plug, so it's fairly natural to plug them in together side by side. It's also almost uniquely a dock issue and not a dead USB port, so it's funny that the enite thing uncloggs from just using another port for a second. But a reboot does not...