Abstract: The present invention provides a docking station, a docking station system, and a method of coupling a personal computer, typically a palm top, notepad, or ideally a notebook computer, with such a computer docking station. The computer is typically manually positioned and securely held in place within a computer receptacle of the docking station. Generally, the computer will include an LED (or other signal generator) which indicates the operating mode of the computer, typically indicating at least one of off, on, or suspense mode. The docking station thereby senses whether it is appropriate to engage a docking station connector to a computer connector based on the computer operating mode. Typically, the connection will be made if the computer is either off or in the suspense mode. When connection is appropriate, the docking station connector is automatically translated to engage the computer connector of the fixed notebook computer.