Help! Sony VAIO plus docking station screen issues.

I have a user that uses a Sony VAIO laptop Product Code VGN B1XP and uses a docking station on it.
There are 2 problems, both of which sony call a "design feature", being the useless shower of b@stards they are.
Firstly, there is no power button on the docking station, but the laptops have a power button that you can press when the lid is closed. However it will not switch on when the lid is closed as it is a "safety feature"
Why you would not want a laptop connected to a docking station to switch on when the power button is pressed I don't know :rant:
This isn't the big issue however. As a bodge we get the users to open teh laptop slightly, press the button to switch on and then close it. It would be better if it could just switch on by the power button when docked.

Secondly, and this is a major issue and sounds like bad driver design.
The docking stations have a VGA output for an external screen and we have a stand to go over the laptop/docking station for the external screen.
The only problem is that if the laptop has booted without an external monitor attached before, no output goes to the external screen as soon as the logon prompt appears - all output only goes to the laptop display. In order to change the output, the user has to log on and after logging on, press the S2 button on the laptop and the display will switch to the external screen.
If they were then to reboot it would be fine. Its only after they have booted without an external display connected this becomes a problem. We have spent ages playing around with the settings and are likely to only get one more shot at this to make it work.

Has anyone had this problem before and have you fixed it. If so, how.