15" core i7 displaylink woes
 

Hi all,

Having a problem, hoping for some help. I have a Lenovo M01061 Displaylink adapter that I'm trying to use with my new core i7 MBP with 1680x1050 screen. I'm having the following problem, that happens with 1.5, 1.6b1, and 1.6b2:

When I use my laptop at work, with a DVI and a DL connected monitor, everything is fine and all three displays work. When I unplug my computer from the external monitors and use it without DVI or DL, the laptop screen is filled with "coloured snow" and the computer is unusable.

If I boot the laptop with no external display connected, I get coloured snow instead of the login page (I can see grey Apple startup screen just fine).

If I boot the laptop with an external display connected by DL, the laptop screen is solid blue (no snow) and the external screen stays in power save mode.

If I boot the laptop with an external display connected by DVI, both screens work fine.

Uninstalling the displaylink driver makes everything usable again, so my solution thus far has been to install the driver every AM and uninstall it when I go home.

None of my displays are rotated. One possible cause is that I migrated my hard drive (SSD) over from my old MBP (mid 2007) and then reinstalled Snow Leopard from the DVDs that came with the new MBP. Everything was working just find on the old MBP with respect to Displaylink.

Also, is there a way (key combo, etc) to prevent the DL drivers from loading at boot? It would be handy to have in case I forget to uninstall the drivers and am on the go!!

Thanks,
Sam

Ditto
 

I get the exact same thing as previous post.

Mike

This is really bad.

Frist thing, we need the logs. Can either of you please try three flavours of boot configuration (DisplayLink only, DVI+ DisplayLink, no external) in succession and then collect the logs with http://www.displaylink.com/support/ticket.php?id=269

Can you also try to disable graphics auto switching? I'm not sure it could help but worth trying.

To boot disabling all third party drivers (including DisplayLink ones) you can hold shift at boot time.

Similar issues... everytime I reboot, I have to reinstall the drivers. What a major PITA.

Steve

Hi Carlo,
Thanks for the quick reply! I did submit a ticket immediately after posting on the forum here. The only flavour that I can try and submit a ticket using is one with DVI+ being used, as the computer is unusable in the other two flavours with the the DL driver installed. If you mean you want me to collect logs w/o the driver installed, let me know and I will do so.

I'll also try disabling auto-switching and report back. Finally, thanks for the tip about the shift key - will come in very handy until there's a fix.

Also a BIG thank you to the others who posted here - I was worried I was the only one!

Sameer

Update:

Disabling automatic graphics switching worked for me.

Also, that shift key trick, while handy, sure does slow down the boot - took two minutes to "safe boot"!!

Looking forward to a new driver, but glad we've found a temporary fix :)

15" i5.. Also upgraded to an SSD.. Also having problem using laptop without display link connected.. Disabling graphic auto switch not working, booting into safe mode "shift" is the only choice I have right now.

Running 1.6.. Also mac is booting in 64bit mode

I'm also having this problem.

MPB 15" core i7

when I unplug my display link adapters, my laptop screen comes to life. Its only when I was 2 hours away from my monitors that I rebooted my computer and found myself booting into a blue screen. Half the time full of snow, half the time just blue with a cursor.

I'm booted into safe mode now which is annoying. How can I turn off the drivers when I'm not using them? What is the fix for this?

Graphics drivers can't be dynamically unloaded on OS X so the only way to turn them off is to uninstall or not loading them at startup (through safe mode).

I just wanted to report that I'm experiencing the same strange behaviour. New 15" MBP with i7. Fresh install of Snow Leopard 10.6.3.

Even when the DisplayLink adapter is not connected, but my external monitor is connected via mini-displayport, my display will lock up (though I can see the mouse cursor and move it around) if I unplug the mini-display port.

When I boot my MBP with no external monitor (no mini displayport or displaylink) I see my desktop for a split-second and then I get a blue screen with horizontal bars, and again I can just see my cursor and move it around.

Uninstalling the DisplayLink beta drivers fixes the problem.