Freezing screens using displaylink

[kingmoocow]

I'm using a Dell Inspiron 9400, with a Lenovo DVI to USB adapter from Displaylink (pn: 45k5296 -- windows shows this as M01061). Windows 7 x64.

Initially, I installed the 6.0 drivers from the DL website, and then connected the DL device, and it worked normally. After several hours, the display froze. Not the entire screen though. I can actively see the mouse pointer moving around, but none of the content on that screen is visible at all. It just goes black except for the mouse cursor.

So, I tried:
Disconnecting and reconnecting the displaylink via USB.
Disconnecting and reconnecting the monitor power and video cables.
Replacing the USB wire.
Swapping the displaylink unit for another.
Swapping USB ports.
Disabling and reenabling the device in device manager.
All yielded the exact same result - black screen with only a mouse pointer visible.

A full system reboot usually corrects the issue for a few hours, before it recurs.

I have also uninstalled 6.0 and installed 5.6M1, but the same symptom persists -- it works for a while and then freezes with no way to reenable it aside from a full system reboot.

I've attached here the diagnostics from the tool, using the 5.6m1 driver. I'll run it again with 6.0 when it manifests again.

I've run these devices on several other machines without incident, so I'd really like to find a solution for the freezing.

Thanks,

[kingmoocow]

On further investigation, it appears that I can't get the device to load using 6.0 anyway. Even having 6.0 installed from the DL site, the device manager only shows 5.6.31854.0.

How do I get 6.0 installed to the device?

[Wim]

I think this could be a problem with the interaction with your primary graphics driver. This is very old (before the release of Windows 7) so probably has issues with DisplayLink software:

Graphics: ATI MOBILITY RADEON X1400 (ATI Technologies Inc.)
Graphics Driver: 8.561.0.0 Dated 2008-12-01

Could you try updating this and see if it solves the issue?

Thanks

Wim

[Wim]

On further investigation, it appears that I can't get the device to load using 6.0 anyway. Even having 6.0 installed from the DL site, the device manager only shows 5.6.31854.0.

How do I get 6.0 installed to the device?

The logs show that v6.0 is installed:

Installed Package: DisplayLink Core Software (6.0.34621.0) on 2011-11-01 Status is Installed
Installed Package: DisplayLink Graphics (6.0.34689.0) on 2011-11-01 Status is Installed

Wim

[kingmoocow]

I think this could be a problem with the interaction with your primary graphics driver. This is very old (before the release of Windows 7) so probably has issues with DisplayLink software:

Graphics: ATI MOBILITY RADEON X1400 (ATI Technologies Inc.)
Graphics Driver: 8.561.0.0 Dated 2008-12-01

Could you try updating this and see if it solves the issue?

Thanks

Wim

I found one more newer driver for my card before it was deemed end of official support -- 8.591.0.0 from Feb '09, so I've applied that and will see what happens.

The logs show that v6.0 is installed:

Installed Package: DisplayLink Core Software (6.0.34621.0) on 2011-11-01 Status is Installed
Installed Package: DisplayLink Graphics (6.0.34689.0) on 2011-11-01 Status is Installed

Wim

I also have a Kensington device that I don't use because it's low-res, but it shows 6.x in device manager, where the Lenovo device only shows 5.6. The newest lenovo driver is 5.6 as well, so I'm assuming that they have to roll in an official 6.0 update?

Thanks for the reply.

[Wim]

I also have a Kensington device that I don't use because it's low-res, but it shows 6.x in device manager, where the Lenovo device only shows 5.6. The newest lenovo driver is 5.6 as well, so I'm assuming that they have to roll in an official 6.0 update?

Thanks for the reply.

The important part of the driver is DisplayLink Core Software. This is 99% of the brains of our software so is the most important version number to look at. The Lenovo and Kensington installs are just the specific branding for their product, and not anything to do with the core driver.

Thanks

Wim

[kingmoocow]

Froze again -- noticed it about 30 minutes after it happened.

Attached new logs using the newest drivers available.