DisplayLink + Chrome + Flash = No work

[SteveAthanas]

So, I think I have a simple problem statement, but I've Googled it, and I can't find any answers.

I have the following DisplayLink hardware:

HIS MultiView + Sound (USB 3.0)
HIS MultiView II
Sabrent ViewPlex USB 2.0 Display Adapter

Device Manger reports the following:

DisplayLink Display Adapter (4301)
DL-195 Adapter
USB 3.0 to HDMI Adapter
WS Tech USB-DVI

I am running DisplayLink 7.0M3, and asking for an update says I have the lastest version.

I'm also running Chrome 23.0.1271.97 m. I am only running the Flash that comes with Chrome, not the standalone Flash player.

I should mention that the problem below happened with only the Sabrent ViewPlex adapter attached, but now seems to happen regardless of which DisplayLink adapter is attached. I can say for absolute certain (as I've reformatted my laptop several times in order to test) that this problem is repeatable, and only happens once the DisplayLink software is installed.

The basic problem is that once I install DisplayLink, I can no longer use Flash in Chrome, which is the web browser I use all day long. If I visit a website with any Flash at all in it, the page crashes and I get a "Adobe Flash has stopped responding" message in Chrome.

If I install Flash standalone, I can then use Flash in IE, but seriously... it's IE. It has no effect on Chrome's stability, even if I disable the internal Chrome flash implementation. So, bottom line is that Chrome and Flash work great. If I disable flash in Chrome, then Chrome and DisplayLink work great, but I can't get all three to work, and I'm about to lose my mind.

Any ideas? Anything at all?

Happy to provide more information.

[bernie]

Hi Steve,

If you uninstall "Adobe Shockwave", does that help?

If not , uninstall "Adobe Flash"
(leaving only Chrome's built-in Flash player installed on system)

Does that help?

Bernie

[SteveAthanas]

I've actually already done exactly that.

In fact, I formatted this PC multiple times. The only thing on it is Chrome's built-in Flash.

The system has on it right now: Windows 7 64-bit, DisplayLink, Chrome. That's it.

The discussion about Flash and IE is from a previous install of the OS.

I went down the "remove Flash" road before, but it got me nowhere. It's definitely some sort of interoperability issue between Chrome and DisplayLink.

Thanks for trying.

[bernie]

I have the same issue on my laptop. I've been trying to find a solution on the 7.x series, but unfortunately haven't found one.

Uninstalling 7.x and installing the earlier DisplayLink driver version 6.3 M1 solves the issue for me.

But obviously that's not great long-term as there are other reasons to try to stay on the latest drivers (e.g. essential for Windows 8).

[SteveAthanas]

Well I feel a little better that I'm not alone.

Two questions, then:

1. Is support aware of this? If not, how do we get them involved? If so, can they comment?

2. Where do I get the older drivers? I'm not interested in Windows 8, so that may be a short-term option...

[bernie]

DisplayLink's older drivers are available here:
http://displaylink.com/support/downloads.php

6.3 M1 is at the top of the "Previous Releases" list.

Let me know if it doesn't work for you. I've also raised it with DisplayLink support outside of this forum, but it doesn't seem to happen on every system. It's probably GPU/Driver/OS related.

Here's my details where I'm seeing Flash hang/crash consistently with Chrome (taken from System_Details.txt of the DisplayLink Support Tool output):

Computer: Hewlett-Packard - HP Pavilion dv5 Notebook PC CNU03627M7
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (x64-based PC), Service Pack 1, English
Graphics: Intel(R) HD Graphics (Intel Corporation)
Graphics Driver: 8.15.10.2189 Dated 2010/07/28
Desktop Mode: Aero
DisplayLink Core Software (7.0.43526.0) on 2012/12/17 Status is Installed

And from chrome://plugins/ in chrome, I only have the built in Flash plugin enabled:

Adobe Flash Player - Version: 11.5.31.5
Shockwave Flash 11.5 r31
Name: Shockwave Flash
Description: Shockwave Flash 11.5 r31
Version: 11.5.31.5
Location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\23.0.1271.97\Peppe rFlash\pepflashplayer.dll
Type: PPAPI (out-of-process)

[bender29]

Computer: Hewlett-Packard - HP Pavilion dv5 Notebook PC
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (x64-based PC), Service Pack 1, English
OS Build: 7601 (Debug = False)
Graphics: Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family (Intel Corporation)
Graphics Driver: 8.15.10.2302 Dated 2011/02/11

DisplayLink Graphics (7.1.44323.0) on 2012/12/31 Status is Installed
DisplayLink Core Software (7.1.44152.0) on 2012/12/31 Status is Installed

It took me a while to identify this problem was with the DisplayLink software. I was about to return the USB video adapter (diamond bvu195), until I decided to check for an update. Surprisingly, the latest software 7.1M0 seems to fix this issue with Chrome+flash+crashes.

It must be something with the Intel graphics mobile chipset since I have nearly the same specs as you. But give the new software a try.

[Enrico]

I have this issue as well. In Chrome, iRacing flash applet will almost always hang-up. Usually restarting the browser fixes the problem for a while.

[sharpieboss]

I also have issues. Whenever the display link adapter is active shockwave flash player ceases to operate.

[LatencyMachine]

Same issue here on my HP M7-1015DX and my Toshiba Dynadock 3. This is an Ivy Bridge i7 w/ HD Graphics 4000 system. Windows 7 x64.

I also experience lengthy hang-ups in Chrome when trying to render some content... and it's not network latency or anything like that. Using the F12 dev tools in Chrome the hangs happen after all resources have been downloaded.

I've had some luck disabling hardware acceleration settings in chrome://flags/ . I also completely disable Flash sometimes when I'm really annoyed.

I just recently installed 7.1 M0 so I will pay attention to see if it looks like the issue is resolved or less prominent. However, I'm having other new issues as a result of 7.1 M0 related to standby USB enumeration.

[llaughlin]

I'm running on a Dell at work:
Computer: Dell Inc. - Inspiron 570 DYTTFQ1
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise (x64-based PC), Service Pack 1, English
OS Build: 7601 (Debug = False)
System Bios: Version A05 built 2010/12/20
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 635 Processor
Number of Cores: 3
Memory: 5887 MB
Free Space: 709685 MB
Primary Resolution: 1920x1080x32
Desktop Size: 4020x1680
Number of Monitors Connected: 3
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4200 (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
Graphics Driver: 8.930.0.0 Dated 2011/12/05

I've had this issue with what I assume is the displaylink driver for several months now. I got it to use a 3rd monitor, obviously, but I've also experienced major hangs with chrome on pages that use flash. I'm also starting to experience heavy graphical glitches on the monitor using the adapter, such as temporarily reduced resolutions, tearing, a sort of fuzzying effect, and sometimes I have to manually reset the resolution to get it back to normal.

I've installed the latest displaylink drivers from Dec 21st:
DisplayLink Graphics (7.1.44323.0) on 2013/01/07 Status is Installed
DisplayLink Core Software (7.1.44152.0) on 2013/01/07 Status is Installed,
and it works fine for an hour or so, but it's like a buffer gets filled or there's a memory leak or something because later, every page that loaded flash would hang.

Today, I updated Chrome to it's newest version (a patch was pushed out) and it seems that EVERY PAGE I load in Chrome freezes once this buffer has been filled. I've had to resort to Firefox just to browse blogs, nevermind youtube or actually interactive pages like a build server interface. I'd love to go back to Chrome because of it's awesome dev tools and plugins, but this DisplayLink issue is making it impossible.

A co-worker has emailed them several times about the problem and apparently they've never responded. I'm not really sure what to think of DisplayLink now, as they seem to be the only provider of USB monitor adapters.

If anyone knows an alternative adapter, I'm all ears at this point. I'm sure I'm beyond the warranty period, but nothing is worth this pain.

[bender29]

Whoops, guess I spoke too soon. Started getting the same old chrome+flash crashing problems. Strange thing is that it was working fine for days, and then all of a sudden the problem occurs, and after that, it keeps popping up even after chrome restarts, and laptop restarts.

I'm too attached to Chrome right now to switch over to another browser. But can anyone else report whether this happens in Firefox or IE?

[Wim]

Yep - I'm having the same problem with Chrome and seems to have got worse with the latest Chrome update.

Most of our devs use Chrome too, so this should motivate them to investigate this.

Wim

[llaughlin]

I've had to resort to doing everything non-dev related in firefox (including reading blogs, youtube, email, google searching, etc) and doing my actual web development in chrome because I'm that much more comfortable with Chrome's Dev Tools.

However, even Firefox hasn't been free from DisplayLink's corruption. In particular, there's one very annoying graphical anomaly that occurs on my non-DisplayLink monitors when I click a dropdown menu, primarily in Firefox's UI. I can see the drop down flash for a moment, but then the options become invisible. They only become visible when I am moving my mouse over the options, but as soon as I stop, they go invisible again. Needless to say, it's quite jarring to watch and extremely frustrating to try to select options, especially in nested dropdowns.

Other than that, however, I have yet to see any slowdowns in Firefox, especially with Flash related products. Now I just have to keep 2 browsers in sync with my preferences, bookmarks, addons/extensions....First world problems!

But yes, please SOMEONE let them know that this is unacceptable and needs to be fixed. Soon.

[Roquefort]

Just reporting in to say that I have the same Chrome crashes that everyone else is reporting on my own laptop, as well as on at least three other Dell laptops (using Targus Superspeed 3.0 docking stations.)

As well, I get major graphical glitches and mouse-lag when trying to use a monitor over the docking station, so we've forgone that method completely and plug directly into the laptop. Of course this kills the dual-monitor option and it really sucks. Had I known I'd be getting all these bugs, I'd have recommended Latitude's and gotten docking stations that work.

[sabiancrash]

I am having the same issue with Chrome (both current stable [24] and canary [26]) hanging for 60seconds on new tab or new browser window. Initial load is fine. Found out that I can trigger the hangs to start by locking my screen (winkey + L) and then unlocking. See this issue for more details.

http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=172332

I also have the DisplayLink usb DVI adapter from monoprice (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?p_id=6038) running the latest Display Link drivers (core: 7.1.44152.0 graphics: 7.1.44323.0)

So far I have had good luck running chrome with the command line args --disable-gpu

Possible its trying to run GPU acceleration on the displaylink adapter and it times out and has to revert to software rendering?

[llaughlin]

I went so far as to uninstall the driver (Graphics and Core components) and restart. Windows prompted me to install drivers for the new hardware, and it found version 6.3 of the DisplayLink Core driver.

Since I've been running that (approximately Thursday afternoon), I haven't had any issues (crosses fingers!).

Not a great solution, but at least for me it's working.

[LatencyMachine]

By disabling everything pertaining to HW acceleration, I've been able to stabilize Chrome on my Toshiba Dynadock U3. Not a solution, but a workaround.


Turn off anything pertaining to GPU or HW in chrome://flags/ (Just enter that URL in the address bar if you've never done this before).
Change your Chrome shortcut to to include the command line switches " --disable-gpu --disable-software-rasterizer" (I'm not sure if that last switch is truly applicable... I encountered mention of it in another discussion forum)

[Wim]

This should now be fixed in v7.1 M1 available from our website.

Wim

[technomax]

I am trying to get the word out about this problem. The Chrome guys naturally want to push the bug responsibility to DisplayLink people. It's probably best if BOTH camps are aware.

See the bug report at:

http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=172018

[bender29]

This should now be fixed in v7.1 M1 available from our website.

Wim

I installed this version on Sunday and things are still ok. Given my experience last time, where problems suddenly occurred days later, I'll wait until I've gone 2 weeks to be confident.

For some reason though, after installing the latest drivers, I have this feeling that my laptop is a big more sluggish overall.

Was there an explanation for why the problem occurred in the first place, and what was done to fix it?

[Nate]

I am have a odd issue. With latest version of DisplayLink I cant open any pages in Chrome?:confused:

It just sits there. If I uninstall DisplayLink everything works. What am I :confused:missing???

[Nate]

Seems like this is back in the latest version of chrome

[Wim]

Yes - you're right. There is a fix for this and it will be available in our next software update.

Wim

[Nate]

Is there an ETA?

[bender29]

Yes - you're right. There is a fix for this and it will be available in our next software update.

Wim

Are you guys coordinating with the Chrome people? Because they've got their own fix in the works also.

My workaround was to downgrade to Chrome 24. But there's a better workaround for now - use the "--reduce-gpu-sandbox" flag to launch Chrome.

Here's the bug tracker for this issue on Chrome: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=177611

[kra1366]

I have been working with Google support on this.
They have released an updated version of Chrome (Canary).
This appears to have fixed the problem. Click the link below.

https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/canary.html

[mgt]

I'm using latest DisplayLink drivers 7.1.45125.0 in combination with Chrome canary and it is still not working for me. Can you please check again?

[kivnic]

What are the security implications of using the sandbox parameter fix?

"--reduce-gpu-sandbox"

[m@rtin]

We have this issue on Dell 6430u laptops using 7.1M1 (which initially fixed the problem). The latest Chrome update made it worse, causing Chrome to hang on loading for ALL tabs, regardless of whether they use flash or not.

Uninstalling the drivers and reverting to 6.3 M1 seems to resolve the issue. Given the instability of the latest drivers, I would be inclined to leave the older ones installed.

[grimmer01]

I have been working with Google support on this.
They have released an updated version of Chrome (Canary).
This appears to have fixed the problem. Click the link below.

https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/canary.html

Thanks a Million kra!!!

That worked. Now Chrome is working on my laptop again.

[kivnic]

Thanks a Million kra!!!

That worked. Now Chrome is working on my laptop again.


Canary kind of worked for me, BUT canary doesn't seem to function properly with multiple monitors. Everytime I right click on an Chrome instance on a secondary monitor the context menu appears on the primary screen. Very hard to use Chrome like this.

Back on the GPU sandbox idea, is there a way to change that setting with chrome internally? The problem with setting it in the startup shortcut is that the switch won't be enabled when Chrome starts through other means. For example, if I click on a URL shortcut from an Outlook email.

[mgt]

Canary kind of worked for me, BUT canary doesn't seem to function properly with multiple monitors. Everytime I right click on an Chrome instance on a secondary monitor the context menu appears on the primary screen. Very hard to use Chrome like this.

I have the same exact problem and also it is not possible to make Canary as default browser. This is option is disable the settings so like kivnic said, links do to open from outside the browser.

Did you get timeline of when Google will release update to normal Chrome?

[kivnic]

I have the same exact problem and also it is not possible to make Canary as default browser. This is option is disable the settings so like kivnic said, links do to open from outside the browser.

Did you get timeline of when Google will release update to normal Chrome?

There must be some way to make the GPU sandbox change part of Chrome's persistent settings. I did see a setting to disable Chrome's sandbox control all together (too risky) but I couldn't figure out how to do it for only the GPU sandbox. Is there any chrome expert reading this with advice on how that might be accomplished? Maybe it's under chrome://flags/ but listed as something else?

[jayfermann]

We downloaded and installed the new 7.1 M1 software/driver and immediately started having issues with Chrome (2 separate computers running Windows 7 64-bit). As a work-around, we are using the --disable-gpu to use chrome for now.

[kra1366]

Google contacted me yesterday. They released a new version of Chrome beta. This was supposed to have fixed this issue. No luck still the same issue. The only work around for me was to use the canary version.

[jennb]

Hey! I was having trouble with chrome, and appears that the driver update disabled Chrome for me. I went back to 6.3 and it all works just fine. Of course, I had to uninstall and reinstall, then run 6.3, but all works now. Thanks for this post!

[DesktopMasters]

I had to do a system restore. I ran the tool to remove the drivers. Then I installed 6.3M1 then I installed 7.0M3 and Chrome still works. I am a pretty high level computer tech. NOTHING I did would fix this. Reinstalling Flash etc... nothing.. But the above solution seems to be working. I would say this is a problem with these drivers and perhaps they should revisit what they did between those versions.

~ Merlin