DisplayLink not working on new MBP 15in i7

[sherlock]

I just got the adapter in the mail yesterday, installed the new beta driver, and tried plugging it in to either of the external monitors that I have and nothing happens. I can find the monitor through detect displays, but the screen is not turning on no matter what I do. I have attached log files. Thanks!

[Carlo]

Sherlock thank you for the logs. It's a new issue unfortunately and there are more than one possible causes.
The hardware seems ok, there is one failure in enumerating the device but the logs show that it's normally usable so we are looking at a SW issue.
We'll have to try to reproduce the issue in our lab to understand more.

[sherlock]

Sherlock thank you for the logs. It's a new issue unfortunately and there are more than one possible causes.
The hardware seems ok, there is one failure in enumerating the device but the logs show that it's normally usable so we are looking at a SW issue.
We'll have to try to reproduce the issue in our lab to understand more.

Have you been able to reproduce the problem? What are my next steps here?

[martygearbox]

Sherlock thank you for the logs. It's a new issue unfortunately and there are more than one possible causes.
The hardware seems ok, there is one failure in enumerating the device but the logs show that it's normally usable so we are looking at a SW issue.
We'll have to try to reproduce the issue in our lab to understand more.

I took my new i& 15" Macbook out of the box and let the migration assistant migrate my stuff (which included the 1.6b1 driver, i believe). Everything seemed to work great (monitor and displaylink adaptor worked). The next day I disconnected the machine from the displaylink device. Since that the machine would hang upon wake from sleep. I could see my desktop, but there was a blue translucent color over everything. I could see my mouse and move it, but nothing else. I restarted and saw the same thing. booting in safe mode and everything was fine. I had to uninstall the Displaylink driver. Installing 1.6b2 did not help, same results, so I uninstalled it.

[MCV]

I took my new i& 15" Macbook out of the box and let the migration assistant migrate my stuff (which included the 1.6b1 driver, i believe). Everything seemed to work great (monitor and displaylink adaptor worked). The next day I disconnected the machine from the displaylink device. Since that the machine would hang upon wake from sleep. I could see my desktop, but there was a blue translucent color over everything. I could see my mouse and move it, but nothing else. I restarted and saw the same thing. booting in safe mode and everything was fine. I had to uninstall the Displaylink driver. Installing 1.6b2 did not help, same results, so I uninstalled it.

Hey Marty -- same thing here with my 15" i7 MBP. I ran the migration assistant and had nothing but trouble since then. I have since copied all my data off manually, wiped the system clean, and reinstalled the OS. Guess what? Still having issues. I really hope they get this fixes soon. I'm rebooting several times a day and it's really pissing me off.

[FishGills]

Our Marketing just received 5 i7 17 inch MBPs along with 5 Diamond BVU195s and every single one is having the same kind of issues as the original poster.

The only difference is upon boot, we're seeing alternating dark and light blue bars. We can see the mouse cursor "above" the bars but nothing else.

We boot into safe mode, uninstall the displaylink driver and everything is good.

So, chalk a +5 to this!

[SGD]

Funny enough, I ran into this exact same problem with the 1.5 driver yesterday. After my initial install, everything worked perfectly. But the next morning, I restarted just my MBP (no external monitors attached), and I got the alternating blue lines. Multiple reboots -- no change. Once I got home, I plugged back in an external monitor (both via the Mini DisplayPort and the Diamond USB-DVI adapter), and everything was back to normal. But booting the MBP by itself still gives me the lines.

So, at this point, my laptop is useless unless it's plugged into a second monitor. That's not good.

Guess maybe I have to uninstall?

[wpns]

Yeah, me too. 15" MBP, i7, 1.6b2 works fine with DL adapters connected, blue stripes when booting with no DL hardware. Must boot in safe mode (hold shift key during boot) and uninstall 1.6b2, then it works again. And to use it with DL monitors, reinstall. Kinda cumbersome.

I'll run the debug tool if you think it's useful, just let me know here!

[Dan Radin]

I am experiencing the same problems that other posters described in this thread. I am moving from an early-2008 MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo) to a new MacBook Pro (i5) and have been seeing kernel panic, the blue screen overlay issue, and problems with waking from sleep in closed/desktop mode. Has there been any resolution to this issue? Does 1.6 work?

I have lost a lot of productivity and time due to this issue, thinking it was other software/hardware conflicts.

[DocMike]

DisplayLink Does not work with i5 and i7 macbook pro with switching graphics card

[Dan Radin]

Thanks for the feedback. Do you get the sense this is a "forever" issue, or a "they haven't written the firmware for it yet" issue?

[Dan Radin]

Has this been resolved?

[SGD]

Oddly enough, I can report that everything is... working. Really.

Core i7 (2.66 GHz) MacBook Pro 15"
4GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M
Running 10.6.4 in 32-bit mode
Using the Diamond BVU195 USB-DVI adapter (attached to the MBP via a Belkin USB hub)
DisplayLink 1.6 Beta 2 Driver installed

On initial install, I got the blue horizontal bands at startup, but turned off the auto-switching video option in Energy Saver Preferences, and all seems well. I have two Dell 24"s attached to the MBP -- one through the Mini DisplayPort and one through the adapter. There's a tiny perceptible lag on the DisplayLink monitor, but more than acceptable for Photoshop palettes.

So, for the moment, I have no complaints at all. :)

[bernie]

For those who are now getting good behavior on MBPs with GPU auto-switching turned off..

Was it Apple's August Snow Leopard Graphics Update that made the difference?

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/08/17/apple-releases-snow-leopard-graphics-update/

There have been some reports to this effect, but it would be good to get confirmation if everyone with MacBook Pros and this update, are just able to turn off auto-switching to get a reliably working system .. or if not ...

Thanks for any datapoints,
Bernie
http://plugable.com/

[jaybna]

Also running a Macbook Pro i7. After hearing of some success here I tried the install of 1.6v2 once again with "Automatic Graphics Switching" turned off and the Imation Link dongle plugged in.

Worked like a champ after that - watched a replay of the Vanderbilt-Ole Miss game on ESPN.com streaming from my laptop wirelessly to my HDTV!

One thing to note, I have been having a lot of graphics issues in the last month independent of getting the DisplayLink driver loaded. I called Apple and they suggest a SCM reset which seems to have made a huge difference.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964?viewlocale=en_US

Thanks, Jay

[whroberts]

For those who are now getting good behavior on MBPs with GPU auto-switching turned off..

Was it Apple's August Snow Leopard Graphics Update that made the difference?

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/08/17/apple-releases-snow-leopard-graphics-update/

There have been some reports to this effect, but it would be good to get confirmation if everyone with MacBook Pros and this update, are just able to turn off auto-switching to get a reliably working system .. or if not ...

Thanks for any datapoints,
Bernie
http://plugable.com/


Yes, this was the case for me. I did all the updates _except_ the graphics update and had no issues. If I apply the graphics update I see the blue and white horizontal lines and have to disable auto-switching. I reported it here http://www.displaylink.org/forum/showthread.php?t=442 a few days ago.

Cheers,

Bill

[sjmanning]

Sherlock thank you for the logs. It's a new issue unfortunately and there are more than one possible causes.
The hardware seems ok, there is one failure in enumerating the device but the logs show that it's normally usable so we are looking at a SW issue.
We'll have to try to reproduce the issue in our lab to understand more.
Your driver does not work with OSX 10.6.4 . This is an issue known to NewerTechnology for several months. It appears that you have elected to give up the Apple users' market. Confirm...

[sjmanning]

Yes, this was the case for me. I did all the updates _except_ the graphics update and had no issues. If I apply the graphics update I see the blue and white horizontal lines and have to disable auto-switching. I reported it here http://www.displaylink.org/forum/showthread.php?t=442 a few days ago.

Cheers,

Bill
Regrettably, likely a waste of time. They have been aware of this issue for months. Appears they have elected to give up the Apple users' market.

[sjmanning]

Oddly enough, I can report that everything is... working. Really.

Core i7 (2.66 GHz) MacBook Pro 15"
4GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M
Running 10.6.4 in 32-bit mode
Using the Diamond BVU195 USB-DVI adapter (attached to the MBP via a Belkin USB hub)
DisplayLink 1.6 Beta 2 Driver installed

On initial install, I got the blue horizontal bands at startup, but turned off the auto-switching video option in Energy Saver Preferences, and all seems well. I have two Dell 24"s attached to the MBP -- one through the Mini DisplayPort and one through the adapter. There's a tiny perceptible lag on the DisplayLink monitor, but more than acceptable for Photoshop palettes.

So, for the moment, I have no complaints at all. :)
So...
You need to disable one of the more important features of you NEW LAPTOP to make use of this driver?
To make good use of this driver, one needs to enable and disable a major [benefit] function of the laptop based on how it is powered.
Absurd, I opine.

[sjmanning]

Thanks for the feedback. Do you get the sense this is a "forever" issue, or a "they haven't written the firmware for it yet" issue?
They have asserted that they are working on this known issue. In fact, they have asserted that for much of the year. If users can figure out what the conflict is, I opine so can the manufacturer. Appears they have decided to give up on the Apple users' market entirely.

[sjmanning]

Thanks for the feedback. Do you get the sense this is a "forever" issue, or a "they haven't written the firmware for it yet" issue?

They have asserted that they are working on this known issue. In fact, they have asserted that for much of the year. If users can figure out what the conflict is, I opine so can the manufacturer. Appears they have decided to give up on the Apple users' market entirely.

[SGD]

For those who are now getting good behavior on MBPs with GPU auto-switching turned off..

Was it Apple's August Snow Leopard Graphics Update that made the difference?


I haven't installed the Graphics Update, so it hasn't had any effect on my recent success.

[tres]

Our Marketing just received 5 i7 17 inch MBPs along with 5 Diamond BVU195s and every single one is having the same kind of issues as the original poster.

The only difference is upon boot, we're seeing alternating dark and light blue bars. We can see the mouse cursor "above" the bars but nothing else.

We boot into safe mode, uninstall the displaylink driver and everything is good.

So, chalk a +5 to this!

I've got a new MacBook Pro i7 with nVidia switching graphics. No matter which driver version I use, if I'm not actually using my DisplayLink adapter, it's completely unusable. Same distorted blue/black lines. Mouse moves, but nothing happens. Safe-mode uninstall still works.

I have to say this is a huge disappointment and I have completely lost my faith in DisplayLink. I've logged several support issues with no response. I work with two external monitors so I have to install and restart when I get to work. When I go home, I have to uninstall and power off.

I've thought about writing an app to just disable the drivers when it's disconnected, however, I'm not that proficient with XCode yet.

Any suggestions?

[bernd]

hy,

I´am having no boot or other screen issues the only annoying thing is that i can´t switch back to my intel GPU even if the displaylink adapter is not connected.
i tried to manually unload the "com.displaylink.driver.DisplayLinkDriver (1.6) <71 14 12 11 10 7 5 4 3> kext" which results in a kernel panic.
ioreg and kextstat showed me that the driver dosent get unloadet even if there is not a single usb device connected.
so if you could provide a driver which is loadable on demand i think you could make a lot of mac users happy.

[Carlo]

I've got a new MacBook Pro i7 with nVidia switching graphics. No matter which driver version I use, if I'm not actually using my DisplayLink adapter, it's completely unusable. Same distorted blue/black lines. Mouse moves, but nothing happens. Safe-mode uninstall still works.

I have to say this is a huge disappointment and I have completely lost my faith in DisplayLink. I've logged several support issues with no response. I work with two external monitors so I have to install and restart when I get to work. When I go home, I have to uninstall and power off.

I've thought about writing an app to just disable the drivers when it's disconnected, however, I'm not that proficient with XCode yet.

Any suggestions?

Unfortunately graphics drivers can't be dynamically unloaded on Mac OS. So no easy workaround there.

The only effective workaround has been to disable the GPU automatic switching in the Energy Saver preferences. Have you tried that?

[sjmanning]

The company has asserted for MUCH OF THIS YEAR that the device works! It does not. Once they realize that the "complainer" is not a bozo, they admit to the device not working with OSX 10.6.4 and that "they are working on it". Appears that they have given up on the Apple users' market.

[sjmanning]

hy,

I´am having no boot or other screen issues the only annoying thing is that i can´t switch back to my intel GPU even if the displaylink adapter is not connected.
i tried to manually unload the "com.displaylink.driver.DisplayLinkDriver (1.6) <71 14 12 11 10 7 5 4 3> kext" which results in a kernel panic.
ioreg and kextstat showed me that the driver dosent get unloadet even if there is not a single usb device connected.
so if you could provide a driver which is loadable on demand i think you could make a lot of mac users happy.

Wish all of us MAC users the best of luck. The company has been aware of this issue since they first made the driver available. Not that they readily admit to it. Appears they have given up on the Mac users' market.