Toshiba Dynadock U3 Screen Laggy and Poor Network Performance

[pantner]

Hello,

I work in the IT Dept of a school, we have recently bought Toshiba USB3 DynaDocks as replacement docking stations for many of our computers.

I am peronsally using one with a Fujitsu T732 Convertable Tablet.

First off i've found the network performance quite poor.
We have a gigabit network, i can get 100MB/sec (not mbit/sec, Megabytes/sec!) when using the network card built into my tablet.
When using the DynaDock i am lucky if i get 30MB/sec. Concidering this is plugged into a USB3 port, i thought i would get more than that...thats only slightly more than a USB2 connect has given me in the past.

Secondly, I've found the VGA performance to be laggy/jerky. I have a Samsung 22" LCD connected (1680x1050) via DVI.
It's especially noticeable with websites when i move the mouse and it happens to travel over a HTML link the screen will freeze as it highlights the link for ~0.5 sec and then come back.

I do a very large amount of work in internet browsers (The helpdesk ticketing system we use is web-based) and it is extremely annoying!

I have a college with a Toshiba Z930 and a DynaDock, he has the same issue aswell (he thought his mouse wasn't tracking properly until i pointed it out to him).

I have updated to the latest Displaylink software, i have updated to the latest Intel USB3 Drivers (as of about 2-3 weeks ago).

I have a second, higher res monitor (1920x1080) plugged directly into my computer (via VGA) which works perfectly. I also am using the built in network as for my work, 30MB/sec is just too slow.

Overall, not a terribly good experiance for someone who is supposed to support these devices.

I have attached the 'dump' from your support tool.

Please let me know if you need any more information or have any questions.

Thank you.

[ChouPigu]

I have the same dock, and I have noticed some of the same things on my Surface Pro 128 DVI out to a single 1920x1200 Dell flatscreen.

1. Just moving my mouse around the screen will intermittently freeze for about 2 seconds. I can't really attribute it to any action, though. Seems completely random. And very frequent.

2. When using the network heavily (transferring large files to another PC), the graphics downscale dramatically. It's hard to read any text on the screen during this time.

3. I also experience the Metro app delay, but that is discussed in another thread.

I have started to use the Surface's MiniDisplayPort out, instead of relying on the Dynadock for 2nd screen duties.

[pantner]

any comments from the DL team about my issues?

[Wim]

Hi

Yes - we are aware of the performance issues you have found, although they are system specific. Also, the 2 posts are different root causes as one is on Windows 7 and one is on Windows 8.

The Ethernet performance should be improved in our next release.

Wim

[pantner]

Yes - we are aware of the performance issues you have found, although they are system specific.

i'm not sure i understand you here.

Do you mean computer specific or dock specific?

As i explained, a workmate has a completly different computer and has the exact same issues.

[ChouPigu]

Hello gents,

After installing update build 4305, I'd like to report that my mouse no longer freezes randomly, and the video doesn't down-res during heavy network traffic. Mouse is slightly choppy during heavy network load, but hardly noticeable.

Thanks!

Edit: Er, spoke too soon. I don't think there was an update, I just had a bad install and it tried an auto-update. Thanks.

[TimTom]

Hi,
I'm experiencing the same problems on a Dell XPS-12 (Win8/64, built in Intel HD-4000 graphics card).
Screen will kind of freeze for 0.5-1s in normal office operation.
Updating to SW 7.2M1 didn't help.

When I connect the screen (LG 1600x1200 via DVI) directly to the laptop's Mini-Displayport the lagging will disappear.

You mentioned a SW-version that helped. Where can this be found?

Thanks for any advice.
TimTom

[pantner]

I have installed the latest version 7.2M1 and my network performance has dropped, not improved.

I used to get ~30MB/sec and now its more like 15-20MB/sec.

Video performance is remained as bad as it was before with the 'micro stutter', especially when moving over hyperlinks in IE.

I am becoming less and less impressed with these DisplayLink devices...

[jim8]

I have installed the latest version 7.2M1 and my network performance has dropped, not improved.

I used to get ~30MB/sec and now its more like 15-20MB/sec.

Video performance is remained as bad as it was before with the 'micro stutter', especially when moving over hyperlinks in IE.

I am becoming less and less impressed with these DisplayLink devices...

I am also having gigabit ethernet speed issues. I'm using a Lenovo USB3 Dock on my Thinkpad Helix. 7.2M1, all updated software/drivers, USB3 port, etc (AFAIK). My DVI output to 1920x1200 is decent however.

It definitely feels like the gigabit ethernet on the dock is running on USB2 instead of USB3. I'm hitting about 29MB/s max, though it's usually around 23MB/s. I have a gigabit switch and fast NAS that usually lets my other computers go at 90MB/s on transfers.

The dock ethernet also drops to around 15MB/s if I'm watching a video from the local drive.

Worst of all, my CPU usage goes up past 50% just from the network transfer. It's like the ethernet adapter is passing the processing to the CPU.

I hope this was just a simple coding mistake since putting a cheap ethernet adapter chip onto a $170 USB3 dock is a very poor choice.

[pantner]

Hi

Yes - we are aware of the performance issues you have found, although they are system specific. Also, the 2 posts are different root causes as one is on Windows 7 and one is on Windows 8.

The Ethernet performance should be improved in our next release.

Wim

Wim, I currently have the latest Displaylink drivers and network performance is still as poor as it was before.

External Monitor performance has also not improved.

There is still stutter/micro-stutter when moving over hyperlinks which DOES lead to misclicks and gets very annoying.

As per my previous post, network performance is at best, the same as previously if not worse. It does seems link a USB2 connection, not a USB3 connection.

Are these issues still being looked into, or have you marked them as 'solved'?

I work in education, we have started rolling these units out instead of model specific docking stations, and still have a large amount to do, this is not very promising.

[JamesH]

Hi,

What are the docks connected to?

I ask as the ethernet on the dock supports auto negotiation and full duplex. You can't fix the speed or connect it to a half duplex connection (such as a 10/100 Hub).

Thanks,
James

[pantner]

you mean the switch?
I'm not familiar with the exact model, but it would be a HP Layer 2-3 Gigabit switch.

When plugging my computer in (Fuji T732) I get good Gigabit speeds (80+ MB/sec)

[Wim]

Wim, I currently have the latest Displaylink drivers and network performance is still as poor as it was before.

External Monitor performance has also not improved.

There is still stutter/micro-stutter when moving over hyperlinks which DOES lead to misclicks and gets very annoying.

As per my previous post, network performance is at best, the same as previously if not worse. It does seems link a USB2 connection, not a USB3 connection.

Are these issues still being looked into, or have you marked them as 'solved'?

I work in education, we have started rolling these units out instead of model specific docking stations, and still have a large amount to do, this is not very promising.

Can you see if the lag is solved by the test build in this thread:

http://www.displaylink.org/forum/showpost.php?p=69491&postcount=77

It certainly addresses a known issue with mouse lag.

The Ethernet throughput should be faster than you are seeing. Do you have any software firewalls installed?

There is a firmware update for the USB 3.0 hub in the dock. Updating this might help the USB 3.0 throughput. Also updating the Intel USB 3.0 host controller driver in your PC might help.

Wim

[pantner]

Can you see if the lag is solved by the test build in this thread:

http://www.displaylink.org/forum/showpost.php?p=69491&postcount=77

It certainly addresses a known issue with mouse lag.

The Ethernet throughput should be faster than you are seeing. Do you have any software firewalls installed?

There is a firmware update for the USB 3.0 hub in the dock. Updating this might help the USB 3.0 throughput. Also updating the Intel USB 3.0 host controller driver in your PC might help.

Wim

Thanks for that, downloading now.

Updated the USB3 host driver recently, I believe it's still the latest version but will double check.

How do I go about the firmware update?