Firefox 4, Movies, and Netflix no longer working

[Saturn2888]

I can no longer get Firefox 4, Movies, or Netflix working with any of my DisplayLink monitors or adapters. I've tried both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 Professional on Intel and AMD graphics respectively to no avail. I don't know what happened, but it used to work in 5.6 and no longer does.

I tried both 5.6.30986 and 5.6.31870. I even reverted back to 5.6.30986 thinking that would solve it, nope. I've even restarted many times. I think it used to work in 5.6.29529 (the beta from January 2011 http://www.displaylink.org/forum/showthread.php?t=572), but I cannot confirm that at this time. Is there any reason for this to have stopped working? Is there any way to fix it?

Attached is my DL_support_tool log from after I reverted back to 5.6.30986.

[Wim]

Are you using Basic mode? I should be able to tell from the log file, but it hasn't logged it.

Windows update broke the video in basic mode implementation last month, so video will only work in Aero mode on Windows 7 at the moment.

Wim

[Saturn2888]

Are you using Basic mode? I should be able to tell from the log file, but it hasn't logged it.

Windows update broke the video in basic mode implementation last month, so video will only work in Aero mode on Windows 7 at the moment.

Wim

Oh I see, so that's what that post was about. Basic, does that also include Classic (Win95) mode? That's what I'm using so it may affect it.

[malefactor]

Any status on this? Really need a fix. I don't use all that fancy windows 7 visual stuff, and don't want it--It's distracting and frankly, gets in the way of doing real work.

[Saturn2888]

Strangely enough, I haven't seen an update around here in a while. I also want this fixed since, while it was Microsoft who broke it, DisplayLink is the one still with the technology and the only group that can fix said bug. I'm curious what's required to fix it even or who you need to go to so you can address the issue.

[RW20087]

This little bug was getting on my nerves. I have Windows 7 x64 with the newly released SP1. I personally hate Aero themes, because I think they are clunky and heavy handed. Besides that, I seem to get a little more performance from the classic mode.

I found it unusual that the issues that I was having only seemed to happen when using FF4 and above. I tried everything; e.g. reinstalled all drivers, different combinations of legacy drivers, etc, etc.

This morning I realized it HAD to be something with FF. So in FF, under Tools > Options > Advanced, I unchecked the option for "Use hardware acceleration when possible". Everything seems to work perfectly now. BTW, I also have the "Optimize for Video" option enabled in the DisplayLink tray utility.

Now I can calm the heck down and focus on some work.

[Saturn2888]

This little bug was getting on my nerves. I have Windows 7 x64 with the newly released SP1. I personally hate Aero themes, because I think they are clunky and heavy handed. Besides that, I seem to get a little more performance from the classic mode.

I found it unusual that the issues that I was having only seemed to happen when using FF4 and above. I tried everything; e.g. reinstalled all drivers, different combinations of legacy drivers, etc, etc.

This morning I realized it HAD to be something with FF. So in FF, under Tools > Options > Advanced, I unchecked the option for "Use hardware acceleration when possible". Everything seems to work perfectly now. BTW, I also have the "Optimize for Video" option enabled in the DisplayLink tray utility.

Now I can calm the heck down and focus on some work.

I'm sorry to say that you didn't fix the problem at all. In fact, this is not Mozilla's fault, it's Microsoft's, but because they do not make the DisplayLink driver, then the issue is with DisplayLink. Disabling accelerated graphics is only a workaround, not a fix. Preferrably, you should be able to use Firefox, or any other application, that uses acceleration in your DisplayLink devices with non-Aero configurations in Windows because this used to work even though it no longer works now.

There's no reason to accept a workaround as a solution. Sure it fixes it only with Firefox, but then that also breaks all acceleration which newer versions of Firefox benefit from.

[RW20087]

Well they should get on it or hire some developers who are up to the task. This bug has been around for a while. Having someone from their company chime in and suggest using an Aero theme is ridiculous.

The symptom is with how newer versions of FF are handling hardware acceleration, as opposed to older versions. Maybe they should start there.

[Saturn2888]

Well they should get on it or hire some developers who are up to the task. This bug has been around for a while. Having someone from their company chime in and suggest using an Aero theme is ridiculous.

The symptom is with how newer versions of FF are handling hardware acceleration, as opposed to older versions. Maybe they should start there.

Oh, they know the issue and what's wrong because they can tell you that it specifically was Microsoft's fault in one of their updates. The thing is, they've never stated if it's possible to fix or not and if not, why they haven't gone to Microsoft to get it changed. There's no reason the API from Microsoft should fail if Aero is off since some systems can't even use Aero.

It's more important to explain if it's fixable, why it's not (if not), and how long it's going to take. And honestly, I don't believe anything's not able to be fixed or I could just sell off the DisplayLink hardware I've already purchased as it's fairly useless if I can't put applications in any of 'em.

[Saturn2888]

Are you using Basic mode? I should be able to tell from the log file, but it hasn't logged it.

Windows update broke the video in basic mode implementation last month, so video will only work in Aero mode on Windows 7 at the moment.


That's what we were just talking about. And it broke sometime in February to March which is why we're both peeved it hasn't been fixed yet. Not to mention some other bugs which I wholly dislike associated with OpenGL, but I'd rather not go into those because I can't even use the monitors for hardly anything anymore anyway.

[RW20087]

Now the issue is much worse with Windows 7 x64 SP1 and IE9. I'll never purchase another Displaylink product again.

[GCATNM]

Any news on this issue ? After all it has now been broken for quite a while already, but the 6.0 drivers do not appear to fix it.

[Saturn2888]

Actually, they fixed it for me temporarily. I was playing Portal 2 in 5 monitors (2 of them DisplayLink), but after restarting, it stopped working again. I dunno what the issue is.

Question to you, do you use LogMeIn? I have a feeling the DMPS thing it installs on your monitors, if you use screen blanking, is part of the reason.

[GCATNM]

Nope, I don't. I wouldn't even know what LogMeIn or DMPS are.

[Saturn2888]

Ok, then it's related to something else.

[IPR]

Hi

Recently updated Windows 7 64 Bit with various windows updates. Now Firefox V8 does not work on the Display Link screen (it worked fine before). I tried disabling and re enabling, no change. Other programs seem to work the same as before. Firefox when moved to that screen stops responding to inputs, works fine on my HDMI screen and main laptop screen.

I do not want to use the suggested workaround -- clearly I dont want to disable hardware acceleration or change to the windows aero themes which waste resources. So I have not tried that.

Sadly however I use Firefox a fair bit for its Zotero integration and like to use it on the DL screen.

Surely by now Display Link would have come up with a fix for this since I see it has been an issue for over a year? I do have the most up to date drivers from the DL site. I do not see workarounds or blaming microsoft as being a productive way of dealing with the situation.

Could you please fix this or let me know a practical workaround that does not involve reducing system performance?

Thank you

[IPR]

On further investigation I guess you mean disable HW acceleration in Firefox itself, sorry about that.

I tried that (options-advanced-general-browsing-uncheck "use hw acceleration when available") and now it works OK.

However, my original comment still stands--surely this should be fixed, I assume this is the same issue as others are having with Open GL which presumably should also be fixed.

As a side issue I am wondering if this is part of the problem I have been having with my CAD program, Bricscad, which has been having issues since I installed the DL screen. I will try some things and post separately about that.

[Saturn2888]

On further investigation I guess you mean disable HW acceleration in Firefox itself, sorry about that.

I tried that (options-advanced-general-browsing-uncheck "use hw acceleration when available") and now it works OK.

However, my original comment still stands--surely this should be fixed, I assume this is the same issue as others are having with Open GL which presumably should also be fixed.

As a side issue I am wondering if this is part of the problem I have been having with my CAD program, Bricscad, which has been having issues since I installed the DL screen. I will try some things and post separately about that.

I've had some interesting issues myself. It seems, with a new build, even with a prior build, the 3D stuff works, but fullscreen video does not. It's also very slow.

Some 3D application have very slow framerates when run in a window on the non-DisplayLink displays, but no problems in fullscreen on those.

Removing the monitors and plugging them back in or reinstalling the drivers after they've been installed once will break this functionality which is what you want.

Sure, it sucks that Thunderbird and Firefox and many other applications won't work, but that fixes the slowdown.

:: NOTE ::

When this used to work, I was actually able to smoothly play games in these monitors, Watch videos in fullscreen, etc.

[Wim]

For those people that were having problems with Basic mode rendering, please try the Alpha release on the forum here:

http://www.displaylink.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=44

Wim

[Saturn2888]

For those people that were having problems with Basic mode rendering, please try the Alpha release on the forum here:

http://www.displaylink.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=44

Wim

I did try it and as I read somewhere, it was going to be very buggy. Well I can say I didn't feel it was buggy, but man was it slow.

Even normal operations that don't require a graphics hook and moving the mouse around were slow. I think it was either forcing the USB1.1 speeds or that something it was using for processing was doing so.