I found a great solution

emmgee · 11-06-2013, 12:03 AM

I have been using a Kensington USB 3.0 dock with my MacBook Air and two monitors. With Mountain Lion I got reasonable results. With Mavericks and the beta driver, I took a big step back as has been well-described on this web site.

I saw the new 2.1 drive and installed it. The good news is that a lot (all?) of the pointer lag went away. But I could only get one of the two monitors to light up. Sometimes both would light up but the screens were frozen.

Then it occurred to me: Why not connect one monitor to the Thunderbolt port using the mini-DVI-to-DVI adapter and have the other monitor connect to the HDMI port (where it already was connected)? I unplugged the DVI connector from the back of the Kensington doc, plugged in the adaptor, and plugged it into the TB port. That screen lit up. Then I connected the USB cable to the MBA that is connected to the Kensington dock. The second screen lit up.

I had to correctly arrange the screens using Displays in System Preferences. The pointer moves nicely across all three screens (I keep the LCD of the MBA up) and moving windows is super smooth. The only thing I'll lose is now I have one more cable to plug in. The dock supports extra USB ports, a permanently attached LAN cable, and the dongle for my USB keyboard (and of course the HDMI cable for the monitor).

Maybe someone else has posted this, but it doesn't hurt to have it posted again.

Mike

itadmincrbc · 11-20-2013, 09:52 PM

Mike no offense, but this is a horrible solution. The reason for having the dock is so you don't have to disconnect 10 cables when you walk away. I too have to connect my second monitor to the Display Port connector and it sucks.

11-06-2013, 12:03 AM	#1
emmgee Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2013 Posts: 2	I found a great solution I have been using a Kensington USB 3.0 dock with my MacBook Air and two monitors. With Mountain Lion I got reasonable results. With Mavericks and the beta driver, I took a big step back as has been well-described on this web site. I saw the new 2.1 drive and installed it. The good news is that a lot (all?) of the pointer lag went away. But I could only get one of the two monitors to light up. Sometimes both would light up but the screens were frozen. Then it occurred to me: Why not connect one monitor to the Thunderbolt port using the mini-DVI-to-DVI adapter and have the other monitor connect to the HDMI port (where it already was connected)? I unplugged the DVI connector from the back of the Kensington doc, plugged in the adaptor, and plugged it into the TB port. That screen lit up. Then I connected the USB cable to the MBA that is connected to the Kensington dock. The second screen lit up. I had to correctly arrange the screens using Displays in System Preferences. The pointer moves nicely across all three screens (I keep the LCD of the MBA up) and moving windows is super smooth. The only thing I'll lose is now I have one more cable to plug in. The dock supports extra USB ports, a permanently attached LAN cable, and the dongle for my USB keyboard (and of course the HDMI cable for the monitor). Maybe someone else has posted this, but it doesn't hurt to have it posted again. Mike

11-20-2013, 09:52 PM	#2
itadmincrbc Member Join Date: Oct 2013 Posts: 55	Mike no offense, but this is a horrible solution. The reason for having the dock is so you don't have to disconnect 10 cables when you walk away. I too have to connect my second monitor to the Display Port connector and it sucks.