(2) UGA-3000 Dell E/Port Plus docking station with Dell E7450 - Screens flicker

I’ve just changed to a new Dell E7450 with a Dell E/Port Plus docking station. I have (2) UGA-3000 adapters allowing me to use 4 monitors. The 2 monitors that are connected to the UGA adapters continually flicker, like when they are first being installed. They will finally stop flickering and then I can use them for a few minutes before again they flicker and the windows that are on those screens get tossed back to my two main monitors. I know the UGA devices themselves work as I used them on my previous setup. I know there is something going on with the drivers or a service failing but I cant figure it out. Nothing shows up in the system or application logs. I’ve followed the steps outlined in this post - http://support.plugable.com/plugable/… but this did not help. Yesterday I thought I had this under control by turning everything off and reconnecting all the ports and making sure all my connections were tight. Everything seemed to work fine after that, but again this morning when I turned my laptop on it went back to constant flickering. It may have even gotten worse. I know this setup works as my coworker has the exact same setup and is having no issues. I’ve matched his drivers and install and we are working off the same windows image. Any assistance would be great!!

Hi Mike,

Thanks for posting! I’m sorry the adapters are not working properly on your Dell. I’d be happy to help.

Thanks for providing the thorough detail and letting me know your coworker has the same setup working successfully. There is obviously something different between the two systems but it seems as if in this case it is the proverbial needle in the haystack causing the problem.

The first thing I recommend trying if possible to is to switch the adapters in use on your system with the adapters your coworker is using and see if the problem follows the adapters or stays with your system (mark them in some way so you don’t get confused which is which).

Assuming the problem stays with your system the next thing to try would be to connect the adapters directly to the laptop as opposed to the docking station just as a test. Looking at the manual for your system it has three USB 3.0 ports, one on the right-hand side and two on the back. I know it may be a bit of a pain to setup temporarily but I have seen instances where traditional docking stations caused problems. In the past this has ranged from a faulty power supply for the dock not providing enough power or even an issue with the USB ports on the dock itself.

Hopefully with those two tests we can narrow down the cause. Let us know the results when you have a moment and we can go from there.

Thank you,

Bob
Plugable Technologies
www.plugable.com/support

I found that unplugging everything and plugging it back in to the docking station, while everything was removed from power and the laptop was undocked seems to fix this. Once I dock my laptop it works again, BUT if I undock my laptop (Powered down or not) and then I re-dock and power back up I get this issue. My coworker has started seeing this issue as well. For me I’m just going to leave my laptop in the dock and use my secondary laptop to travel with.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the update and thanks for doing all the testing! Based on your description it does sound the issue may lie with the Dell dock. I’m glad you have a workaround for now. Let us know if you have an opportunity to try the adapters directly connected to the laptop itself (removing the Dell dock from the equation).

Thank you,

Bob

Well I cant say its a docking station issue. Plugging directly into the laptop gives me the same thing and I’ve swapped out the docking station for a brand new one and get the same affect. It seem like there is a driver or service failing somewhere, but nothing shows in the error logs. Its really odd, but I seem to have a work around currently.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for trying with the adapters connected directly to the laptop! I’m sorry the behavior remains but I’m glad the workaround works well for now. Should you wish to try troubleshooting further in the future please run our PlugDebug diagnostic utility –> http://plugable.com/support/plugdebug and send the output to support@plugable.com with ‘Ticket 100570’ in the subject line so we can match everything up.

Thank you!

Bob

Thanks. The issue reared its ugly head again today. I found removing and re-docking the laptop while it was on fixed the issue. It still seems like a driver problem to me. I’ll run this tool next time I get this issue.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the update. Just send us the PlugDebug when you have time and we can go from there.

Thanks,

Bob