Recently started overhauling my desk setup and picked up the TBT3-UD1-83 for the laptop setup, connected to an Asus GU501GM, with TB software 17.3.73.350, NVM firmware 33.00. So far, everything’s good, my new Dell U2718Q display fires up at full 4K60, and there have been no issues with having USB devices connected to an Anker USB 3.0 powered hub going to the USB type-A port on the dock.
Today I got my new audio interface delivered, a Behringer UMC404HD. It’s a USB 2.0 device but works perfectly when connected directly to my laptop on a 3.0 port. Connected the interface to the hub, and immediately playback is stuttered, static-y, etc. Tested another hub, same behavior. Plugged directly into the TB dock, same behavior. Plugged the hub into my laptop and the interface to the hub, no issues.
So it looks like there’s some sort of issue with either the dock or the interface over a TB dock. Anyone else run into this sort of issue with a Behringer or any other audio interface? I can’t test my old M-Audio device because it only works on USB 2.0 ports in the first place.
Thank you for contacting Plugable support! Sorry to hear about this issue. I’d be more than happy to assist you.
We have a troubleshooting tool that helps us find out what is going on in situations like this. Please plug the dock with your UMC404HD attadched into your computer, then go to this page and follow the instructions there:
Sorry for my delayed reply! After going through the diagnostics and looking for similar issues in other support tickets I’d suggest as a next step to try installing these Fresco Logic USB 3.0 xHCI drivers for our dock:
No worries. Got home and installed these drivers, but now it won’t play at all, interestingly enough, it won’t play any audio now. Anything with audio actually pauses frequently but no audio is sent to the device.
Sorry to hear that this actually made things worse! Definitely not what I’d hoped for. Though this may indicate that there is some low level incompatibility between the UMC404HD and the Fresco Logic USB xHCI controller in our dock. Unfortunately I’m not sure if this is something that will be able to be resolved as I suspect this is a very edge-case kind of scenario. This unfortunately may mean that you will be unable to use the dock as you’d intended with your Behringer attached.
There may be hope, our model up Thunderbolt 3 dock offers USB ports onboard running from both a Fresco controller, but also an ASMedia controller which may behave better with your device. I’ll reach out to you directly via email for some next steps.
I received the upgraded dock today and got it all set up. At first, the audio interface wouldn’t detect at all, and the ASmedia controller had a warning icon in Device Manager. Updated the driver via Device Manager, now the interface is detected.
I have the Anker USB hub and interface connected to rear USB ports.
It did take longer for audio artifacts to present themselves, but once again, started breaking up. Rebooted the laptop, brought up the YouTube video again, and took even longer, but eventually started breaking up again.
Also, I ended up deleting the updated Fresco drivers, as they were causing weird behaviors with my keyboard (Microsoft Natural 4000 Ergo keyboard), and it seems that the new dock is causing even worse behavior with intermittently not recognizing keyboard inputs or sticking on keys. This is a new behavior.
It seems that a USB hub or something is disconnecting/reconnecting with this new one. Maybe something in the plugdebug file will help pinpoint it.
I’m going to try a few other things, but that’s what I’ve got so far.
Updated the Asmedia 3.0 host directly from Device Manager, instantly blue screened after completion. Every boot was a blue screen with the dock connected, the Windows Update drivers are probably conflicting with the rest of the driver pack.
Booted without the dock plugged in, deleted every single Asmedia and Fresco driver listed with Show Hidden Devices ticked, rebooted, reconnected, updated drivers, rebooted, back to the breaking audio. I think (unless the Plugdebug file shows something useful) that these devices may just not work with audio interfaces (or at least the Behringer devices). Bummer.
I suspect that there may be some low level issue with the Behringer device that is not allowing the data to be properly processed when running through Thunderbolt regardless of the USB controller used. On paper these things shouldn’t really ever happen, but in practice we do see devices that are completely incompatible (and it’s usually audio/video devices when we encounter such a problem). Before we completely give up, let me have you try one more trick up my sleeve that has been known to help USB input device issues (keyboard/mouse) and USB audio devices.
Dell released a patch that changes a Windows Registry entry related to the Intel Management Engine that is not Dell exclusive which has resolved similar aforementioned issues for several of our customers using a range of different host systems from different manufacturers. I’ve give it a try and see if it helps:
Please note that you may have to play around with different combinations of USB 3.0 drivers for the ASM and Fresco controllers after this patch is installed. However, I believe at this point if this doesn’t work, we’ll probably want to arrange for you to return everything to us so that we can issue you a full refund.
So if you can let me know if the above patch helps or not I can then reach out via email with further instructions if a return is required.
Thanks for the reply. Yeah, unfortunately audio interfaces can get pretty picky, and it’s not like this is a super expensive device.
I did want to do a bit more testing though, so when I left work I took my inexpensive Eska USB 3.0 type-C dongle with me and connected the Behringer through it. Experienced zero issues with the Eska through the single type-C/TB3 port on my laptop while watching YouTube for quite a while, including on 1.75x playback speed.
Just for kicks, I then disconnected the Eska, connected the TBT3-UDV back to the laptop, connected the audio interface and continued watching YouTube vids on 1.75x. No issues for a while, reconnected the keyboard, no issues. Connected the Anker hub, no issues. Tested at 1x playback, no issues.
Then I disconnected the UDV and reconnected the UD1, reconnecting devices there. It immediately broke up the audio.
Tried something super random, and connected the Behringer to the UDV, connected the UDV to the UD1, and ran the UD1 to the laptop. No audio issues lmaooooo.
Reconnected everything directly with the UDV to the laptop and once again the audio is fine.
I’m insanely confused. I’ve only had one keyboard glitch since reconnecting the UDV, and the audio seems solid at this point.
I’d like to keep testing the UD1 for a while to see if the issues really did stabilize or if they’ll return. I’ll also try that Dell patch if the issue recurs. It’s definitely strange behavior, but we’ll see how it shakes out over the next several days.
