DisplayLink Drver Version 10.3.6400.0 suffers a user-mode crash

[lewis.king]

On 2022-08-29, I connected the Plugable USB docking station UD-6950Z to my Dell XPS 15 9510 laptop running Windows 11 version 21H2 via a USB-C cable and downloaded/installed the driver named DisplayLink+USB+Graphics+Software+for+Windows10.2+M4-EXE. I used the docking station to connect to the laptop two HDI monitors (one 4K and one 1080p), a USB switch, and a USB drive.

The docking station performed flawlessly until yesterday at which time the monitors connected through the docking station would no longer be accessible after Windows had turned off the screen. The laptop is set to turn off the screen after 15 minutes. In each of these cases, I had locked the display (Windows+L) before I walked away. When I returned, only the main laptop display would be visible. In Windows Settings … Display, the other monitors (connected via the docking station) were not detected, even though the monitors were on. Then I observed in the event log a pair of identical events, each occurring at the time I returned to the laptop and moved the mouse:

Event ID: 10111
Task Category: User-mode Driver problems.
Level: Critical
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
…
Description:
The device Plugable UD-6950Z (location 0000.000d.0000.004.002.000.000.000.000) is offline due to a user-mode driver crash. Windows will attempt to restart the device 5 more times. Please contact the device manufacturer for more information about this problem.
…
Version 1
Level 1
Task 64
Opcode 0

Then in Device Manager … Display Adapters, I looked at the properties of the Plugable UD-6950Z driver and determined that it had been updated to version 10.3.6400.0 2022-11-29 09:35, when I had run the Dell Update. I downloaded the driver from your website, ran the installer, and got the message “DisplayLink Graphics is already up to date”.

On the basis of this evidence, it seems reasonable to conclude a bug exists in the new version of the driver that did not exist in the previous version.

I have modified the Windows power settings to no longer turn off the displays. Perhaps that might help.
Would it be safe to try regressing to the previous version of the driver?
Do you have any other suggestions for a circumvention?

Please let me know if you would like to for me to collect additional diagnostics. However, this is a corporate laptop with sensitive information, so I may be limited in what I can provide.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Pluga_Bob]

Hi Lewis,

Thank you for posting! I am sorry things are no longer working as expected while using your Plugable UD-6950Z docking station and I would be happy to help.

Thank you as well for the excellent detail you have provided about the event, that is much appreciated.

To the best of our knowledge, as of today Plugable has not received any similar reports. As a result, our next step is to get some additional information.

I recognize and understand that you are using a corporate laptop that contains sensitive information.

As a result, may I ask you to please send an email to our direct support email address → support@plugable.com with ‘For ticket #- 393330’ in the subject line that contains the Amazon Order ID number for your UD-6950Z purchase?

Contacting us directly (as opposed to posting here in our public support forum) will allow for a private exchange of information, which in turn will help us to determine the next steps.

*** Please do not post the Amazon Order ID number here in our public forum ***

Apologies for the frustration, and thank you for giving us the chance to help!

Bob
Plugable Technologies