I am using the Plugable UD-3900 docking station and the latest Windows 10 driver (DisplayLink 8.0 M1).
Ever since the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, my CPU Usage has been higher than normal. I checked the Task Manager and found that the process “Windows Driver Foundation - User-mode Driver Framework Host Process” was the culprit.
When watching a video on my monitor that’s connected to the docking station via HDMI, the CPU usage of this process is around 30%. If the monitor is displaying a static image, the CPU usage of the process is around 3%.
I tried uninstalling the DisplayLink driver, at which point the process used 0% (so I know it’s the driver causing the problem). Upon reinstalling, the problem came back.
Thanks for posting. With the changes in how things work behind the scenes after the Anniversary Update (see here for more information -> http://plugable.com/2016/08/01/window…) the ‘Windows Driver Foundation - User-mode Driver Framework Host Process’ represents the process for the DisplayLink technology inside the dock. Prior to the Anniversary Update you would have seen processes related to ‘DisplayLink’
It is normal for this process to consume more resources when content such as a video is displaying on an attached DisplayLink display as all the pixels are changing on the screen and it requires more resources from your CPU to update the image. That the level drops to 3% when the image is static is a result of not having to update information on the display. The level of resource usage can vary depending on the type of content you are displaying (video or static images) and the type of CPU in your system.
Let us know if that information helps, and we’ll go from there.
Thanks for the reply. The information helps, but doesn’t really solve the problem. I can’t upgrade the CPU as I’m using a laptop. However, I can live with it as it’s only a minor annoyance. I can only hope the driver will be updated at some point to use less resources (as the previous version seemed to do). Thanks again!
Thanks for getting back, and you are very welcome. Given the changes behind the scenes with the Anniversary Update, DisplayLink (the maker of the chips in our USB video adapters and docking stations) will be working on the driver to help improve performance and they are hoping to have the next release (8.0 M2) available by the end of August.