HMDI on USB 3 Docking Station Stopped Working (Day 3)

USB Docking Stations UD-3900
1

New Dell XPS Laptop (Windows 10), new Dell Ultra High Res Screen, new Pluggable docking station.

I set it all up and it worked (Screen, Hard Drives, Ethernet, Printer etc). The screen was via HDMI (perfect as speakers plugged into the screen ).

So it was all working for 3 days, then suddenly blank screen.

I have tried changing the HDMI cable, tried different inputs on screen, checked all latest drivers, nothing, tried extended v duplicate etc… Plugged in a DVI to HDMI cable and it works (but of course no audio) - my screen only has HDMI, mDP & DP.

So I can not get the HDMI to HDMI cable from the docking station to work even though it did for 3 days! I am reasonably technical, but can’t find the issue.

Help! Any ideas very welcome before I return the docking station - many thanks.

2

Hi Duncan,

Thanks for posting. I’m sorry the HDMI output of the docking station stopped working properly, and I would be happy to help.

Thank you for the great detail you provided and the troubleshooting you have performed, that helps me a lot. It is very rare (but certainly not impossible) for one output of the dock to fail and the other still work, so our first step is to ensure that the DisplayLink driver is in a good state by performing a clean install to see if that changes the behavior. Please follow these steps:

  1. Disconnect the dock from the system and please remove the power cable from the dock so it turns off completely. Please keep it disconnected until the last step.
  2. Uninstall the DisplayLink Core software from the Control Panel -> Programs and Features. Don’t worry if this fails, just move onto the next step
  3. Download, extract and run the DisplayLink cleaner tool, found here –> https://s3.amazonaws.com/plugable/bin… and ensure it displays “Cleaning Complete” when done (video walk-through if you need it -> https://youtu.be/AcVV1gD_FvI)
  4. Once the Cleaner has been run, reboot (even if not prompted to)
  5. Run Windows Update (Start > Settings > Update & security). Reboot if/when prompted. Repeat this process until there are no new updates found. This is important as Microsoft has been releasing frequent updates to Windows 10.
  6. Now download and install the 7.9 M5 DisplayLink software, found here –> https://s3.amazonaws.com/plugable/bin…
  7. Reattach the power cable to the dock first. Once the dock is powered on, reconnect it to your system when prompted by the installer which will trigger the final portion of the installation. If the device is not detected, just click the ‘Skip’ button to allow the process to complete and reboot.

If that gets the HDMI output working again, great! If not, please keep everything connected (even though the HDMI output still isn’t working) and send the output of our diagnostic utility PlugDebug –> http://plugable.com/support/plugdebug to support@plugable.com with ‘Ticket 141019’ in the subject line as this will allow us to examine some log files from your system to help determine the next steps. ** Please also include your Amazon Order ID number in your email **

Thank you,

Bob
Plugable Technologies
www.plugable.com/support

3

Thank you for your very prompt reply.

Over the past 24 hours the Laptop (with the DVI cable to the Screen) has been in use and thus I did not have the time to look into the problem in detail (in this period the Laptop & the Docking Station were turned on-off several times).

I had left the HDMI cable in that 24 hour period connected (even though I was using the DVI cable to display) and this morning I just happened to change the screen output and noticed the HDMI was working again - very odd, especially as I’d tried rebooting both as part of my tests. Of course my concern is that it will simply stop working again and I won’t know what the fix is (I guess I will then follow your detailed instructions).

I have also bought a Plugable Multi-Display Adapter for when I am on the move (laptop only has USB3 & thunderbird3 ports, so Ethernet one is also on the cards). I very briefly tried this Display Adapter out this morning, no issues using VGA or the DVI, but I could not get the HDMI working! Tonight I will try again and will also try a different screen, different cable & a different laptop running a different version of Windows. My feeling is that it is a problem between Windows10 and the Plugable devices, with Windows10 not getting or recognizing an appropriate signal from the Plugable device - but that is speculation.

So not quite resolved and will keep you posted on the details.

4

Hi Duncan,

Thanks for getting back with the update. Just let us know the results (of performing the clean install) as you have time and we’ll go from there.

Thank you,

Bob

5

Ben,

Thank you - got home tonight - re tested both the Plugable Dock & the Plugable Multi-Display Adapter (all variants of cables and situations) and both are working with the Laptop. So I will leave it for now and only report back if I face issues.

Thank you again, very impressed with the support.

Many thanks.
Duncan

6

Hi Duncan,

Thanks for getting back, and thank you for the kind words. I’m glad everything is working better now.

Please let us know if anything changes, and have a good day!

Bob