HP Specter x360 and the UD-3900 Ethernet

USB Docking Stations UD-3900
1

HP Spectre x360 does not present an Ethernet adapter when plugging into the UD-3900. Does Plugable have an official word on this with this particular model of laptop or have you run into other people complaining about this? I have found mixed information that the laptop itself does not have an Ethernet capability which I would find preposterous for any manufacturer to do. Even though they don’t have an Ethernet port, not allowing Ethernet over USB would be nuts!

2

Hi Bradley, thanks for posting! Sorry to hear that the Ethernet port on our dock is not working and I will be happy to help! Thank you for the description of the behavior you are seeing and I would certainyl expect the Ethernet port on our dock to work with your HP Specter x360 laptop. Based off of this, we will want to reinstall the DisplayLink software and run the DisplayLink cleaner tool to help make sure that the software that enables our dock to work is in a good state. To do so, 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 / DisplayLink Graphics Driver 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 –> http://www.displaylink.com/downloads/… and ensure it displays “Cleaning Complete” when done (video walk-through -> https://youtu.be/AcVV1gD_FvI)
  4. Once the Cleaner has been run, reboot (even if not prompted to)
  5. Now download and install the 8.0 M2 DisplayLink software, found here –> https://s3.amazonaws.com/plugable/bin…
  6. 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 these steps help, great! If not, can you let me know the status of the LED lights on the Ethernet port of the dock when the cable is connected? Typically you should see a solid green light and a flashing amber light.

Please let us know if these steps help or not and we will go from there.

Thank you,

David W.
Plugable Technologies
www.plugable.com/support

3

Thanks David, I will follow-up when I have completed the steps listed!

Thanks,
Brad

4

Hey David (and Brad the o.p.),

Glad I stumbled onto this fix! I was having the same problem with my HP x360, did the above steps (indeed, i couldn’t remove the DisplayLink core software, it just wouldn’t show up anywhere. But I continued on with the other steps, downloading the links, unplugging, etc and VOILA!

Not only did my wired Ethernet show up suddenly, BUT, my third monitor (DV-I to VGA onboard the Plugable Dock) showed up. I had my laptop screen, and my miniDisplayLink on the laptop piping out fine, but not the Plugable. Up until this fix it was hopelessly blank. I was almost ready to return this, and buy a simple 4 USB port replicator since the video and ethernet, reasons for the dock, were not working.

So, with that all said, you guys really should make this fix available in your set up documentation. HP x360 is a pretty popular computer, and for that, my Amazon review might be docked a star (but I will reprint the fix there too). But other than that, it works, I’m happy and I can get some sleep.

-Jeff