monitor keeps binking/flickering with laptop, triple monitors

I am using my laptop to run dual monitors and i just recently added the third monitor with this device. It works well for the most part but it blinks from time to time. Every once in a while it will make all 3 monitors blink and all the windows open in the 3rd monitor will jump to other monitors. I have downloaded the drivers. My laptop is a lenovo y560 and i am running windows 7.

Hi Eddie,

Thanks for the question. Sorry you’re having trouble with your UGA-2K-A!

Did those problems just started or you had them since you received the unit?
What version of the DisplayLink drivers are you running?
What is your system’s main graphics card?
When the monitor flickers does the adapter’s LED also go off?

As soon as we have this information we can plan out next steps (if any) or get you a replacement!

Again our apologies for this!

Regards,

Lampros

I just bought the adapter yesterday but after a few reboots the blinking has stopped (hopefully for good!). It seemed to be my computer auto adjusting the resolution over and over for no reason. I will post back if it starts flickering again. Thanks for the quick response and the awesome product!

Eddie

Hi Eddie,

That’s good news! Let us know if the problem comes back, we’re here to help!

Regards,

Lampros

Ok it started doing it again today. It seems to be auto adjusting the resolution randomly. I am running the newest drivers that are available from the website. My system’s graphics card is an ATI Mobility Radeon 5730. And yes these issues have occured from the start but only show up sometimes. Im thinking it might only happen when a video is playing ( i will try to confirm this).

Thanks,

Eddie

Ok the blinking only happens when a video is playing, even when the video is on my main monitor. This is why i originally thought the problem went away.

When the blinking is occurring, the light stays on.

I also just noticed that when anything on the display( that is using the adapter) changes, such as opening a new window, the light on the adapter blinks once very briefly. Is this normal?

It seems to me that the adapter is working fine so it must be either a system issue or a driver issue. Usually when i start to play a video, at first only the display (w/ adapter) will blink a few times and then after about a 30 seconds all displays will blink and then my open windows and desktop icons will move around and the open windows on the monitor (w/ adapter) will relocate to a different monitor.

Hope this helps,

Eddie

Hi Eddie!

Sorry you’re still having problems!

There are two things to check :

  1. The latest drivers on Windows Update for DisplayLink are version 5.5. On the DisplayLink website however 5.6 M1 is available - if you haven’t already can you try updating to those drivers and see if that helps ?

  2. Run the Aero troubleshooter - To do this, click on Start, and start typing ‘aero’. You should see a choice several items down called “Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects”. Can you click on that to run that wizard? Does it report any problems? If it it fixes a problem, check to see if the video playback problem is resolved.

Let us know if this helps!

Lampros

to clarify the blinking led light… it blinks every time something on the monitor changes. so if I am playing a video on the monitor that uses the adapter, the led light on the adapter blinks on and off continuously and rapidly while the video is playing.

Eddie

Hi Eddie,

The blinking is normal - it just shows activity on the device. The more activity the faster it will blink.

Let us know if the previous suggestions helped!

Lampros

With the new drivers the problem still persists.

Also when running the aero troubleshooter, no problems are found.

One more thing i just discovered, if i am playing a video on my main monitor with windows media player and all monitors blink ( and windows move around), once everything settles again and i try to resume playing my video, it reports this error:

Windows Media Player cannot play the video because there is a problem with your video card.

I then have to close it and re-open the video and it works agian.

Eddie

Eddie,

Thanks for that information. Some more questions to try and isolate the problem down:

  1. Can you try playing the video with a different media player, such as VLC ? Do you have the same problems then ?

  2. What version of Windows Media Player are you using ?

  3. You said that when the video starts playing only the monitor with the adapter flashes. Is this flashing the same kind of flashing as when all 3 monitors flash?
    Can you go into a little more detail about the type of flashing e.g. - does it flashes to black for a second and then back to the picture?

  4. When you stop playing the video and things settle - do the monitors go back to normal or they stay in their newly re-arranged mode ? Do the windows go back to the monitor with the adapter?

Regards,
Lampros

  1. When i play VLC and all screens blink ( and windows relocate), once the monitors settle, VLC resumes playing the video. This is the same for youtube. I also recently had the screens blink when no video was playing which leads me to think that videos just make it happen more frequently but do not completely cause it.

  2. Version: 12.0.7601.17514

  3. It doesnt happen uniformly every time but when the monitor with the adapter flashes, it just goes black for about a second and returns to its original state. Nothing really happens during this. However, after a few of these blinks, all monitors will go black and be unusable for about 3 or 4 seconds. Then all windows will relocate to the main monitor and stay there (not all will be maximized, some will be half way off the screen). I will then have to drag them back to where i had them before. The best way i can describe what this looks like is that it is like when you have dual monitors on the laptop and you unplug the external monitor to take you laptop to class etc. and it blinks a few times and settles so that all windows are only on the laptop monitor.

  4. When things settle, the monitors are in the same setup as before but all windows are relocated to the main monitor. Also, I dont actually stop the videos for things to settle. For example, if i have a video playing on youtube or vlc, when things settle, the video resumes playing.

Thanks for all the help!

Eddie

Eddie,

Thanks for that.

We believe that there might be a connection between your main graphics adapter (ATI Mobility Radeon 5730) and the problems you’re seeing (but not sure).

Can you get us the driver information from your system?

To do this click on Start and type msinfo32
You’ll get the ‘System Information’ page. Expand ‘Components’ and click on ‘Display’.

Can you copy paste that information here ? We’re hoping a driver update for your ATI card could help.

Regards,

Name ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730

PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68C0&SUBSYS_392717AA&REV_00\4&2734D4F2&0&0018

Adapter Type ATI display adapter (0x68C0), ATI Technologies Inc. compatible

Adapter Description ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730

Adapter RAM 1.00 GB (1,073,741,824 bytes)

Installed Drivers atiu9p64.dll,atiuxp64.dll,atiuxp64.dll,atiu9pag,atiuxpag,atiuxpag,atiumdva,atiumd6a.cap,atitmm64.dll

Driver Version 8.752.0.0

INF File oem21.inf (ati2mtag_Manhattan_PRAI section)

Color Planes Not Available

Color Table Entries 4294967296

Resolution 1366 x 768 x 60 hertz

Bits/Pixel 32

Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xDFFFFFFF

Memory Address 0xE8400000-0xE84FFFFF

I/O Port 0x00002000-0x00002FFF

IRQ Channel IRQ 4294967292

I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB

I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF

Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\atikmpag.sys (8.14.1.6126, 259.50 KB (265,728 bytes), 6/29/2010 9:48 PM)

Hi Eddie,

Again many thanks for that.

It doesn’t sound like a hardware problem, more like a software/driver problem.

You could try updating to the latest ATI drivers (or even an older, but at least a different driver version) and see if that solves the problem, but unfortunately we cannot offer any guarantees that it will.

We’ve found that sometimes those problems are caused by an incompatibility between the DisplayLink drivers and the main graphics cards drivers. In some instances you need to get the latest ones, and in others you need to go one step back. Are you using Lenovo’s drivers or are you using ATI issued drivers?

We understand that this might be getting too time consuming and we’d like to offer you a refund.

If you do choose the refund route, all you need to do is shoot us an e-mail to support@plugable.com with your Amazon order ID number and we’ll take care of it. We don’t want you to be stuck with a product that doesn’t work for you!

Again, sorry for experiencing those problems!

Regards,
Lampros

I am not sure what i was originally using, but i am now updating the graphics drivers from the lenovo website. I will see if they make any difference.

Also, i am dual booting ubuntu. Are there any linux drivers out or any way to make this work in linux?

thanks,

Eddie

Hi Eddie,

If possible try both the drivers from ATI and from Lenovo. Let us know if the situation changes.

Regarding Linux, there is limited support for DisplayLink and it requires manual configuration of the xorg.conf file, it’s recommended for advanced Linux users only.

Please have a look at those pages:
http://support.plugable.com/plugable/…

http://support.plugable.com/plugable/…

http://support.plugable.com/plugable/…

A lot more details are also in this post:
http://plugable.com/2009/11/16/settin…

Hope this helps!

Lampros

The upgraded drivers did not fix the problem

Eddie

Just found out that the adapter works perfectly when it is used as the second monitor. So it cant be a driver problem.

So when i am using 3 monitors -> 1 laptop display, 1 external display via laptop vga port, 1 external display via adapter, Blinking occurs.

When i am using 2 monitors-> 1 laptop display, 1 external display via laptop vga port. Works perfectly.

When i am using 2 monitors-> 1 laptop display, 1 external display via adapter, works perfectly.

Seems like there needs to be a fix for this.

Eddie

update:

Actually the 2 monitors w/ 1 laptop display and 1 external display via adapter does still blink so it could still be a compatability issue