I just installed the TBT4-UDS on my Dell G15 laptop.
I have two monitors, works perfectly on this new hub.
Same thing with external drive and wireless keyboard.
The only problem is that 3.5mm audio jack in front. It’s connected to a pair of Bose speakers.
Yesterday, when I installed everything, it worked fine. Now, today, there’s no sound coming out of it. The only three audio devices I see in Windows settings are the two monitor’s speakers, and the laptop’s own speaker. But I don’t see any Plugable Audio or USB Audio Device.
I did a power cycle, leaving the TBT4 unplugged for 5 minutes, it didn’t do anything. I also installed the DisplayLink+USB+Graphics+Software+for+Windows12.1+M2-EXE srivers as well as the DisplayLing Manager. Still nothing.
The Plugable Audio is not showing, even when I check in Windows Device Manager, under “Sound, video and game controllers” or as a disabled device in System → Sound → Advanced Sound setting.
Thank you for reaching out on the forums. I am sorry to hear that you are running into issues with your TBT4-UD5, but I would be happy to help diagnose the issues here.
There are a couple preliminary steps I would like to have you try to better understand the issue here:
Can you confirm that you are trying to connect to your laptop using the included Thunderbolt 4 cable that came with your dock? We’ve seen issues arise when a third party cable is used.
Confirm Windows Audio service is running: press Windows key, type Services → open Services → find Windows Audio and ensure it’s Started/Automatic.
In Device Manager: View → Show hidden devices. Expand “Sound, video and game controllers” and “Universal Serial Bus controllers.” Do you see anything labeled “USB Audio Device,” “Plugable Audio,” or any “Unknown device”?
It is the provided cable, with a small tab saying “Thunderbolt 4 (40 gbps) USB-C 240W 1m” on it.
Windows Audio is Running. I checked, and I guess if it wasn’t, the laptop speakers would not be working.
I didn’t know about this feature, but here’s the result, I can’t seem to find any of these. Perhaps some of the others in there might be the one we are looking for?
EDIT: I thought I could post pictures of what I saw, but I seem to be a new user, and thus can’t post the pictures of what I see, sorry!
Let me add to this. I figured I would be doing other things, and decided to format a new external SSD. I unplugged the TBT4, connected the SSD drive, formatted it. I then replugged the TBT4, and now the music started playing through the TBT4 3.5mm jack connected to the speakers. I connected and disconnected the TBT4 from the laptop all day, and nothing did it. And now it did.
However, the peculiar thing is: in the Windows Settings → System → Sound, the active device playing the music is identified as “Headphones - Realtek USB2.0 Audio”, which is basically what happens when I connect my speakers to the 3.5mm jack on my laptop with a headset of some kind.
So it’s still no the Plugable device playing the audio, it’s like the laptop is being tricked into thinking this is the TBT4 3.5mm jack is actually the laptop 3.5mm jack. Which is odd, and unreliable, as I’ve been fighting all day with it.