Problems with Lenovo W510 4389-AN7 with 2 x UGA-2K-A and Windows XP

Lenovo W510 4389-AN7 with 2 x UGA-2K-A and Windows XP SP3. Windows Update version of driver caused all kinds of problems, including endless flashing of all screens when ThinkVantage Access Connections was started (had to reboot machine to get it stop) and the Power Options in the Control Panel no longer work, even after uninstalling driver. Got latest driver (5.5.27797) from displaylink.com. All problems, except control panel issue appeared to go away. However, for no apparent reason (not screen saver or monitor shutdown) and at random times the displaylink icon disappears from the system tray, the external monitors freeze and whatever windows they are displaying are transferred over to the laptop screen; I have to unplug the USB cables and plug them back in to get the external monitors working again. Extremely annoying. Have disabled NVidia services (shut off and switched to “manual”), but problem continues. I would think displaylink products would work well on Lenovo machines, considering they themselves sell displaylink display adapters.

Hi John,

Thanks for posting! I’m sorry you’re experiencing these problems. Let’s try to work through each of them.

The flashing problems that you were having earlier on XP, sounds like perhaps ThinkVantage is a WPF application. These issues were fixed with 5.5, which added full support for WPF applications on XP: http://www.displaylink.org/forum/show…

So I’m glad that issue is fine now on your system. We’re expecting that 5.5 will soon be offered as the default by Microsoft on Windows Update.

On the issues that remain - the random instances where the displaylink tray icon goes away - I’m suspecting some kind of crash in the DisplayLink drivers, triggered by a conflict on this system.

Would you be willing to gather the logs on this system, and email them over to us for diagnosis?

Run this tool (don’t need to turn on advanced logging yet): http://www.displaylink.com/support/ti…

It will create a .zip file on your desktop. Email that to support@plugable.com or upload to something like http://explore.live.com/windows-live-… if it’s too large and send us a link.

I’m suspecting some kind of conflict with the nVidia drivers on the system, as you are. But the logs will help confirm that or not.

Again, sorry. Thanks for your patience while we get this figured out!
Bernie

I have run the tool and sent the zip file to the e-mail address provided.

Hi John - Thanks so much for sending the logs. Have looked at them.

I was wrong about the theory of a software/driver crash - there don’t appear to be any signs of that in the logs.

So suspicion shifts next to a USB power/connectivity issue, causing the devices to drop off the bus. Two quick questions:

  1. How do you have the two UGA-2K-A adapters connected to your PC? Are any USB hubs involved? And if so, are they AC powered?
  2. In your original description above, where you say “the external monitors freeze and whatever windows they are displaying are transferred over to the laptop screen” – are the USB-attached external monitors blank/black at that point, or are they actually frozen with the last image still displayed on them? And is the LED on the adapters on or off?

We’ll work to get this figured out. Thanks for these additional details, and your patience!
Bernie

I just received a docking station for the laptop and it includes two DVI ports that support my external monitors’ resolutions (the literature falsely stated that they didn’t–that’s why I was using the adapters), so I’m going to go with that. I have other applications I can use the display adapters for, so they won’t be going to waste and I was using them with a Lenovo T61p for several months, so I know they’re working.

In case other people have this problem, though, what I meant by “freeze” is that it looks like the display adapters are still working–the windows are all still there–but you can interact only with the laptop screen. Unplugging the USB cables causes Windows to make the “Device Disconnect” noise so at some level the machine still thinks that the devices are connected, even though they’re not usable. I assume since images were being displayed on the monitors that the power LEDs were on. One thing to note is that because of the lack of USB ports on the machine, I was plugging the display adapters into what appear to be USB 3.0 ports–besides those two the machine only has one other USB port and I figured using a hub was not a good idea. I did try a couple of other things that did not work:

* Removed the nVidia nView application.
* Updated the nVidia display drivers.

Since I won’t be using the adapters with this machine after all, I won’t be looking into this matter any further. I hope the progress that was made will be of use to someone else with the same problem. If you believe that the USB 3.0 ports were the problem, I would be interested in knowing that, just to satisfy my curiosity.

Thanks for your efforts.

Hi John,

I’m glad you’re able to re-arrange to a config that works for you. Thank you! On whether the problem on the W510 could be a USB 3.0 problem: in theory, USB 3.0 is and should be fully backward compatible with all USB 2.0 devices. But it’s still early days (with 3rd party USB 3.0 chips and drivers). So while I wouldn’t expect any problems or look there first, but wouldn’t rule it out, either.

What I’m suspecting on the W510 in particular, is this problem with the USB ports on the laptop:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-…

Thanks John!
Bernie