When typing on a Displaylink screen I often find that character updates have a little delay or out-of-order update on the screen. It often looks like I quickly hit backspace and retyped the letter I just typed.
I occasionally see similar glitches as things resize.
It was first noticed while using the Slack app but is also clearly visible in chrome.
I also see this backspace-retype/lag using iTerm2 version 3.4.18
In the lines above, the effect can be seen while I typed:
This does not occur on my Dell D6000 dock which also has displaylink.
This occurs with DisplayLink Manager versions 1.8.0, 1.9.0, 1.10.0
I am usingUD-3900PDZ connected to MacBook Pro 14" 2021 (with M1 processor running Ventura 13.6.2) with three displays. The DisplayLink screens are rotated 90degrees (portrait mode).
Thank you for contacting us, I am sorry this is not working as expected and I am happy to help!
The Dell D6000 docking station uses the DisplayLink DL-6950 chipset ( like our UD-6950PDZ docking station and UD-ULTC4K docking station ) while the UD-3900PDZ relies on the older DisplayLink DL-3900 chipset, otherwise these are very similar docking stations from a technology standpoint.
Cursor position and character input is controlled by the operating system, rendering to the display is a combination of the computer’s internal graphics controller and the DisplayLink hardware. The software where this behavior is occurring likely is configured to use hardware graphics acceleration which may be affecting the character rendering, I recommend we try disabling hardware graphics acceleration in Google Chrome browser to see if this helps to resolve the behavior, confirming if this is related to the hardware graphics acceleration settings.
Open Google Chrome browser, then select the three vertical dots in the top right corner of the browser
From the drop down menu select “Settings”
Under “Advanced” on the left column, select “System”
On the right side, toggle the “Use hardware acceleration when available” to the left to disable the setting, then click on the “Relaunch” button to apply the changes - this will close all Chrome browser windows
Please let me know if disabling hardware graphics acceleration helps to resolve this behavior within the Google Chrome browser ( this setting will only affect Chrome ) and we can proceed from here.
I have disabled hardware acceleration in chrome and restarted.
I’ve been running in this mode for a few days but it seems to be noticeably worse now:
I had a zoom webpage open… looking at reports in an in-page popup div.
I clicked to dismiss it and it went away … but came right back.
I looked at it quizically, thinking how did I miss clicking the ‘x’ dismiss button of the div.
I moved the mouse to click again and it disappeared before I clicked.
It feels like the virtual screen recordings are rendering out-of-order!
Thanks for the update. I’m sorry to hear those steps didn’t seem to help. My name is Sam and I’ll be jumping in for Pat to assist
Since it seems to have not helped, you can re-enable hardware acceleration in Chrome by following these steps:
Open Google Chrome browser, then select the three vertical dots in the top right corner of the browser
From the drop down menu select “Settings”
Under “Advanced” on the left column, select “System”
On the right side, toggle the “Use hardware acceleration when available” to the left to enable the setting, then click on the “Relaunch” button to apply the changes - this will close all Chrome browser windows
Are you normally using a USB keyboard connected to the dock when you notice this issue while typing? If this is the case, would you be able to try connecting your keyboard directly to the computer to see if the same issue occurs there?
This test should help differentiate if the issue is the result of the keyboard being connected through the dock or if it’s something else.
Another step I’d suggest is to perform a power-cycle of the unit to reset its internal hub chipset in case you haven’t already done so. We’ve seen that this can often restore the dock back to a working state when one or more of its functions are not quite working correctly. To do this, please follow these steps:
Disconnect all USB peripherals connected to the dock
Disconnect docking station from host computer, then disconnect the dock’s power adapter from power
Leave unplugged for 1 minute for power to dissipate
Connect docking station initially into power only
Connect docking station to host machine, then connect USB peripherals and test for functionality
Please let us know how these steps work out. My apologies for the frustration as well
I’ve re-enabled hardware acceleration in chrome.
I do not use a USB keyboard - keyboard and trackpad connect directly to the laptop over bluetooth.
I have just upgraded to Sonoma and the problem remains.
It is visible while typing in iterm2, slack, and chrome (basically all the apps I type into).
Thank you for trying out Chrome without hardware graphics acceleration.
Does this behavior only occur when using the Bluetooth keyboard, or is the laptop’s built-in keyboard also reproducing this behavior?
Based on your description of the behavior, our next step is to get some additional information from your system using our log-gathering tool: PlugDebug, when you have a moment:
Keep the docking station connected to the computer with the displays and devices connected to the docking station
Download and run our PlugDebug utility ( http://plugable.com/support/plugdebug )
2a) For Windows: Download the PlugDebug Utility, then Right-click on the PlugDebug application and run as administrator
2b) For macOS: Click on the red button “Generate PlugDebug Report (Deprecated Pending Update)” to expand the section, select the PlugDebug utility from the Downloads pop-up on the Dock, or double-click if saved to the Desktop
2c) Follow the on screen instructions to launch the application
Click the “Start” button to begin gathering logs from the system
When completed the application will pop-up a message with the name of the zip file containing the logs on the user desktop directory
Please attach this zip file to your reply email to ‘support@plugable.com’ with the subject line ‘Ticket #420721 - Attention Pat’
This will allow us to examine some log files from your system to check for any potential hardware or software issues and help determine the next steps.
I powered off the dock for several minutes and unplugged all cables except the displays. I then powered back on and plugged in the USBC to the macbook.
The builtin keyboard also exhibits the out-of-sequence video update issue.
I’m sending a zip file of the system information per the PlugDebug doc (though I cannot run an unsigned app) to the support email