I bought a USB-C Triple Display Docking Station to use with my Alienware 17 R3. I also use Duet Display when I am traveling. What I found is that the docking station would not work when Duet Display is installed on my laptop. The USB ports works fine, but no video can be ported to my external monitors (system cannot detect the monitors). I have to uninstall Duet Display and reboot my laptop before I can get the docking station properly work. I guess it is a driver issue. Hopefully this can be solved soon.
Hello Fucheng,
Unfortunately the Duet Display software conflicts with the DisplayLink software. The programs appear to be fundamentally incompatible with each other.
At this time there is no known ETA on resolving this issue. You can report the issue to DisplayLink. The more users they see who are having the issue, the more likely they are going to try and resolve it.
Sorry!
Joshua Henry
Plugable Technologies
Hi Josh Thanks for the advice. I recently ran into some other issues which are not fatal but annoying. They are listed below. I wish there would be solutions to them.
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After the docking station is plugged in, my Alienware 17 R3 would suddenly freeze for about 5 seconds. In the meantime, the fans of my laptop would start to go crazy for about 2 seconds then everything would go back to normal. I am wondering if this is normal.
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When there are dynamic contents on the monitors connected to the docking station, the usage of CPU would surge, as if the video output is rendered with software instead of hardware. Is this a driver issue?
Below is my system information. I hope it would help to determine where the roots of the issues are. Thanks!
Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 Home 10.0.14393.187
Computer:
Computer Type ACPI x64-based PC
Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 Home
OS Service Pack -
Motherboard:
CPU Type QuadCore Intel Core i7-6700HQ, 3500 MHz (35 x 100)
Motherboard Name Alienware 17 R3
Motherboard Chipset Intel Sunrise Point HM170, Intel Skylake-H
System Memory 8056 MB (DDR4-2133 DDR4 SDRAM)
Display:
Video Adapter Intel® HD Graphics 530 (1 GB)
Video Adapter Intel® HD Graphics 530 (1 GB)
Video Adapter Intel® HD Graphics 530 (1 GB)
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M (3 GB)
3D Accelerator Intel HD Graphics 530
Monitor Generic PnP Monitor [NoDB]
Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Creative CA0132 @ Intel Sunrise Point PCH - High Definition Audio Controller
Audio Adapter Intel Skylake HDMI @ Intel Sunrise Point PCH - High Definition Audio Controller
Storage:
IDE Controller Realtek PCIE CardReader
Storage Controller Intel Chipset SATA RAID Controller
Storage Controller Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller
Disk Drive SAMSUNG SSD CM871 M.2 2280 128GB (119 GB)
Disk Drive HGST HTS721010A9E630 (1000 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA-III)
Hello Fucheng,
Sorry for my delayed reply!
- I have not seen this exact issue before, so I wouldn’t say it is “normal” but I’m also not sure if it’s a major issue either.
When this happens, is this perhaps when Windows is trying to bring up the monitors attached to the dock (monitors may flicker and rearrange themselves, ultimately bringing up your final configuration)? I’m wondering if it’s just taking a second to get everything enumerated and during that period there is a CPU usage spike.
- Two of the video outputs are rendered in the CPU. The DisplayLink outputs leverage the CPU in combination with the GPU for the “HDMI 2K” and DVI ports on the dock. The “HDMI 4K” output is driven by the GPU in your system and it should not have any impact on the CPU directly.
Thanks,
Josh