Installing DisplayLink breaks Windows Explorer
 

Help!

In summary, I'm unable to intall my Mimo UM-720S on a Windows 7 64-bit system without breaking Windows Explorer. I've seen a couple of other threads about this happening. Does anyone know why it gets broken and if there's a fix?

I can't run my system without Windows Explorer, so this is a showstopper for me.

To add to my difficulty, sometimes the driver install appears to hang. I've left it for up to 20 minutes before killing it. It doesn't seem to be looping. Is there an install log I can view to see what it's trying to do when it hangs?



Details:

I recently bought a Mimo UM-720S, but am struggling to install it. I'm running Windows 7 64-bit on an Acer Revo R3610 (Dual core Atom 330 + NVIDIO ION graphics). After numerous attempts (each followed by system restore), and reading the FAQ and forum, I'm still getting nowhere.

The primary problem is that, although I can install the device and it seems to work, Windows Explorer gets broken in the process. (The "broken" Windows Explorer will start, but most opeartions, such as scrolling through a folder, result in the message "Windows Explorer has stopped working" followed by "Windows Explore is Restaring".) I have to do a sysem restore to fix it - uninstall of the DisplayLink software does not fix Windows Explorer.

The problem is eported in a couple of forum threads. One says ity is fixed in a later release. I haven't found this.

I have now tried installing through Windows install (which installs the drivers from Mimo and not from DisplayLink, installing 5.2.23219.0 from 27 Jan 2010) and then installing 5.4 downloaded from the DisplayLink web site. This did update the drivers, but leaves Windows Explorer broken.

After a system restore, I tried installing 5.4 before plugging the device in, as described in the User Guide .pdf. However, since Windows 7 installs from Mimo, it doesn't see I already have DisplayLink installed, and overwrites it with 5.2, again breaking Windows Explorer.

Next, I installed through Windows install again, but this time refused the licence agreement - so 5.2 did not get installed. At this point, Windows Explorer was not broken. I then installed 5.4. Sadly, Windows Explorer was broken.

I've tried the 5.5 beta, but this failed to install. I will try again but don't hold out much hope.

Can anyone help, please?

Hmmm... This sounds really bad. Could you send us the logs as described here. Hopefully this will give a clue as to why it is so bad on your system.

Do you have another PC you can try it on?

Thanks

Wim

Will do. May be a little while.

Yes, I do - a quite similar on. I'll give it a try.

Thanks

I've now tried installing the Mimo UM720S on another Acer Revo R3610 PC with 64-bit Windows 7, and get the same result - the Mimo works, but Windows Explorer falls over as soon as I try scrolling down a list of files.

I did a straight install by just plugging in the Mimo and letting Windows 7 do the full install - the first scenario above. This results in the 5.2 version being installed. Since this caused the same problem as the other machine, I believe it proves it is not the machine at fault, so I do not plan to try installing 5.4 or 5.5 on the second machine. Let me know if you think I should.

Just before the "Windows Explorer has Stopped" message, I get a message box saying something like "the Microsoft C++ runtime has exited abnormally". (I did a screen snap of the message, but failed to save it before doing the system restore - sorry!)

I will try to collect and send the logs this week, and also capture the Windows Explorer message box so you can see more accurately what it says.

Thanks

Hi Doodles

Do you have any more information on this so we can add it to the bug?

Is there anyone else with problems with Windows explorer like this?

Thanks

Wim

Sorry Wim - I've been away/tied up with other things. I will try to find time to create elogs this week and upload.

From a clean system, I downloaded 5.5 from the support site and installed it successfully, then plugged in the Mimo. I cancelled the install from Windows update, at which point it appeared to pick up and configure the previously installed displaylink drivers. The Mimo screen works, but Windows Explorer is broken again. I ran the debug tool. I then did a system restore to before installing the DisplayLink drivers in order to recover Windows Explorer.

Note that Windows Explorer simply reports that it has stopped working, and then that it is restarting. I can't get it to give me a detailed error message, which it has done occasionally before.

Please let me know if you need anything further.

Thanks.

P.S. Having problems attaching the 36Mb file. Get an error message about missing security tokens. Any ideas? Tried thrice.

Same Problem with Windows Explorer
 

WIM, I am having the same problems with Windows 7 and Explorer. I am trying to install a Kensington universal Docking station w/video. I have a new Dell Laptop with Windows 7 64-bit home prem edition. I keep getting the "Windows Explorer has stopped working" and the "Windows Explore is Restarting" messages that Doodles has been getting. I have also seen the "the Microsoft C++ runtime has exited abnormally" message a few times along the way. It is more than annoying -- I can't do ANYTHING in Windows Explorer.

From a clean install I have also tried installing a Targus universal docking station with video. I get exactly the same problems.

I am pretty much at a loss.

Any ideas?

Windows Explorer -- Fixed??
 

Hi, WIM. I noticed there was a new 5.6 beta driver released on 1/1/11. I decided to download and try it. So far, so good. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I will use it a few days and then post here if it has fixed my problems.

OK - thanks for the updates guys. It would be interesting if v5.6 has fixed it as there have been some stability fixes that would have helped.

Can you all try the v5.6 and see if it fixes the issue?

Thanks

Wim