Incompatible display driver for Intel HD 530

[mbl70]

Hi,
We have a problem running DisplayLink on a Intel 6th generation motherboard (ASRock H170M) that has Intel HD 530 graphics onboard. The operating system is Windows 8. The DisplayLink version is the one that installs from Windows Update (DL 7.7.60366.0). It runs fine on a 5th generation Intel motherboard with another Intel HD Graphics adapter. As the error indicates, the Intel HD 530 graphics uses a newer version of the WDDM. I have therefore tried to install the newest version of DisplayLink 7.9 M7 - but this fails with a message "that the operating system is not supported". I have then tried to install Windows 10 on this Intel 6th generation motherboard (ASRock H170M) - and here I can install and run DisplayLink 7.9 M7 without issues sofar. So it seems to me that the newer 7.9 versions are maybe not compatible with Windows 8 - but it is compatible with Windows 8.1, this has also been tested.
Please let me know if Windows 8 is not supported and perhaps let me know the registry key you are checking for operating system version.

Regards,
Morten

[AlbanRampon]

Hello Morten,

In Windows versions up until the one currently available through the Windows Insiders program, DisplayLink has needed to work hand in hand with the primary graphics card drivers.
Some changes were made in the Intel graphics drivers since 7.7 was issued, and that's why it moans it is not compatible... instead of looping with BSoDs.

DisplayLink drivers do not support any Windows ***Embedded***. The reason is that they tend to have many different customised flavours, making it impossible for us to test them all. Also, they may miss important elements we rely on to get the pixels...

We have users running the standard Windows 8 successfully, and the other versions you mention. However, I don't know about Windows 8 Embedded. Despite not being supported, I also know our drivers are being used successfully on Windows Embedded 7.

Have you tried on a Windows 8 and met the same error?

Kind regards,
Alban

[mbl70]

Hi Alban,

It is correct that we are using Windows Embedded 8 Standard (WE8S) as a lot of other OEM companies does. What is special about WE8S is its long term support from Microsoft and I don't think it differs a lot from Windows 8 Standard. We have installed a lot of other drivers and components that is compatible with WE8S - among these DisplayLink 7.7 (from Windows Update). We are a OEM company and we have to upgrade/replace our current baseline with new motherboard that apparently is incompatible with the WDDM version of DisplayLink 7.7. So then I try to install DisplayLink 7.9 to get the newest DisplayLink WDDM which I hope will fix the problem with Incompatible display driver. I can see that you have upgraded the DisplayLink WDDM driver (dlkmd.sys and dlkmdldr.sys) in the DL 7.9 versions. Please confirm that these will work with Intel HD 530.
To me it seems that from 7.9 on, a check of the OS version in the registry has been introduced - is that something you will comment on? If this is correct, then that could be the reason why the Windows Embedded 8 Standard is no longer supported.
We are now in the process of changing OS to the Windows 10 IoT Enterprise and could end up having a lot of useless WE8S licences.

[AlbanRampon]

Good morning Morten,

I need to check what we can do for you. However, I must stress that Windows Embedded 8 has *never* been supported by DisplayLink. The fact it happened to work is different than having something supported.
As I have personally observed with technical support requests on WES7, there are differences between the Embedded and standard versions of the Windows operating system. Nobody ever contacted me about WE8S and we don't have it, so I won't claim I know the differences.

The incompatibility flagged with 7.7 is like you mentioned yesterday: "the Intel HD 530 graphics uses a newer version of the WDDM". If we don't do any check and we don't communicate with the Intel graphics driver properly, the system will trip on the carpet and you'll get an endless BSoD festival... I firmly believe it is worse from an end user point of view.
You might wish to verify that by:
- Removing DisplayLink driver,
- Installing an Intel graphics driver from before September 2015 as I believe they made the change in October last year,
- Install DisplayLink driver 7.7 M4 = build 7.7.60366.0.

"Please confirm that these will work with Intel HD 530": Yes, the issue is not related to the graphics card model as you flagged in your original email. It is not linked to the motherboard either. We have multiple computers using the Intel HD 530 part of our system tests and 7.9 works with that graphics card. It is not an uncommon card from what I see in the logs I receive.

It is not technically possible for me not to distribute the driver on Windows Update to the Windows Embedded OSes. That's why you are getting it from WU. These drivers are not distributed for OSes we don't support if we have the possibility not to distribute them.
I could change the distribution for your MIMO 3G product on Windows 7/8, but I have not because most people on these OSes don't keep the rest of their drivers up to date.

DisplayLink does not support Windows 10 IoT which is a cut-down version of Windows 10 with optimisations for low cost systems. We are working with Microsoft to bring the native DisplayLink USB graphics support we now have in Windows 10 new builds to the other Windows 10 flavours, however there are still different OSes from Microsoft point of view. They are definitely not using the same graphics subsystem.

As I introduced this message with, I need to check what we can do in this particular case and I will get back to you. I just wish to be transparent on why there are limitations so you, or any other reader, can correct my assumptions.

Kind regards,
Alban

[mbl70]

Hi Alban,

Thank you for trying to clarify this issue - I really appreciate that.

Kind regards,
Morten