Unusable combination D3100 docking, XPS15 and 3 screens

[aguida]

I really hope to get some help here since Dell was completely unable to help me with that. At my office we have 3 stations made up of Dell XPS15, Docking Station D3100 with three monitors attached (2 HDMI and one DP). After upgrading to the Anniversary Update all the three installations have the same problems:

1. The screen do not refresh properly. For instance when opening a windows the content will not show up. Then hovering over with the mouse it appears like it was painted by the mouse (very artistic, but not really useful :-) )

2. Same problem as reported by many other with mouse being imprecise and jumpy and the keyboard loosing sometimes keystrokes.

All the above issues are intermittent. Sometimes everything is fine for hours, then it starts again.

Naturally Windows is updated with the latest updates, and the displaylink driver should be the 8.0M2 release. Looking under Device Manager-> Display Adapters->Dell D3100 USB3.0 Dock it shows version: 8.0.762.0.

We did try to install the driver downloaded from DisplayLink Driver page, but it says that the newest driver is already installed. So it should be good?

I really hope someone can help. As it is now we will need too to return everything to the supplier as we can't do any work in this way.

Thanks

[AlbanRampon]

Hello,

1. Paint effect will be a graphics driver issue. It's actually the name for it "paint effect". Can you attach the logs as described in my signature so I can look into it?
The Intel driver installed on the machine will be the last Dell validated which is NOT the same as the latest graphics driver... As a laptop vendor won't validate all releases.
With the logs I can tell you if I wrong or advise how to apply the newer drivers.

2. Mouse lag as described by others was solved with Microsoft KB3194496. Would you please check all Windows Updates, including that one, have been installed?
DisplayLink hardware and software does NOT see any keystroke. The keyboard is plugged in a USB hub in the dock which goes to your computer (I guess). DisplayLink hardware is also connected to that hub. Like with an Ethernet switch, the DL chip doesn't see the traffic from your keyboard to your host through the USB hub. Windows also make sure the proper driver is attached to the hardware (otherwise any vendor could "steal" traffic from another device and that wouldn't be very secure).

8.0.762.0 is using new features of Windows 10. Unfortunately, we uncover these bugs because we are the first ones to use them... A drawback to the leading edge but the fundamental change is to ensure new Windows upgrades won't affect DisplayLink technology users.

Kind regards,
Alban

[aguida]

Hi ALban,

thanks a lot for following up on this. I have emailed you all the log files as instructed.

With regard to the Intel driver installed on the XPS15, according to Windows Device Manager (and Dells update utility) that is the most updated available. I also tried Intels own Driver Update Utility but I get a message that the driver on this machine is a customized one and therefore the Intel tool is not able to update/compare the driver.

With regard to the mouse/keyboard lag issue KB3194496 has been installed and indeed it seems the issue has been improved but it is not completely disappeared. It just happens less often.

In general the above issues are intermittent. It can go hours where everything works fine and then suddenly the screen stops been painted correctly and the mouse and keyboard starts showing delay.

Thanks a lot for looking into this.
Regards,
Alessandro

[AlbanRampon]

Thank you.
The Intel driver utility and the Dell website will NOT give you the latest drivers for your machine but the latest drivers Dell decided to try and approve for that particular platform.
Intel usually gives a ZIP file of the graphics driver, without having to go through the utilities and the drivers can be assigned through the Windows Device Manager as described from the horse's mouth.

We would need to see the lag via filming from a mobile phone for instance as Microsoft is believed to have addressed the root cause of the issue, so you might see something else.

Kind regards,
Alban

[aguida]

That is a good idea. I'll capture it as soon as it happens again. Probably I'll get a recording tomorrow to you. Thanks.

Brg. ALessandro

[aguida]

Originally Posted by AlbanRampon

Thank you.
The Intel driver utility and the Dell website will NOT give you the latest drivers for your machine but the latest drivers Dell decided to try and approve for that particular platform.
Intel usually gives a ZIP file of the graphics driver, without having to go through the utilities and the drivers can be assigned through the Windows Device Manager as described from the horse's mouth.

We would need to see the lag via filming from a mobile phone for instance as Microsoft is believed to have addressed the root cause of the issue, so you might see something else.

Kind regards,
Alban

Hi Alban, rereading the message I see now that you were asking about a film of the lagging. I captured a short movie of the paint problem this morning. Do you need that? If yes where should I upload it? The lagging happens very seldom now, and frankly is not our big issue. We can live with that but the painting makes the system unusable.

Brg. Alessandro

[guicane]

Hi there, I found this after lots of searching for someone with the same issue I'm facing.

It seems you have managed to fix this issue but didn't give any details on the fix?! Can someone please advise?

I have a D3100 dock with 3x Dell U2415 monitors and all running from a Dell E7470 (Intel HD 520)

Everything has been updated to the latest drivers.

Thank you,

Gui

[aguida]

Hi Gui,

No unfortunately the issue is not fixed yet. It has been improved a lot with the latest releases of drivers and Windows own updates but is not completely gone yet. Alban has been working hard to escalate it inside Microsoft so things will get even better in the near future. Also DisplayLink is working on a new driver but Alban can tell you more about that.

Brg.

[AlbanRampon]

Hello,

Thanks for your patience whilst I was on holidays.

May I suggest you also post on the dedicated thread on the Windows community... The more prevalent the issue is, the higher the chances to be fixed earlier.
I'll ask again during my next call with them.

I don't expect anything to have been done to improve things around these paint issues specifically yet.
Because we (our driver) don't get the screen updates, we can't hand them over to the monitor: you'll see the corruption is available in the Print Screen screenshot. That's why I'm unfortunately unable to get this fixed on our end.
To wake up the lazy applications, resize the window. I am affected 100% of the time when waking up from sleep. I double click on the title bar and the application refresh is instantaneous.

Kind regards,
Alban

[aguida]

Originally Posted by AlbanRampon

May I suggest you also post on the dedicated thread on the Windows community... The more prevalent the issue is, the higher the chances to be fixed earlier.
I'll ask again during my next call with them.

Thanks Alban, I will do that.