Colors display incorrectly

[Herb Caudill]

Please see this video for an overview of the problem:
http://youtu.be/rFCHamEvnKc

Here's my setup:

- Dell Precision M4800 laptop (Intel i7-4900MQ, 16GB)
- Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
- NVIDIA Quadro K2100M with latest drivers
- Monitor 1: Built into laptop (4K, 3200x1800)
- Monitor 2: Dell P2415Q (4K, 3840x2150) directly connected to laptop via built-in DisplayPort
- Monitor 3: Dell P2415Q (4K, 3840x2150) connected via Ableconn DisplayPort 4K Adapter (DL-5500)
- Latest DisplayLink drivers (7.7.59503.0)

Here's my problem:

When both monitors are plugged in, the built-in laptop monitor and the external monitor connected via DisplayPort both work 100% normally. The monitor connected via USB/DisplayLink, however, displays the colors wrong. This isn't a subtle color calibration problem: Blue displays as orange, red displays as blue, yellow displays as a pale blue, etc. Whites, blacks, and grays display normally.

If I unplug Monitor 2 from the DisplayPort, color display on Monitor 3 (USB/DisplayLink) goes back to normal. So I'm guessing that there's a driver conflict going on.

Any ideas?

[Wim]

That's weird. Thanks for the video, otherwise I'd have found this hard to believe :-)

To help narrow down the source of the problem, are the colors correct on a Print Screen? This will tell us if the pixels are corrupted by the OS before they get passed to our driver, or if they are corrupted after they get passed to us.

Wim

[Herb Caudill]

Originally Posted by Wim

are the colors correct on a Print Screen?

Yes, the colors are correct on any sort of screen capture (PrtScrn, Windows Snip tool).

A couple more data points FWIW:

- If I play any kind of video on the DisplayLink screen, it starts out with the wrong colors for a couple of seconds, then flickers a bit and adjusts to the correct colors and stays correct as long as the video is running.

- If I have both monitors connected via DisplayLink, they both display colors correctly. (This isn't acceptable in the long term, though, because I can't have a 30hz refresh rate on my primary monitor.)

- I haven't gotten into the math, but whatever function the RGB values are going through, it reverses itself. In other words if you apply the inversion twice, you end up with the correct color values. I noticed this when displaying a frame of the above video on the DisplayLink monitor; the incorrect colors in the video were perfectly corrected, while the rest of the screen remained in cuckoo-color land.

Hope this helps -
Herb

[Wim]

I've asked around for some opinions on this. It could be something to do with the graphics driver. I see your graphics driver is from 2012, so would be worth updating and see if this fixes the issue:

Graphics: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 (Intel Corporation)
Graphics Driver: 8.15.10.2761 Dated 2012/05/21
Graphics: LogMeIn Mirror Driver (LogMeIn, Inc.)
Graphics Driver: 7.1.542.0 Dated 2006/05/22

Also, could you try without LogMeIn? I don't think this is a problem but worth checking.

Wim

[Herb Caudill]

Originally Posted by Wim

I see your graphics driver is from 2012

Hi, Wim.

Not sure where these driver version numbers are coming from, but they don't apply to me. I don't have LogMeIn, and I don't have an Intel graphics driver. As I said above, I have the NVIDIA Quadro K2100M graphics card. I just uninstalled my graphics drivers and reinstalled them from the NVIDIA site, and have what should be the very latest (version 9.18.13.4725 according to Device Manager).

Thanks
Herb

[Wim]

Originally Posted by Herb Caudill

Hi, Wim.

Not sure where these driver version numbers are coming from, but they don't apply to me. I don't have LogMeIn, and I don't have an Intel graphics driver. As I said above, I have the NVIDIA Quadro K2100M graphics card. I just uninstalled my graphics drivers and reinstalled them from the NVIDIA site, and have what should be the very latest (version 9.18.13.4725 according to Device Manager).

Thanks
Herb

Doh! You're right. I must have been looking at someone elses log files at the time... Trying to do too many things at once :-)

Can you send me the log files, especially the system_details.txt so we can try and find a similar system and reproduce. Details on how to do this are here:

http://kb.displaylink.com/269

Wim

[Herb Caudill]

OK, I've attached SystemDetails.txt. I can send you the whole zip file if you want but it won't let me upload it here.

Thanks
Herb

[Herb Caudill]

A little more information, FWIW.

1. Here's a video showing some more precise information about the color inversion, as well as the effect that playing a video full-screen has (as described above). http://youtu.be/KPrBjD65lJQ

2. As I mentioned before, a screen capture returns an image with the correct colors, regardless of what the monitor is showing. However, GoToMeeting goes completely insane when I have DisplayLink adapters mixed with a direct DisplayPort connection.

What I see:



What other GoToMeeting participants see:



If I'm using the DisplayLink adapter exclusively, or not using it at all, GoToMeeting behaves normally.

Hope this helps.

[Herb Caudill]

*bump*

DisplayLink - any word?

[JamesH]

Hi,

Sorry for the delay in replying and thanks for the detailed information.

Can you send the logs from the tool that Wim mentioned to this email address: technical_enquiries@displaylink.com

Answers to the following would be really useful:
Has this always happened or did it used to work on earlier versions of DisplayLink software?
Do you see the original issue in other browsers?
Can you try a different displayport cable (to that connected to the adapter)?
Does this happen at other resolutions?
Have you seen this issue on other notebooks and monitors?

Thanks,
James