Recurrent issue: Targus detected just as an USB 3.0 hub

[Ketcchup]

So we have more than 150 targus ACP71 at the office and everyday 10+ users tell us that their displays are not working; reconnecting the usb cable shows Windows only recognizes it as an usb 3.0 hub. DisplayLink icon says there are no displaylink devices connected.

We diagnosed that the problem is not in the bases itself or the cables, but on the laptops; installing a brand new base does not fix the problem and using the same on a different laptop works.

I have lurked around in the forum and the problem seems to be the same for other people, not only ours:
http://displaylink.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1609
http://displaylink.org/forum/showthread.php?t=62686
http://displaylink.org/forum/showthread.php?t=62375

Well, I have found the problem is correlated to the non-present devices and affects at least Windows 7 and Windows 10, with old and new usb 3.0 drivers.

Running this utility (http://www.uwe-sieber.de/misc_tools_e.html) on failing laptops show hundreds of targus non-present devices like "targus giga ethernet". Removing all of them and rebooting the laptop fixes the issue for some days until it again gets filled with many non-present devices.

Is this a known issue or does somebody know a workaround?

[AlbanRampon]

Hello,
This is a Windows "feature" I'm afraid.
It affects all devices: Windows creates a new driver instance based on connection path + serial number.
See https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/da6f6847-5e1a-4b73-9f33-98e8cbddf451/ghosthidden-network-interfaces for another old use case.
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/c4706dfe-c256-4eaa-bb35-4aae43291916/how-can-i-use-powershell-to-remove-ghost-old-hidden-vmware-network-adapters-in-windows-7?forum=w7itpronetworking

We have tried several paid technical support cases to get this fixed, but the answer has always been "it's by design".

Targus is providing an utility to clean the registry bloating. I recommend you follow their blog for updates: https://targusblog.com/2017/07/27/targus-ghost-device-removal-utilitiy-v-1-0-4-0-for-windows-released/

Kind regards,
Alban

[Ketcchup]

Thank you! We are definitely going to take a look at the tool and see if we can deploy it