Our impression is that it's DisplayLink's issue since the problem does not occur when the DisplayLink drivers are not installed. Can you confirm that the driver team has at least been able to reproduce this problem?

Of course this use case needs additional screens present on the system, this does not tell us much about the root cause or who's responsible for it though.

We've been able to reproduce this issue some time ago on 10.7.2, but when we retried last week on the same system we could not see the issue. We'll be trying different power saving options and login options to see if it has any effect.
You are welcome to help finding the exact use case!

Cheers,
Carlo

I've successfully recreated the issue by simply 1) sleeping my macbook pro; 2) undocking; 3) wake up undocked and work for a bit; 4) re-dock and the third screen appears.

This happens constantly without a doubt. The ONLY rememdy is to completely reboot my macbook while docked. Once it is put to sleep again, the problem reoccurs again. :confused:

I've been patiently waiting on a fix for this.

Other than that, the adapter works perfectly fine for what I use it for.

re: Phantom 3rd Screen
 

I've also found this issue to be regular on multiple configurations of hardware, driver version, and OS version.

Since I can't restart my computer every time I return with my laptop to my desk, I haven't been able to use multiple monitors for ~8 months.

Aren't people at DisplayLink needing to restart their Mac laptops every couple of hours?

As others have reported, it's pretty easy for us to reproduce. I'm on a mid-2011 MacBook Air (4,1; i7 11-inch) with 10.7.3, and stock software preload (no odd kernel extensions or drivers). Here are the power settings from System Information:

AC Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 0
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 0
Wake on AC Change: No
Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes
Wake on LAN: Yes
Current Power Source: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: No
PrioritizeNetworkReachabilityOverSleep: 0
RestartAfterKernelPanic: 15
Standby Delay: 4200
Standby Enabled: 1

Battery Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 15
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 15
Wake on AC Change: No
Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: No
Reduce Brightness: Yes
RestartAfterKernelPanic: 15
Standby Delay: 4200
Standby Enabled: 1

Using a BVU195 DisplayLink adapter; I see this problem whether I'm connecting two 19-inch LCDs in one location or one 20-inch LCD in another.

And as others have said, steps to reproduce:

1. Boot the MacBook with the lid closed, power adapter attached, external keyboard (Apple Bluetooth keyboard, in my case), and an external monitor attached to the DisplayPort/Thunderbolt port; does not matter whether or not the DisplayLink adapter is connected. Only the external monitor will be enabled at this point, as desired.
2. Now disconnect the power and external monitor from DisplayPort/Thunderbolt port, causing the Mac to sleep. Wake it back up from sleep. Only the internal LCD will be enabled at this point, still as desired.
3. Now close the lid, reconnect power, external monitor, and keyboard, press a key on the external keyboard to wake the system up. The external monitor will be enabled, but so will the internal LCD (and the Apple logo is illuminated from the internal LCD's backlight being on). Not desired.

Let me know if you're able to reproduce it following these steps. I'll even make a video of the process if that will be helpful. Please try and help us out with this.

Reply
 

There is still no update? Unsolved?
Annoying!

This problem is going on over six months now, and it’s been given peripheral attention, at best, when given any attention at all. If it’s being actively worked on — which would be great — we haven't heard about it.

DisplayLink team: What else can we do by way of logging, driver testing, or any other troubleshooting to help track this problem down? We’re willing to help solve this problem alongside you, but we can’t help if we aren’t hearing any communication that this is being worked on or even acknowledged.

Just bumping again.

There's about seven threads that talk about this in the DL forum, and there's a few threads over at Apple also. Bu,t it still isn't even mentioned as a "known issue" in the README.

I had uninstalled the DisplayLink driver for the last few months. As soon as I install it, the problems return like clockwork:

* phantom 3rd screen in clamshell mode
* mouse disappears during full screen games (even when DL is unplugged)
* problems detecting when external monitors are plugged in or unplugged (even when DL is unplugged)

Please, please, please acknowledge that you can reproduce the problem and are looking into it. As a former developer of graphics drivers, I wouldn't so quickly write it off as Apple's fault (although it's possible).

A few weeks ago I emailed the VP of Engineering for DisplayLink, hoping that maybe some additional attention could get the ball moving on this. I've not heard anything, much like we've not heard anything here.

What good is a company that doesn't even take heed of their own customer's woes of their own product.....