Gigabit Ethernet not working on Targus USB 3.0 Docking Station
 

Hi I have just bought the Targus USB 3.0 Docking Station and have installed the displaylink update DisplayLink-6.3M0 file and I can't get the gigabit ethernet port to work. The cable is fine as I can connect it into the back of my laptop (Dell XPS14z) and it detects the network immediately. When I plug the cable (CAT 6) into the back of the docking station it disaplys in the network dialogue that the cable is unplugged. I have tried this with different cables just to make sure it wan't a cable issue and I get the same issue that it is not detecting the cable. When I plug the cable into the port I see that the green light next to port lights up and remains on so I assume it is detecting cable. I am thinkiong it is a driver issue which is resulting in a failure to replicate this port to the laptop through USB 3.0. Any help would be appreciated

Thanks:confused:

Can you run the debug tool and post the output so we can see the state of the USB Ethernet?

http://kb.displaylink.com/269

Thanks

Wim

Fixed
 

Hi Wim

Thanks for your work here. I read one of your other posts and uninstalled displaylink software and reinstalled it and then ran update and installed updated software. It worked and I now have ethernet.

Thanks

Ben

Wim,

I'm having the same issue, but I updated everything and reinstalled the displaylink drivers with no results. Attached is my support zip file.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I feel like I've tried everything.

Your logs seem to show that the Ethernet cable is not plugged in:

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 6:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : DisplayLink USB Gigabit Network Adapter #4
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-24-9B-03-3C-90
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Either the Ethernet cable doesn't work, or there is a hardware fault. I assume the LEDs on the RJ45 are not on either, so its not showing a physical link.

Don't think I can debug this any further, as I don't think its a driver issue (unless the hardware does think there is a link)

Wim

I've had the same problem with Targus (what a POS) on my new Dell Ultra Slim laptop. After trying different drivers, trying different ports, plugging and unplugging i gave up and bought a USB 3.0 gigabit adapter and now don't care about the one built into the port replicator. That thing is just buggy despite what the manufacturer claims (read Amazon reviews if you want)

If you want to get done with this quickly - just do what i did and get yourself a USB gig adapter (i got mine here http://www.usb3gigabit.com/)

A quick update - this is not a problem with display link in any way, there is something wrong with the targus hardware

Can you tell me which Targus docking station you have (ACP70 or ACP71)?

Thanks

Wim

ACP70USZ...

I got it a little while back from an online store and haven't tried some of the features until just recently, so didn't even know something isn't working

used to work
 

My ethernet used to work and then just didn't one day it didnt. I ran the tool but it didnt tell me where to send my support file

Again, the PC thinks that the Ethernet cable is disconnected from the dock. Are the LEDs on, on the dock, to show an Ethernet link? Does it recover if you power cycle the dock and reboot the PC? Does the switch on the other end of the Ethernet cable think there is a link?

Wim

I tried powering down and rebooting. I do not have the lights flashing on the back of the dock. The wire is good I am running on it now. I have used the ethernet through the dock before but it just quit working.

i have the same exact issue with the Targus gigabit ethernet my pc thinks the cable is unplugged i have lights on the ports and cable is proven to work

If you power cycle the dock, does this recover the issue?
Does this occur every time you attach?
What is the status of the gigabit adapter in device manager?

Thanks

Wim

yes
no
Teh adapter is not showing anymore in device manager weird ? i cannot find a driver nor get windows to recognize

ok I reset the tarsus dock!
1- it seems to pull power thru the usb ports as I disconnected the power line and the brick's green light would not go out ? So i unplugged all USB and the bricks light died out ! This seemed to actually kill power to the dock. I plugged power back in and it started and re installed device all is good i have internet thru dock

Connected to network, but can't browse web pages
 

When I unplug the network cable from the back of the dock and use the wireless connection, I have no issues with browsing network directories/files or browsing websites through IE. With the network cable plugged in and the wireless disconnected, I can still browse to shared files/directories on the network but when browsing websites, some won't connect and most don't load in any readable format. It looks like the Targus Gigabit Ethernet driver is installed and working fine, just having issues browsing websites.

Attached is the debug report that was run while the network cable was plugged in and the wireless was disconnected.

Hi guys,

I had this and tried reinstalling the drivers etc with no luck. In the ethernet settings there was no MAC address. I manually added one and it worked.

This is for a corporate Win 7 x64 image, the Dell OEM worked. There was a driver not included in the Dell service tag downloads which was on the link:

http://www.displaylink.com/support/ticket.php?id=315

(Intel USB 3.0 for Dell Latitude XPS)

This seemed to fix the problem. Dell needs to add this to their download page!

The logs show that we were able to ping www.google.com through the Gigabit Ethernet connection on the dock when the logs were taken:

Pinging www.google.com via DL DeviceTargus Giga Ethernet

Pinging www.google.com [173.194.75.147] from 10.20.12.37 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 173.194.75.147: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=47
Reply from 173.194.75.147: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=47
Reply from 173.194.75.147: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=47
Reply from 173.194.75.147: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=47

This means that it looks like you have internet connectivity through the Targus dock and the problem with websites must be somewhere higher up in the network on the PC.

Wim

How did you know there was no MAC address and where did you set it? Our Ethernet controller should always have a MAC address...

Wim

My problem sounds similar, too!
 

Recently bought a Dell XPS13, Windows 7 OS, and a Targus USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Dual Video Docking Station with Power and have had nothing but probs with internet connections. When initally setup the equipment on our small office network everything seemed to work fine, except we thought the internet connection was unreasonably slow. Then disconnects started happening with recovery after a few seconds to a minute. As of yesterday, we can't get out to the internet at all with the network cable plugged in through the targus docking station.

When I unplug the network cable from the back of the dock and use the wireless connection, I have no issues with browsing network directories/files or browsing websites through IE. With the network cable plugged in and the wireless disconnected, I can still browse to shared files/directories on our intranet but cannot get out to the internet. The link lights show everything is fine, but the computer says there is a cable disconnected when I diagnose the problem. I even tried different cables, powered the machine on and off, and even restarted my router. Other users in the office are browsing the internet with no problems while this is happening.

I also plugged a USB 2.0 to gigabit Ethernet NIC network adapter into the XPS13 to route the ethernet cable directly in to the computer to make sure it wasn't an issue with the computer...and everything works just fine that way.

My conclusion is that it is something internally wrong with the Targus Docking station. Is there something else I can try, or has anyone had this exact same issue and found a fix????

Thanks for any help....my manager is beyond P.O. right now....as its his machine.

The Ethernet on the dock does not support half duplex. If you plug it into a half duplex port (eg an Ethernet hub) you will see really slow Ethernet performance due to the collisions on the wire.

Could this be the issue?

Wim

Wim -
That might be the case as we have an older router SMC 7004VBR Barricade and it auto-negotiates transmission modes to either duplex or half-duplex. Hmmmmm.....
Thanks for the idea.
Deb

Hello

I too am having the exact same issues with an XPS laptop and the Targus 3.0 docking station.

I have also tested this on a newer latitude laptop and it has the same issue.

Problems running it on both Windows 7 32 and 64bit clients.

When I first installed the device , it worked perfectly.
But following a reboot it fell over and refused to work.
At one stage , I could get it working if we unplugged the power to the targus but this has given up being a workaround.


The USB 2.0 side of the targus works , but I get no video or NIC.
USB keyboard and mouse will work on any of the ports on the tragus hub.

The displaylink.exe does not appear in the notifications area and refuses to start if we click on it manually.

I am running the latest BIOS on the XPS (A07)
The fresco logic usb 3.0 drivers are at the lastest version (3.5.93.0)


Come on Displaylink , tell us it's an known issue and when it will be resolved !

This is not specifically a problem with Ethernet and I've answered this on your separate thread here:

http://displaylink.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2154

Wim

I am having similar problems with a Dell XPS 13 L322X and the Targus USB 3.0 SuperSpeed™ Dual Video Docking Station with Power : ACP71USZ

The usb2 drivers plugged and played and I have since tried installing the remaining drivers using the downloadable msi and exe files, but the Ethernet and USB audio devices sit unhappily in Device Manager with no drivers and refuse to play.

Ideally, I would like to be able to install all of the drivers using an msi or as part of a driver package through SCCM but just getting them to work at all would be nice.

I have updated the bios and all other drivers for the XPS. Any suggestions?

ETA: I am running 64bit Windows 7 Enterprise SP1

Same problem with HP Probook
 

I am having similar problems with 6 HP Probook with Windows 7 64 bits and the Targus USB 3.0 SuperSpeed™ Dual Video Docking Station with Power : ACP71EU

3 works great, 3 not : one works during 1 week , one during 1 day (+display problem) and another during 1 hour (+ display problem ) :mad:

display problem = same symptom that this topic

Hard reset, update driver Chipset Intel , reinstall last Display Link Software, manual setting MAC address => always the same network problem

3 Docking stations was changed by my provider, 2 works now et 1 again network problem after 1 day (no display problem this time).

Is a hardware Targus problem (bad review here) or DisplayLink software ???

My issue was resolved by plugging a monitor into the dock. I couldn't successfully install software or drivers without a monitor connected. As soon as I plugged in the monitor, everything showed up successfully.

I can confirm we have had the same issues here, but only with one Dell XPS13 Core I7 laptop. Every other seems to work fine, and it is just one laptop that struggles with ethernet connectivity. Plugged into Dell 6248p switch, ethernet connectivity drops frequently during operation and takes approximately 2 mins to restore itself after about 15-45 mins of proper operation.

Yes, I don't think the Ethernet drivers or audio drivers were installed until a display was connected, which would trigger the install. I *think* this is fixed in 7.1, so the Ethernet and audio drivers are installed without a monitor connected.

spacklewoof - this sounds more like hardware if it is just happening on 1 dock. Do the network lights on the dock go out when it happens?

Wim

Got my GB Ethernet to work
 

I had a similar issue to everyone else here. I bought two Dell USB 3.0 docking stations (Dell formerly used the Targus docks, but now has them branded by DisplayLink for Dell). One never worked, and the other worked for a while then stopped. I went over some things with Dell, and we even replaced one, but nothing changed. Then one of the Dell techs had me update the NIC driver, BIOS, chipset drivers, and Dell Feature Enhancement software. After installing this I rebooted and the GB port worked. Then we noticed that pushing the cable all the way in caused to lose linkl light. Pulling the cable out until the security clip stopped it resulted in the lights coming back on. It appears that the contact pins inside the port may be short and pushing the cable in as far as it will go results in a loss of connectivity.

Thanks for the feedback. We have let Targus know about this so they can investigate.

Wim

Similar issue here.

Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 13
Windows 8 Pro 64 DisplayLink 7.1 M1
Targus ACP70USZ with firmware 4401

When physical link is down adapter state shows on but no IP, 169 subnet.
Remove plug, replug, link is up, wait wait, physical link is down.

Using HP ProCurve 1810G-24 v2 switch.
Log shows port up down up down up down.

Any feedback from Targus?

Gigabit Issue Workaround
 

I wanted to share if it helps someone. This gigabit network issue has been a problem for me in my home office which is wired with Cat5 100MBt. I have 11 machines, many new ones with Gigabit adapters that have no problem negotiating down.

This Targus ACP71USZ dock's gigabit port simply will not reliably negotiate down or it seems even work on anything less than a 1GBit Cat5e or Cat6 connection.

What I did was take my source network (cat5/100mbt) and plug into a gigabit desktop switch. From that switch connected to the dock with a cat6 cable. Since then, network keeps working don't have to power off/on the dock or anything. It does not look like there are any settings for this Targus gigabit to have it work in 'slow mode' or half-duplex that I could find.

Hope this helps someone, besides this it has worked great for me and now I am OK with this workaround.

The Ethernet on the dock must be set to auto negotiate, as there is no way to fix the port speed through the UI.

Also, half duplex modes are not supported, so if you try and force half duplex, the throughput will be very slow (due to packet collisions) and the speed will probably not be correctly negotiated.

Wim

Interesting, you mind explaining how to set this on the Targus Giga Ethernet Properties? I can only set a MAC address, VLAN ID, and Wake on LAN.

I have multiple other machines on the same network with Gigabit capability and have no issues with them on my Cat5/100Mbit network.

Where is the 'auto negotiate' setting on the dock or are you saying it is something the manufacturer (Targus) would have to set?

I'm just trying to understand. I appreciate the info and as I noted, just connecting the dock to a gigabit desktop switch that is connected to my network is working reliably now. Never had a gigabit capable device have problems before on my network. I am only posting as it was a pain for me and hopefully it helps someone. Thank you!

ACP70 waste of time and money
 

This thing is absolute trash. Do not buy it. I spent half a day wrestling with this thing trying to get it installed. I called both Targus and Dell support (I was trying to use it with a new xps laptop) and it simply does not work. Windows only recognizes it as a USB hub... the network, display, and audio do not work. Save yourself the trouble and look for alternate solutions. This is not only a waste of money but worse a waste of time and source of frustration.

This is only useful as an overpriced USB hub or brick.

Gig Ethernet and Mouse Issues
 

Not to beat a dead horse here, but I have the exact issues with this same Targus ACP70USZ docking station. The Ethernet never worked right (would never negotiate to Gig speed), and I may have been able to deal with that, but the mouse lagging was the biggest thing I could not deal with. Just moving the mouse across the screen would pause (for up to a second or more) then jump to where it was supposed to be. I have read many others having this issue. This dock was almost $200 (from DELL) and is attached to an XPS12 Ultrabook (Windows 8) Tablet/Notebook convertible. I have the latest DisplayLink Software (version 7.2M0), but nothing I tried made a difference. I have replaced it with a USB 3.0 HUB from Plugable (7-Port) and connected my external monitor with the MiniDP connection on the side of the XPS12. Everything works smoothly (mouse too). The Targus dock is apparently at fault here.

Windows 8 Doesn't Recognize Driver
 

I am having a similar issue, my computer is not recognizing the drivers that were installed. Can someone help?

I spent significant amount of time with Targus TACP70US to make it work properly. I would like to share my findings with others and to help solving the issue.

The first device I got did not work with video output, so I got it replaced.
The second one worked perfectly out of the box, but only for two weeks.

All of a sudden the video output did not work anymore so did not the ethernet connection. I contacted Targus support, but it seems I was emailing a bot since I got only generic replies saying I needed to update the drivers.

Of course, the driver update did not work and it took me some time to realize that windows/driver update always automatically updates the driver to the newest version, no matter what I install. That rang the bell and I started the procedure to revert drivers backwards until I got the device back to work. However, I had to turn off automatic driver update in control panel.

The DisplayLink driver that got the thing working is almost one year old- the version that works now with me is 6.3M1, from August 2012.

Ethernet is working now, so is the video output, but only at some resolutions. Earlier I had it working on most of the resolutions offered, but now I can normally use only two, which is not a bummer anyway.

I hope this findings of mine help others.

I also wish I could invoice Targus/DisplayLink for the hours I spent in fixing the issue. It took me quite a lot of time indeed, but let it be...

Asus Zenbook
 

I spent a significant amount of time on this as well and was able to get it to work so thought I would share. In my case, the LAN driver wasn't recognized at all. I have an Asus Zenbook running Windows 8. Here's what ended up resolving it for me:

1. Downloaded and installed the latest DisplayLink drivers
2. Opened Device Manager
3. Found that Targus Giga Ethernet was shown as a Unrecognized Device
4. Chose to update the driver. Specify a driver and pointed to C:\Program Files\DisplayLink Core Software.

I found my audio driver was in the same state, but I haven't used that so it was not a big issue for me. The same steps fixed that also.