Black flashing screen on my 8.1 + 7.4M0 laptop
 

Hi James,

I upgraded my Asus Zenbook UX31A from Windows 8.0 to 8.1 and then installed the new DisplayLink 7.4M0 software.

Now when I plug in my Targus USB 3.0 Docking Station, my laptop screen flashes black constantly. The external monitor never kicks in and the flashing never stops. I have to unplug the USB cable to the Targus unit to make the flashing stop.

I have attached the output from your diagnostic tool and am happy to help troubleshoot.

Hi,

Can you install the latest graphics driver from Intel for Windows 8.1?

Thanks,
James

I've installed Intel's beta driver for the HD4000 running Windows 8.1. When I plug in my DisplayLink now my laptop screen remains fine and all devices work, but the monitor is not showing a signal. I've tried display settings and the laptop believes it is displaying the desktop on multiple monitors, but no actual output appears on the monitor.

Further update:

Even though the monitor screen is blank, the monitor's touchscreen is working. I can drag my finger on the monitor and on my laptop display see the result. So the laptop and the DisplayLink are talking to the monitor on that channel, at least.

Hi,

Thanks for trying the newer drivers.

Can you try the new R7.4 M2 and if you still have issues please post new logs.

Thanks,
James

Thanks, James! I installed the 7.4 M2 release and my DisplayLink is now working fine.

I also was notified of an update from Targus and installed that before I saw your message. It produced no change on its own. Subsequently installing M2 did the trick.

The return of three screens
 

The Win 8.1 upgrade was a nightmare. Not much sleep last night. But finally all seems to be working.

I upgraded my laptop to Win 8.1 without upgrading DisplayLink. I then experienced the black extra desktop screens in 8.1. Using the cleaning program and loading v.7.4 thereafter did not make it better. Given a spouse using the desk and multiple screens for business on Monday, I then rolled back to Win 8.0 hoping to use the v7.1 software. But this kept trying to update to v7.4 and my various attempts to lock out the auto update process only resulted in no extra desktop screens and a strobe-flashing nightmare on the laptop screen.

I then moved back forward to Win 8.1 after making sure that v7.4 was loaded and all settled down. We now have three screens again.

Note: We do not use our hub to make an ethernet link; we use the laptop's wifi. But this got messed up with regard to share drive mapping as, in the changeover, the internet security software decided that the home-office wifi was a public network. This cost hours to fix too, as I did not expect the obvious. Needed to go into the firewall settings of the security programme to fix this, making the wifi network trusted again.