Windows8 Dell USB 3.0 Dock freezes mouse, monitor, ethernet

[uboel]

Hi,

Some time ago, I bought a Kensignton USB 3.0 Docking Station with Dual DVI/HDMI/VGA Video (sd3500v) and tested it on my Dell Vostro 5650 for a complete month without any kind of trouble.

Happy with the product, I bought another one for my boss when ordering his Dell XPS 13...but with his computer I ran into the same problems some other users encountered (black screens, network disconnections, usb disconnections).

After reading the posts from this forum, I installed the 7.2M1 version of your drivers and set the Windows 8 (64bits) power options plan to "High performance" instead of the default "Balanced".

My boss still complains about black screens appearing from time to time. When happening the only solution seems to reset the dock by unplugging both power cord and usb cable, waiting a couple of seconds and putting them in place...hopefully my boss is the patient kind!

Did you manage to spot the source of the problem? Is there a new driver beta version in progress that could solve this issue? Is there anything I can do to help you (like sending you debug logs)?

Kind regards,

Ulric Boël

ICT manager @ Produpress (Belgium)

[JamesH]

Originally Posted by uboel

Hi,

Some time ago, I bought a Kensignton USB 3.0 Docking Station with Dual DVI/HDMI/VGA Video (sd3500v) and tested it on my Dell Vostro 5650 for a complete month without any kind of trouble.

Happy with the product, I bought another one for my boss when ordering his Dell XPS 13...but with his computer I ran into the same problems some other users encountered (black screens, network disconnections, usb disconnections).

After reading the posts from this forum, I installed the 7.2M1 version of your drivers and set the Windows 8 (64bits) power options plan to "High performance" instead of the default "Balanced".

My boss still complains about black screens appearing from time to time. When happening the only solution seems to reset the dock by unplugging both power cord and usb cable, waiting a couple of seconds and putting them in place...hopefully my boss is the patient kind!

Did you manage to spot the source of the problem? Is there a new driver beta version in progress that could solve this issue? Is there anything I can do to help you (like sending you debug logs)?

Kind regards,

Ulric Boël

ICT manager @ Produpress (Belgium)

Hi,

Please run through this troubleshooting guide:
http://www.displaylink.org/forum/showthread.php?t=896

It would also be useful to know what applications are running when the blank screen appears.

Thanks,
James

[uboel]

Originally Posted by JamesH

Hi,

Please run through this troubleshooting guide:
http://www.displaylink.org/forum/showthread.php?t=896

It would also be useful to know what applications are running when the blank screen appears.

Thanks,
James

Hi James,

Before posting on the forum, I had already made a tour of all the corresponding posts and this one was my first reading.

Concerning the applications, my boss mainly uses:
- Outlook 2010,
- Excel 2010,
- Word 2010,
- IE 10
- Firefox (latest version)

The machine has a fresh Windows 8 64bits installation. The dock was connected at the end of computer installation process, with the latest Kensington drivers package available on their web site at that time installed [ Kensington sd3000v/sd3500v USB 3.0 docking stations (K33970/K33971/K33972/K33973) and K33928 Video Adapter Software Driver Version 7.0.43577.0 ].
After reading some of the forum posts I uninstalled this package and installed the 7.2M1 package available from here. I also changed the Windows Power Options settings to High performances.

This seemed to correct the dock "complete failures" preventing to use the Ethernet connection and the USB ports...but the "black screens" issue remained.
The only workaround we found so far was to plug the second screen directly through the HDMI port onto the computer, leaving the dock as Ethernet connection (as the XPS 13 doesn't have a native Ethernet plug) and USB switch.

My boss is not at the office this week but when he gets back I will install the debug tools and ask him to run those when a problem occurs. I'll send you the logs as soon as I get them.

Kind regards,

Ulric

[Ruud]

Originally Posted by uboel

Hi,

Some time ago, I bought a Kensignton USB 3.0 Docking Station with Dual DVI/HDMI/VGA Video (sd3500v) and tested it on my Dell Vostro 5650 for a complete month without any kind of trouble.

Happy with the product, I bought another one for my boss when ordering his Dell XPS 13...but with his computer I ran into the same problems some other users encountered (black screens, network disconnections, usb disconnections).

UBoel: did you use the ethernet-port on the docking station at the time you tested it on the Dell Vostro 5650? My XPS doesn't have a normal ethernet port so i'm forced to use the one on the docking station..

[Ruud]

See Logfiles I sent for details.
I just ahd another blaockt-out and I believe yesterday as well (which I didn't make seperate logfiles for)
Any luck finding the cause of this? (and possibly a solution?)

[Ruud]

Hi Wim and James,

The last hour I suffered 3 black-outs in a row. This was highly annoying since I had to finish some work before the week-end.

Between these crashes I did not close/restart any programs and the black-outs are repeatedly happening when my system (8Gb) is using a lot of memory (around 4Gb)

Do you want me to turn on the more precise logging information???

Please help, i'm getting a bit frustrated.

[JamesH]

Hi,

This may well be a hardware issue - I'd suggest checking you have the latest USB 3.0 hub firmware for your dock (from the manufacturer's website).

Are you able to try the dock connected to a USB 2.0 port on your notebook?

If neither of the above is an option then you may need to return the dock.

Thanks,
James

[Ruud]

Hi James,

I looked at the dell.nl site for an USB dock driver/firmware update, but there is none. The driver update (10/5) is probably your latest updated driver? I cannot install that one because the zip file is giving extraction errors..

Also my system reports it has the latest chipset drivers, I installed the recommended Dell update drivers for it.

So.. i do not now if i have an USB2.0 port on my laptop, nor do i want to use that, because I like to have proper bandwidth for my gigabit ethernet and dual display?

I can send you 2 more blackouts I experienced in the meantime.. is there nothing in them you can use to fix your drivers somehow?

Best regards
Ruud

[JamesH]

Hi,

The firmware for your dock is one and the same as that for the ACP70 which can be found here: http://www.targus.com/us/download.as...7&sku=ACP70USZ

Thanks,
James

[uboel]

Originally Posted by Ruud

UBoel: did you use the ethernet-port on the docking station at the time you tested it on the Dell Vostro 5650? My XPS doesn't have a normal ethernet port so i'm forced to use the one on the docking station..

Yes I did (and still does as I bought another dock for my Vostro), the purpose being to connect as less cables as possible when arriving at the office!

As explained the same dock behaves quite differently when attached to the Vostro or the XPS...

Since installing the 7.2M1 version of the drivers on my Vostro I encounter a little issue...but nothing I can't live with...I now have to unplug the USB cable between the dock and the computer before shutting down Windows...if I don't, Windows never finish the shutdown procedure. I didn't find any message in the event viewer telling me what is happening in this case...strange...

Cheers,

Ulric