Blank screens with Surface Pro 3

[rmmcgr]

An update from me: I rolled back the driver to 7.6M2 and have the monitor connected via DisplayLink working again.

Between uninstalling the latest driver and installing 7.6M2 I also ran the DisplayLink clean tool.

It would be great if DisplayLink could please advise what they are doing to resolve this problem.

In all other respects I had a SP3 that had all the latest Microsoft drivers, firmware, updates and patches applied.

Also, I noticed the DL advice has been, in some cases, to update to the latest Intel graphics driver from the Intel site: however this fails as the SP3 has a modified driver from Microsoft so the vanilla Intel one is not correct.

[andrman]

I was away from my dock for most of this week, but I came back and also encountered this black screen issue. I followed the above recommendations of rolling back to 7.6M2 and it's working again.

I noticed that there have been two Surface hardware updates/firmware updates released by Microsoft, most recently on 10/29. Could this be something to do with it?

[petridish]

I know, seriously. Is Display Link even reading this thread?

[big89e]

I had teh exact same issue but eventually got it fixed. Started two days ago when I plugged in after 10 days of not being attached to a dock. Tried uninstalling/reinstalling the 7.7M2 DisplayLink driver several times but that did not do the trick. Also tried with a differente Plugable device and a different dock and still didnt' fix it (basically i was able to trace it down to it being my Surface 3, not the dock, nor the specific displaylink device). I have 3 monitors, one through displayport, the other two through displaylink.

What did fix it was that i upgraded my Intel display driver. I was going to just uninstall/reinstall, then saw there was a new driver available. As soon as it finished installing, the monitors came back on. Been working for the past hour. The link below is where i found out about the new driver--apparently it's not available yet through windows update.

http://www.winbeta.org/news/surface-...nt-performance

. To install these on a surface pro 3 you need to download and extract the zip file from Intel.

https://downloadcenter.intel.c...

2. Then you need to go to your device manager (windows-x) and expand the "Display Adapters" and right click on "Intel HD graphics 5000" and choose "Update Driver Software"

3. Next select "Browse my computer for driver software"

4. Next select "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"

5. Next select "Have disk"

6. Now browse to the extracted zip folder from intel (WIN64_15363) and go into the "Graphics" sub folder

7. Select kit64ib.inf and open it

8. Then select "Ok"

The driver should then install.

If the driver doesn't install or says it is up to date or something you will need to uninstall the old driver first (back before you choose to update the driver in step 2) and check the box to delete the driver files from the computer. I am not sure if this step is needed but I always delete my old drivers first so it might be.

[bernie]

Since about mid-November, Microsoft appears to be deploying a Windows Update just to the Surface Pro 1/2/3 that causes DisplayLink screens to go blank, even though all signs at the software level are that everything is fine.

If you don't have a Surface, it's likely a different issue. On the Surface, the Intel GPU driver version when the problem is present is 10.18.10.3496 dated 3/7/2014.

We've been able to solve the problem in most cases by manually installing a newer Intel driver version. We've posted steps on how to do that here:
http://plugable.com/2014/12/03/how-t...aphics-drivers

If you can, post back here if this solves the issue for you. That'll help us and others understand whether there's one problem here or several.

And for customers with Plugable products, thanks for your patience and please don't hesitate to email us directly at support@plugable.com -- we'll work to solve any remaining issues.

Thank you!
Bernie Thompson
Founder, Plugable Technologies

[mellow-yellow]

yes, this process works fine! Prior to November's update, the video driver (or the DisplayLink driver) seemed to handle small text on Surface Pro 3 better than it does now, but oh well... at least my external monitor works again!

[Expat]

Hi Bernie, et al,

So I followed the instructions in your post above, upgrading the Intel drivers then installing the latest DisplayLink 7.7 M2 software, and it did solve the problem for a while. However, I am back at the same problem again and am out of ideas.

I have confirmed that the Intel graphics driver and the DisplayLink software are at the latest version
The monitor shows on the DisplayLink utility in the system tray as available
I have nothing plugged into the mini-video port
The external monitor shows in the Windows Screen Resolution configuration
When I plug the external monitor in, Windows beeps to recognize it, the screen flickers, and for *all* intents and purposes it is live, but with just a blank screen.

I did notice that when I change the "Extend to" and the screen flickers briefly as it always does, if I move the mouse over to the extended monitor the mouse pointer does appear briefly then "fade to black" (sorry, couldn't resist that ;-)

I'd be happy to run your support tool against the Surface if you could provide a link, and am up to almost any testing (I'd rather not re-image as other than this it appears to be fine)

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[bernie]

Originally Posted by Expat

if I move the mouse over to the extended monitor the mouse pointer does appear briefly then "fade to black"

If you can see the mouse or window momentarily on the DisplayLink-attached screen, I think you're dealing with a separate issue.

If you have a Plugable brand product, please don't hesitate to email us direct support@plugable.com

If it's another product, if you can describe in a bit more detail how it starts working, how it fails, and what it takes to display anything again (unpower, then repower dock or laptop? Or just move mouse away and back?) that might give others enough context to help.

Thanks!
Bernie

[JP2015]

Bernie, thank you!

I have been having this problem with a customer's Surface Pro 3 and just today with my own - your instructions to upgrade the Intel driver worked perfectly.

Thank you again.