Dell D6000 - Screen Flickering

[nicola]

From first tests with the StarTech USB3DOCKH2DP I just bought, I can say that all 3 external monitors are working fine, even with the notebook display enabled: https://photos.app.goo.gl/s5p6UEZcY5nW5Jnf8

The difference here is that is an older model which use only the USB3.0 port and not like the newer model which uses the USB-C port.

From Control Panel of Windows I can see that 3 monitors are managed by the external station (instead of 2+1 like other model) and only the built-in monitor is managed by the internal Intel chipset.


Also, just for test purposes, while the dock was connected I attached 2 additional displays on the built-in HDMI port of the notebook and on the built-in USB-C port of the notebook (with a simple adapter), and all 6 monitors are working correctly.

And in this case, 3 monitors are managed by the Intel chipset and 3 monitors are managed by the external station.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/T3P83vCFZzhnmH3FA


After all this tests and this success, I'm willing to consider an USB-C incompatibility problem or something related to the notebook hardware or Windows drivers.

I will try a couple of days with this station but for the moment is seems the problem to be finally solved.

[nonintanon]

I do have the same problem. The third monitor that connected via HDMI is flicking from time to time and it's really annoying.

I ended up connecting the HDMI directly to my labtop (Dell Inspiron 13 7370) which is shame as I bought D6000 to replace my D3100 just because I want to have a single USB-C connection to my machine

[nicola]

Originally Posted by nonintanon

I do have the same problem. The third monitor that connected via HDMI is flicking from time to time and it's really annoying.

I ended up connecting the HDMI directly to my labtop (Dell Inspiron 13 7370) which is shame as I bought D6000 to replace my D3100 just because I want to have a single USB-C connection to my machine

While I was trying differents USB-C docking station I was using 2+1 monitor as well (2 with the docking, 1 to the HDMI built-in port).
Now that I tried this USB docking station it seems that the problem is related to the USB-C functionality.
Have you tried the previous docking station using a USB->USB-C adapter?

[nonintanon]

Originally Posted by nicola

While I was trying differents USB-C docking station I was using 2+1 monitor as well (2 with the docking, 1 to the HDMI built-in port).
Now that I tried this USB docking station it seems that the problem is related to the USB-C functionality.
Have you tried the previous docking station using a USB->USB-C adapter?

No, I haven't tried with the adapter. The D3100 worked fine with USB3 port but it requires power line.

I thought that upgrading to D6000 would allow me to forget the power line and use only a single USB-C to connect to my machine.

Now I can get rid of power line but need HDMI instead

However, just a few days ago, Dell has updated the driver and it's less flicking. Hope they'll keep updating until the problem gone.

[AlbanRampon]

Hello nicola/nonintanon,

In 3 outputs and with HDMI, I wouldn't wait for DisplayLink driver update as we don't control that output in that case.
I would recommend checking you run the latest third party firmware: https://www.dell.com/support/home/us...-d6000/drivers

If you do already run that, I can help by reporting this to the manufacturer.
For this, only connect the monitor exhibiting the issue to the D6000 on the HDMI port, then connect the docking station using the USB-A adapter. That's to be sure the display is controlled by the DisplayLink chip.
Then, please use the diagnostic tool listed in the last link of my forum signature to collect the logs.
This will give all the monitor details so we can try and reproduct the issue in our lab and submit the report.

Kind regards,
Alban

[nicola]

Hi,
I'm now using StarTech Docking Station with USB3 (no USB-C) since several months and it's running fine with 3x HP 27" screens.

At the end all my "flickering" problem were related to ASUS hardware in relation with USB-C port (ASUS support told me that this notebook officially supports ONLY 1 external screen).

Maybe other brands do not have the same USB-C problem, but using USB3 I solved my problem.

[gafortiby]

Originally Posted by nicola

Hi,
I'm now using StarTech Docking Station with USB3 (no USB-C) since several months and it's running fine with 3x HP 27" screens.

At the end all my "flickering" problem were related to ASUS hardware in relation with USB-C port (ASUS support told me that this notebook officially supports ONLY 1 external screen).

Maybe other brands do not have the same USB-C problem, but using USB3 I solved my problem.

I just wanted to say that I have a Dell D6000 dock, paired with my Dell Latitude 7490. I had exactly the same problem you described, where the monitor connected to the HDMI port would flicker even though the monitor, cables and laptop were fine.

I have also connected the laptop to the dock via its USB-C connection, and two monitors via the displayport, and 3rd monitor using the dock's HDMI port. As the tech support person mentioned, the HDMI port uses the special USB-C alternate mode which means it's driven by the Laptop's internal graphics card and something special in the dock that is NOT displaylink but a different technology.

In this setup, the monitor connected to the HDMI cable would constantly flicker. ONLY that monitor would flicker, all other monitors including the laptop's internal screen would be fine. At some refresh frequencies (Hz) the flicker was like a strobe light. At other frequencies it would just flicker the bottom half of the monitor. Either way the monitor was completely useless.

After the most recent Firmware update (June 2019) of this D6000 dock, provided on the Dell website that the tech support person mentioned, the flicker appears to have completely disappeared. I will report back if the issue comes back, but it appears to be fixed.

If anyone reading this is updating the firmware, be aware that for the flicker to disappear, you have to power cycle the dock AND you have to reboot your laptop. I'm not sure why but simply un-plugging and re-plugging the dock was not enough after the firmware update. A complete reboot was necessary for me.