Lenovo USB 3.0 Dock performance terrible

frentica · 07-05-2013, 02:39 PM

I'm running a Thinkpad Ultrabook Helix (Model # 3698-4SU) and the Thinkpad USB 3.0 Dock with 2 1920x1080 monitors connected. I'm seeing mouse lag and high CPU any time something needs to be drawn on the screen. If I resize a Window I can spike all 4 cores on the I7 to 80-90% CPU, at which point the mouse becomes very laggy, and the overall system becomes very slow.

I've updated all drivers/firmware available and set all BIOS / windows power settings to maximum performance. I am running Windows 8.0 with all updates installed.

sebbelcher · 07-08-2013, 12:28 PM

I've just got the Lenovo Display Link USB 3.0 dock to drive my desktop monitors and frankly the performance is abysmal.

Issues include:
- Mouse lags and has very jerky movement across the screen, similar to using remote desktop across a slow connection. Performance is especially bad with 'mouseover' events on webpages, if the mouse travels over a link that causes a graphic change there is a noticeable stutter in the cursor's travel.
- When scrolling webpages or graphic heavy documents the entire screen sometimes 'blurs' and goes very pixelated for a couple of seconds. On pages with Flash or other animation, the screen may stay blurred permanently on that page - good example was the 'Captcha' game on the registration pages of this forum, I had to drag it onto the laptop's inbuilt screen just to be able to read it.
- Window animations and dragging windows around the screen is very jerky.

Things I have tried:
- Using the latest drivers from the DisplayLink website (using 7.3 M0): made no difference.
- Applying the firmware upgrade from the Lenovo website: the firmware update failed saying "!!!No Device Found!"
- Reducing screen resolution or only using one external monitor: made no difference.

I contacted Lenovo support with the above symptoms and they simply sent me a new dock, which has exactly the same problems, so now I have two crappy docks!

This must be driver related, because it can playback high-resolution video onto the external displays with no problems what-so-ever, but ask it to do something simple like drag a window from one screen to the other, or scroll a webpage the stupid thing just falls apart, pixelating and stuttering all over the place. The mouse issue is by far the worst, it makes me feel ill and makes performing precision operations in photo editing impossible.

I've seen many threads out there reporting similar issues. Has anyone come up with a solution, or even managed to get the firmware update applied successfully?

Thanks.

frentica · 07-08-2013, 01:50 PM

I'm having the same problem and my post didn't receive any responses. If you watch your CPU usage you can see why the stutter occurs, simply resizing a Window can cause 80-90% CPU usage on an i7 across all cores.

By the way, we got the firmware update to run from a Windows 7 system and it didn't help performance in the slightest.

sebbelcher · 07-08-2013, 02:22 PM

Just a bit of an update - having continued to search for solutions I saw a recommendation to install the latest USB3 drivers for the Lenovo.

After downloading and installing the driver from here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...usb+3.0+driver

All the USB device drivers were re-installed after rebooting, it was like I'd plugged in a whole new set of devices. Now the mouse lag problem seems to have gone (I'm holding my breath!).

However the issue with the screen blurring and pixelating on graphic heavy or animated websites remains. Using Google Chrome latest, playing any video on You-Tube causes the video and the whole web-page around it to pixelate.

frentica · 07-08-2013, 02:24 PM

Unfortunately the only drivers for USB 3.0 / Windows 8 are the Microsoft provided drivers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebbelcher

Just a bit of an update - having continued to search for solutions I saw a recommendation to install the latest USB3 drivers for the Lenovo.

After downloading and installing the driver from here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...usb+3.0+driver

All the USB device drivers were re-installed after rebooting, it was like I'd plugged in a whole new set of devices. Now the mouse lag problem seems to have gone (I'm holding my breath!).

However the issue with the screen blurring and pixelating on graphic heavy or animated websites remains. Using Google Chrome latest, playing any video on You-Tube causes the video and the whole web-page around it to pixelate.

sebbelcher · 07-08-2013, 04:36 PM

Luckily I am running Windows 7. It seems that despite having USB3 drivers installed from the factory that port on the Lenovo was operating at USB 2.0 speeds, the Intel drivers have fixed this, now there are no more slowness or lag issues - additionally the firmware update worked once USB3 drivers were installed.

Crazy really that these laptops come with USB3 ports and still no proper solution to ensure USB3 ports and devices are operating with the right drivers.

It would be good if DisplayLink could integrate something into their software to warn users if the dock is connected to a USB3 port but not operating at USB3 speeds.

Finally - this has not solved the issue of screen blurring/pixelation under heavy 2D graphics loads - I am desperately trying to get some visual evidence of this but you can't capture it with a screen-shot as the whatever buffer screenshots are grabbed from is before where the corruption/compression occurs. I'll see if I can get high-quality video of it happening. Is this also a known issue?

JamesH · 07-08-2013, 05:05 PM

Hi,

This may be resolved by the following:

Open Control Panel
Open Power Options
Select Change plan settings
Select advanced power settings
Choose High Performance from the drop down box

Thanks,
James

sebbelcher · 07-08-2013, 05:15 PM

Ok, so I just turned OFF the 'Optimize for Video' setting and now I'm not getting any more problems with pixelation or blurring on webpages.

Ironically turning ON optimize for video was another suggestion on a forum to improve the mouse lag problem I was having!

So, I take it all back DisplayLink, your product is actually pretty damn good ;-)

All it took was updating the USB3 drivers. I hope there is a similar option out there for Windows 8 users soon!

frentica · 07-08-2013, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamesH

Hi,

This may be resolved by the following:

Open Control Panel
Open Power Options
Select Change plan settings
Select advanced power settings
Choose High Performance from the drop down box

Thanks,
James

What about overall bad performance? High CPU usage? It makes the system perform terribly, and mouse lag is very obvious.

sebbelcher · 07-09-2013, 08:31 AM

I'm not seeing this issue since installing the USB3 drivers. I get about 4-6% CPU usage from the DisplayLink processes during normal use and it does peak around 10% as you say when moving windows around - but nothing as high as you mentioned.

Currently configured:
Latest Intel USB3 eXtensible Host Controller drivers https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...usb+3.0+driver

Latest Lenovo Dock firmware http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub...updatetool.exe

Latest DisplayLink Drivers http://www.displaylink.com/support/sla.php?fileid=93

There is some info on Intel's website about forcing USB 3 support in the BIOS if you have problems with devices running at USB 2.0 speeds. The Lenovo has an option for USB 3 in the bios which is "Auto, Enabled, Disabled" and 'Auto' is default. You could try setting it to Enable which forces USB 3.0 mode.

07-05-2013, 02:39 PM	#1
frentica Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2013 Posts: 6	Performance Issues I'm running a Thinkpad Ultrabook Helix (Model # 3698-4SU) and the Thinkpad USB 3.0 Dock with 2 1920x1080 monitors connected. I'm seeing mouse lag and high CPU any time something needs to be drawn on the screen. If I resize a Window I can spike all 4 cores on the I7 to 80-90% CPU, at which point the mouse becomes very laggy, and the overall system becomes very slow. I've updated all drivers/firmware available and set all BIOS / windows power settings to maximum performance. I am running Windows 8.0 with all updates installed. Last edited by frentica; 07-05-2013 at 02:50 PM.

07-08-2013, 12:28 PM	#2
sebbelcher Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2013 Posts: 11	Lenovo USB 3.0 Dock performance terrible I've just got the Lenovo Display Link USB 3.0 dock to drive my desktop monitors and frankly the performance is abysmal. Issues include: - Mouse lags and has very jerky movement across the screen, similar to using remote desktop across a slow connection. Performance is especially bad with 'mouseover' events on webpages, if the mouse travels over a link that causes a graphic change there is a noticeable stutter in the cursor's travel. - When scrolling webpages or graphic heavy documents the entire screen sometimes 'blurs' and goes very pixelated for a couple of seconds. On pages with Flash or other animation, the screen may stay blurred permanently on that page - good example was the 'Captcha' game on the registration pages of this forum, I had to drag it onto the laptop's inbuilt screen just to be able to read it. - Window animations and dragging windows around the screen is very jerky. Things I have tried: - Using the latest drivers from the DisplayLink website (using 7.3 M0): made no difference. - Applying the firmware upgrade from the Lenovo website: the firmware update failed saying "!!!No Device Found!" - Reducing screen resolution or only using one external monitor: made no difference. I contacted Lenovo support with the above symptoms and they simply sent me a new dock, which has exactly the same problems, so now I have two crappy docks! This must be driver related, because it can playback high-resolution video onto the external displays with no problems what-so-ever, but ask it to do something simple like drag a window from one screen to the other, or scroll a webpage the stupid thing just falls apart, pixelating and stuttering all over the place. The mouse issue is by far the worst, it makes me feel ill and makes performing precision operations in photo editing impossible. I've seen many threads out there reporting similar issues. Has anyone come up with a solution, or even managed to get the firmware update applied successfully? Thanks. Last edited by sebbelcher; 07-09-2013 at 08:32 AM. Reason: Corrected driver version number

07-08-2013, 01:50 PM	#3
frentica Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2013 Posts: 6	I'm having the same problem and my post didn't receive any responses. If you watch your CPU usage you can see why the stutter occurs, simply resizing a Window can cause 80-90% CPU usage on an i7 across all cores. By the way, we got the firmware update to run from a Windows 7 system and it didn't help performance in the slightest. Last edited by frentica; 07-08-2013 at 01:57 PM.

07-08-2013, 02:22 PM	#4
sebbelcher Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2013 Posts: 11	Just a bit of an update - having continued to search for solutions I saw a recommendation to install the latest USB3 drivers for the Lenovo. After downloading and installing the driver from here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...usb+3.0+driver All the USB device drivers were re-installed after rebooting, it was like I'd plugged in a whole new set of devices. Now the mouse lag problem seems to have gone (I'm holding my breath!). However the issue with the screen blurring and pixelating on graphic heavy or animated websites remains. Using Google Chrome latest, playing any video on You-Tube causes the video and the whole web-page around it to pixelate.

07-08-2013, 04:36 PM	#6
sebbelcher Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2013 Posts: 11	Luckily I am running Windows 7. It seems that despite having USB3 drivers installed from the factory that port on the Lenovo was operating at USB 2.0 speeds, the Intel drivers have fixed this, now there are no more slowness or lag issues - additionally the firmware update worked once USB3 drivers were installed. Crazy really that these laptops come with USB3 ports and still no proper solution to ensure USB3 ports and devices are operating with the right drivers. It would be good if DisplayLink could integrate something into their software to warn users if the dock is connected to a USB3 port but not operating at USB3 speeds. Finally - this has not solved the issue of screen blurring/pixelation under heavy 2D graphics loads - I am desperately trying to get some visual evidence of this but you can't capture it with a screen-shot as the whatever buffer screenshots are grabbed from is before where the corruption/compression occurs. I'll see if I can get high-quality video of it happening. Is this also a known issue?

07-08-2013, 05:05 PM	#7
JamesH Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 1,523	Hi, This may be resolved by the following: Open Control Panel Open Power Options Select Change plan settings Select advanced power settings Choose High Performance from the drop down box Thanks, James

07-08-2013, 05:15 PM	#8
sebbelcher Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2013 Posts: 11	Ok, so I just turned OFF the 'Optimize for Video' setting and now I'm not getting any more problems with pixelation or blurring on webpages. Ironically turning ON optimize for video was another suggestion on a forum to improve the mouse lag problem I was having! So, I take it all back DisplayLink, your product is actually pretty damn good ;-) All it took was updating the USB3 drivers. I hope there is a similar option out there for Windows 8 users soon!

07-09-2013, 08:31 AM	#10
sebbelcher Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2013 Posts: 11	I'm not seeing this issue since installing the USB3 drivers. I get about 4-6% CPU usage from the DisplayLink processes during normal use and it does peak around 10% as you say when moving windows around - but nothing as high as you mentioned. Currently configured: Latest Intel USB3 eXtensible Host Controller drivers https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...usb+3.0+driver Latest Lenovo Dock firmware http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub...updatetool.exe Latest DisplayLink Drivers http://www.displaylink.com/support/sla.php?fileid=93 There is some info on Intel's website about forcing USB 3 support in the BIOS if you have problems with devices running at USB 2.0 speeds. The Lenovo has an option for USB 3 in the bios which is "Auto, Enabled, Disabled" and 'Auto' is default. You could try setting it to Enable which forces USB 3.0 mode.