Today DisplayLink released their new Windows Driver Version 7.1 M1 (7.1.45135.0). We’re excited to have this new driver out, as it fixes a number of last issues that let us recommend the latest 7.X drivers over the earlier 5.X and 6.X series drivers, on all versions of Windows. All of Plugable’s current and past USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 devices with a USB graphics function will work with this new driver.
Download the latest version of DisplayLink driver here.
This release has fixes for these issues which have affected a significant number of our users:
- DisplayLink driver versions starting with 7.0 could cause Flash to hang up and crash when running Chrome browser. Those problems are reported fixed in 7.1 M1
- nVidia GPUs with drivers dated Oct, 2012 or later would experience flashing screens and crashes. These problems are reported fixed in 7.1 M1 for some users, but not yet all
- Windows 8 Metro applications running on USB displays could come up with Window unpainted (Blue or black). Reported fixed in 7.1 M1
A number of significant issues on Windows remain:
- Windows 8 Metro apps playing protected video content will not play while the DisplayLink driver is installed (will show message in Window to upgrade graphics drivers). This is a difficult issue to solve because Microsoft has tightened DRM policies in Windows 8, and expect it may remain for some time.
- Some driver conflicts apparently remain between nVidia drivers from October 2012 and later, and DisplayLink. The new 7.1 M1 driver solves some of these issues, but not all. We’ve also seen examples where the very latest nVidia pre-release drivers resolve this issue. We’ll keep tracking this, and appreciate your problem reports and feedback.
In detail, DisplayLink lists these issues fixed in 7.1M1
- Microphone is shown as ‘Not plugged in’ after replugging DisplayLink device. (14345, 14431, 14463)
- In some cases uninstallation of DisplayLink Core Software doesn’t uninstall everything properly. (14617)
- UDP streaming using DisplayLink ethernet device is unreliable. (14678)
- Sometimes VGA monitor attached to already connected DisplayLink device is not recognized correctly. (14699)
- Sometimes screens remain blank after DisplayLink monitors are resumed from suspend mode. (14703, 14743, 13669)
- Some video players showing content only on half of the screen. (14790)
- On some systems with nVidia GPU Desktop Window Manager is crashing causing Windows to drop to Basic Mode. (14942)
- Some Metro apps on Windows8 show a blank blue screen. (14955)
- Sometimes Chrome web browser is responding very slowly and Flash plug-in crashes. (15014)
- Sometimes DisplayLink monitor shows white noise instead of content when changing mode to clone while playing video. (15030)
We welcome any experiences or questions below. If you have a Plugable product and have any problems at all, just email your Amazon order # to support@plugable.com and we’ll be happy to help. Thanks!