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OS X Mavericks causing issues for DisplayLink USB displays

Screen Shot 2013-10-23 at 2.20.05 PM

As noted by ArsTechnica, following yesterday’s release of OS X Mavericks, some users of USB-powered monitors that use DisplayLink drivers have experienced a variety of problems after updating.

The problems have already been identified by DisplayLink in a knowledge base article published on its website:

The following issues have been found on OS X 10.9 and do not currently have a resolution

  • Some applications can show severe flickering on DisplayLink screens. Examples of applications that show this issue are Safari, QuickTime and the App store.
  • Some applications can show corruption and/or missing contents while updating windows contents. Examples are Maps, iBooks and the Dock.
  • Display arrangement is not kept when using 2 or more DisplayLink displays.
  • All screens black and unusable after unplugging a DisplayLink screen. This is caused by Apple’s Window server crashing. This can be recovered by replugging the DisplayLink device.
  • On the Retina Macbook Pro, changing the layout to mirror logs the user out. Again this is caused by Apple’s Window server crashing.

DisplayLink is working on an update for some of the performance issue with Mavericks, but the company explained that the majority of bugs will have to be fixed by Apple:

Unfortunately there appear to be regressions in these interfaces in OS X 10.9 which are exposed when using DisplayLink screens. DisplayLink does not have workarounds to fix these issues and requires Apple to fix these problems in future 10.9 OS X updates.

DisplayLink has raised these bugs to Apple, but if you are a developer and affected by these problems, please also raise these bugs to Apple to help show fixes are required and it is affecting end users using DisplayLink products.

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Comments

  1. I hope Apple do something about this, it’s so horribly sluggish on my Mac, that I’m having to wait to use my DisplayLink display.

  2. Jurgis Ŝalna - 10 years ago

    I was having random log-outs ever since updating to GM.
    I think I am still in the Amazon’s recovery window. Does anyone has a good alternative?

    • Steve Ven - 10 years ago

      Mine logs me out too. I’ve noticed my pinwheel shows more even with 8g of ram. Also, my webcam for Skype froze. Also, my charge light chord turns off and on. My mbp is a late 2012.

    • justinrhopper - 10 years ago

      this happens to me as well…even with the latest drivers (2.2?)

    • Bang Kalang - 9 years ago

      I also experiencing random logouts on OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 DisplayLink driver 2.2 and 2.3 Beta.

  3. GeekSays - 10 years ago

    Interestingly, working fine for me. I heard several users claiming these issues, some has even posted about the data loss and facing difficulties in updating their Mac OS machines. Majority of those users are one of those who have been running an OS X Mavericks GM.

  4. nelmat - 10 years ago

    Any reason why this company weren’t testing their hardware while the software was in beta? These companies are so lazy. At the least they could have warned their mac user base…

    • David Park - 10 years ago

      The company did quite extensive testing and had a V2.1 beta out on 8th September. One of their big hold-ups was waiting for apple to sign their kernel extension.

      I am finding the current experience to be similar to 10.8, however, the mouse is noticeably more sluggish and the screen tearing is a little worse. The flickering in Safari is slightly worse.

      I use that display primarily for static information, so that isn’t a huge issue for me.

      • Alex Files - 10 years ago

        I’m not buying it, Every update they pull out the same crummy excuse, it’s not our problem it’s apples.
        FYI beta V2.1 is Still the Current version and when I plug in my screen it does not even show up and the driver causes loads of disk permission issues.

        As for the hold-up signing the kernel driver, the signature on the OSX 10.7 and 10.6 version of the display link driver Expired over a year ago.
        So now the only operating system they support is 10.8.

        They are a very Lazy company, it seems OSX is just an after though to them.

    • Didac Gil - 10 years ago

      I have this hardware for more than a year now. It would be quite complicated to test your hardware with an OS that hasn’t been launched yet. They try to fix the issues as fast as possible, but there are some issues that can’t be fixed if Apple did not implement their part correctly.
      A software developer talking not associated with DisplayLink, but only using their products.

  5. Scott Whitlow - 10 years ago

    I am looking for an alternative to DisplayLink at this point. Does anyone have any luck with using other USB display link adapters? Specifically USB 3.0 to DVI adapters? I am frustrated at this point with DisplayLink and want to see what else is out there. Thanks!

  6. Steve G - 10 years ago

    It’s not just display link with mavericks issues, I’ve got a matrox triplehead2go that refuses to work in the new OSX as well

  7. Ted Irving - 10 years ago

    issues with SIIG eSATA PCIe cards as well. Drivers not compatible. But system speed is great!

  8. Michael Sverdlik - 10 years ago

    I wonder if anyone tried replacing their dongle with AirPlay? From what I understand, AirPlay extended screen is now a possibility on Mavericks.
    Would really love to know how laggy it is.

    • jameskatt - 10 years ago

      I love this idea. I’ll buy an AppleTV to do this. This would eliminate the DisplayLink Adapter and free up a USB port.

  9. fabioruini - 10 years ago

    I haven’t yet upgraded my Mac Mini to Mavericks specifically because of this issue (glad I checked it out before upgrading). I hope in a quick intervention by Apple, but I’m quite skeptical about it… :-/

  10. Ryan Adserias - 10 years ago

    I’m using the Kensington sd3500v which was working wonderfully with 10.8.5. Now, my DVI and HDMI-to-DVI-connected displays are very sluggish, and I’ve been experiencing significant typing and mouse delays, to the point where it is almost as bad as it was when I had a second display connected via a USB 2.0-to-VGA. Just two weeks ago, I was talking to a Genius Bar Genius about my set up: the aforementioned Kensington dock with two DisplayLink monitors, plus a third display connected via Thunderbolt-to-Mini DisplayPort adapter, and the built-in display, all on a 1.8 i5 2012 MBA, and how I only very very rarely experienced lags. I guess I spoke too soon.

  11. After installing Mavericks I had a flickering USB/HDMI screen and a mouse that would sometimes not scroll.

    The fix: I took the two hours it takes to reinstall Mavericks – boot-up holding down the Command-R key combination.

  12. Kevin DeWitt - 10 years ago

    i installed driver from Displaylink website. mine is now up and running. http://www.displaylink.com/support/mac_downloads.php

  13. I installed the latest driver for my Kensington sd3500v on my 2012 Macbook Pro i7 with Mavericks and while it fixed the delay, only one of my external monitors will work and not the 2 I had working with Mountain Lion. (All in all with the dock, I had my laptop screen and 2 23″ monitors running at the same time under Mountain Lion.)

    • Kevin Traas - 10 years ago

      Same here. New driver on 10.9 only enables one of my displays. Mavericks “sees” the second USB display, my display LED turns “blue” indicating it’s connected, but… no image. Just a black screen.

      Anyone have any ideas?

      • Any updates on this?

        I have seven monitors hooked up via USB and all worked fine before. Currently five our operational with the remaining two are black screen with a blue LED screen meaning they are recognized.

        This is frustrating me to no end !

  14. Christian Jan Kortenhorst - 10 years ago

    Anyone find any alternative?

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.