Note: It seems that the videocard I had is defective. I am going to edit this post according and write up a new review after using the adapter for a couple of days.
I absolutely love the concept of a external videocard. Never the need to open your computer again and install that dual head video card. Expand to three monitors on a laptop! The possbilities are endless, except if you have the DisplayLink USB Display Adapter! First of all, the branding for this product stinks!
NOTE: I am told by the development company that this is because they don’t actually brand their product. They sell the ship and other companies brand it. Branding should be better, but that is neither here or there…
I got the unit second hand off of my co-worker and he had lost the drivers for it. It took me several hours to find the drivers because the only thing the unit says is USB Display Adapter. It never says displaylink! I found the drivers by comparing the picture from stores selling the product. Eventually I was like, OMG THAT IS MINE! I download the drivers and everything works well. I am thrilled! Then things start to go south….
Day 0: Excitement!
I just installed the product and it works great! I have had no issues so far!
Day 1: Blue banding
I now see blue streak while doing dos scripting. I don’t mind..its just dos! The blue kinda makes it more fun!
Day 2: Blue takeover
All pictures are now tainted with blue on it. Meh, who cares! I mostly read text from the second monitor anyways. I can live with that.
Day 3: Random pixels
Hmmm it seems I am getting random graphics errors on the display now. That’s weird.
Day 4: Denial
I can make this work! I mean, the pixel errors are getting worse but its ok! I can do it!
Day 5: Project failed
At this point, the second monitor is completely unusable. I have tried to do everything I can think of to get this to work. I tried updating the drivers, uninstall and reinstall, unplug the device from the base stand, unplug the device from the tower. I even read the FAQ for the device and it doesn’t even mention ANY of the problems I am having…
As it turns out, after writing this post, displaylink had contacted me directly and informed me that my adapter is defective and they sent me a new one for free. I am sending back the old one today. The tech support for this company rocks and so far the replacement unit has been working great. After a couple of days, I’ll post up a new review.
June 10th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
You should give the DualHead2Go a try. It’s a different kind of external device that lets you add two extra monitors to your system; it uses your existing graphics card, so you won’t have any of those performance issues.
June 10th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Koopa, I’m sorry you had a bad experience. If you like, I can put you in touch with our Field Applications Engineering team who may be able to help you with your corruption issue.
The reason that “DisplayLink” isn’t branded on products containing our technology is that we only sell chips. We don’t actually make products ourselves. Because of this, branding is the responsibility of whichever manufacturer made the dongle.
Cheers,
Phil Wiffen
June 10th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Phil,If you can resolve my issue, that would be great! My email address is wvenezia@bitxbit.com. If you guys can get it working, I’ll gladly reverse my opinion of the product!
Koopa