StarTech USB to VGA External Video Card Multi Monitor Adapter - 1920x1200 - USB to VGA External Graphics Card

StarTech USB to VGA External Video Card Multi Monitor Adapter - 1920x1200 - USB to VGA External Graphics Card..

Buy StarTech USB to VGA External Video Card Multi Monitor Adapter - 1920x1200 - USB to VGA External Graphics Card By StarTech

Most helpful customer reviews

57 of 58 people found the following review helpful.
Love it, after fixing sleep issue
By M
StarTech... if you're reading this, try to fix this, please! I even did analysis and found a workaround for you. The least you can do is take my assessment into account and resolve the issue.

Minus 1 star for the fact DisplayLink/StarTech cannot introduce drivers/software to resolve the adapter sleep issue. If I had not figured a solution out on my own, this product would have received only 2-stars.

This device is perfect, after I created a batch script to fix the issue where the two external monitors would stay asleep after the computer has been awaken. Will explain how to create your own after the "Cons" section below.

Some people have mentioned this occurs to them once in a while. For me, the issue occurs most of the time after the computer wakes from sleep mode.

Pros:
1) When functional, delivers perfect digital video/audio (audio on HDMI port only) to two external 1920x1080 monitors over a USB 2.0 connection. The device is connected to a hub, which also connects the keyboard and mouse.
2) Can display dvd quality to the two external monitors simultaneously, without too much cpu usage.
3) I can't speak for gaming, but my primary purpose is to use my laptop as a development machine. For development and other office functions, the adapter is more than adequate.
4) Works with Mac Mini running Lion OS as well. No wake-on-sleep issues, like I encountered on Windows 7 and 8 computers.
5) Self powered. No additional power required.
6) Customer service. They weren't able to figure out the issue, but at least they tried.

Cons:
1) The two external monitors connected to the adapter typically do not function after the laptop (Windows 8) resumes from sleep mode. I would have to unplug and reattach the USB cable to re-enable the adapter. This is not a good solution, as I'm trying to minimize the wear to the USB port and it's a pain to physically unplug/reattach the USB cable.

Fix:
I contacted StarTech regarding my issue. They told me that I should disable "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" for the USB Hubs listed within the Device Manager section. Unfortunately, they ignored the fact I told them the issue occurs, REGARDLESS of whether I connect the adapter directly to the laptop OR via a USB hub. But, as I said before, they tried... btw... I did try their recommendation, even though I knew it would not work. It didn't work...

Then, I performed some analysis of the processes running on my computer and discovered there is a Windows service that controls functionality and communication between the computer and the adapter... the DisplayLinkService.

Through the Windows Services management console, I was able to re-enable the two external monitors by restarting the DisplayLinkService.

Therefore, I created a batch file (FixDisplay.bat) and added the following three lines to the batch file and saved it to my desktop for easy access:

sc stop DisplayLinkService
sleep 2
sc start DisplayLinkService

Let me explain each command, so you're aware of what's going on and to assure you this is not a malware script. First line stops the DisplayLinkService. Second line pauses the batch request to allow the stop batch request to complete. The final command line starts the DisplayLinkService.

Now, whenever the external monitors do not wake up after the computer wakes from sleep mode, I simply double-click the FixDisplay.bat file that I saved to my desktop. Just a note... depending on your UAC setting, you might have to enable the batch file to run under an elevated account (i.e. Administrator), as the commands in the batch file start/stop an installed Windows service.

The best solution would be if the drivers actually worked flawlessly to wake up the adapter properly. But short of DisplayLink and/or StarTech fixing this issue, my ad-hoc solution works. The solution definitely beats unplugging/reattaching the USB cable that is inaccessible.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful.
Works great, even on my Mac
By Kevin Mentch
Got this as a gift after looking all over for something that would work on a Mac, however when I first tried to set it up it did not work at all. Seems as though it is not Mac compatible, but after some tinkering I was able to get it to work on my Macbook Air running OS X 10.8.4. The key is the correct driver, do not install or use the one that comes with the adapter. I figured out who actually makes this thing and went to them and they have the correct driver. It is made by a company called Magic Control Technology Corp, and you can find the drivers needed here: [...] and the direct link to the zip download here: [...]

I hope this helps everyone with getting this working on their Mac as it took me about a 4 or so hours to figure all this out.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful.
Works but the software created problems.
By Jimmi
The device works great and my 2560x1600 monitor looks awesome.

Con: The software created some problems. As soon as I installed it, shockwave started crashing in google chrome. I have to reboot a few times a day due to this problem. It is starting to get very annoying.

Update #1: I spent some time with tech support and they said that the driver will cause conflicts with programs that use hardware acceleration. I turned off hardware acceleration in chrome and everything seems to be fixed. I changed my review from 3 stars to 4 stars. They should warn you about this before installing the software.

Update #2: Down to 2 stars. Disabling hardware acceleration helped a bit but there are still a lot of problems with the firmware. Here are some of the issues:

- If your software program won't let you disable hardware acceleration, you are screwed. For example, Evernote app was unusable.

- Before this software, my Samsung Series 9 fan would never kick on, after installing the software, it is almost always on.

- I have the top of the line Series 9 and still get some jittering in the video.

- I get random screen flashes every 20 minutes or so.

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