Side by Side Comparison of: Etekcity vs Plugable

it crashes once in a while Not totally sure why but its a work horse as well.. This was a life saver... or a saver really I am able to hook up laptop to a 32 inch . tv /aka now a large monitor and second monitor and all my components and then some/. But the real plus for buying this was. I upgraded my cable speed . my Ethernet card could only go to 100 ! this one is actually allowing me to get a bit more then I am even paying for.. When you upgrade cable they dont warn you about the Ethernet card in your PC. that you would need a upgrade or add something ON ,, I went through numerous phone calls and techs coming to my house/ Only to find out from a friend in passing CHECK the net card speed... Once I knew that I thought ok a hub was the way to go.. THIS HUB fit the bill it works wonderful and Im so happy I have this. I would honestly say BUY one if your having any of the issues i did. The only con I would say is its a octopus on my desk but what can you expect from so many wires I have it filled to the max. I would have liked it on some kinda stand. virital would have been nice. But it works !!

Solid Dock! I am still a little cautious for longevity and I will update my post after 6 months. So far I have no complaints, the only thing I had an issue with (that is really not an issue), I had to go to the DisplayLink website like the paper slip in the packaging stated to download the driver for the extra monitors to work but like I said, not really an issue and I didnt see a need to take a star away. Everything else works like stated in the description. The perfect solution for me. (Laptop Used for Doc is a ASUS N550JA and Dell Latitude E6520)

Bought a laptop and wanted to have more then one screen and happen to come across this item. I read what little information that was available, and did some investigations, and decided to give it a go which worked out well. I was skeptical about how well the device would power two DVI screens, including the USB ports through one USB feed cable. However, after installing the software I was pleased and it works seamlessly. If I was going to say anything negative it would have to be the software install could be a little better in that it does not have a scale indicating process of installing. But, its nothing major and its not a reason to not buy it. I don't know this for sure, but, if your a big gamer IT MIGHT be an issue feeding that much graphics. I am doing spread sheets and word documents and other thing and works great. Final note: With this product I am feeding two large screens and using the laptop screen as well. Which means I am viewing three screen with device. Really cool.

Exceptional quality control. Factory packaged with care. Excellent product competitively priced.NOTE: Most if not all similar Docking stations run on the same DisplayLink software. It is advisable to download the most current version from the DisplayLink website.One criticism I have is the difficulty I encountered using my HDTV as monitor. The culprit is probably a common annoyance with HDTVs, called "overscan", and may NOT have to do with the particular Docking station. Actually, I have had the same problem with two different makes of Docking stations.DisplayLink does offer the ability to "Fit to TV" which can compensate for overscan significantly but not totally, however, the process is tedious and extremely trying. I would expect DisplayLink to improve in this area and to be of more detailed help in their instructions brochure.The degree of difficulty may vary from TV make to TV make. Be prepared for a lot of trial and error.I would not be holding this or any similar hardware manufacturer responsible for TV overscan problems.Have not had any experience using the docking station with a second computer monitor, however, I suspect no overscan problems exist with desktop monitors.I was told Over-scan problems may be mitigated by adjusting the HDTV monitor settings. Have not tried it to provide with experience.I was also told that no over-scan problems exist and results are straight forward when used in conjunction with two computer monitors.

I shopped around before buying this, as I needed it to work with one of my staff's new MacBook Air. Set-up was a snap and download and installation of the software for the Apple was easy. No stand came with it as indicated in packaging, but we're fine with that. I highly recommend this unit!

I have been looking for docking station that would work with both my personal HP Ultrabook Spectre XT and work HP 9470 Ultrabook. The dual monitor output was a must for me and the Etekcity Ultimate USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Universal dual video output seemed to fit the bill. At first, I was wary of the price. Most of the options I had been considering were at least 2x the price, so I didn't want to be a victim of you get what you pay for. After a little review of the company, I decided to take a chance. No regrets - worked out of the box without issue. 3 monitors (2 - 23" HP IPS LED Backlit Monitors & the ultrabook) displayed after install with USB connected speakers, DVD-ROM, external mouse/keyboard, and external HDD - with ports to spare. All devices worked as needed.Bottom line: It does what it advertises at a much better price point than similar devices with the same features. It is compact in size and looks great on the desk. I am happy with the purchase and definitely recommend it. As usual, Amazon delivered quickly and ahead of schedule.

I purchased this Plugable Docking station in 2016 because I wanted to transfer everything from my Desktop onto my Laptop, plus, I wanted to use not only my Laptop Monitor, but I also wanted to use both of my SAMSUNG Monitors I had with my Desktop, so, I did a Google search and found this Plugable UD-3900. I watched the on-line video showing how it works and easy setup and so I purchased it. It was everything the company promised it would be/do. I use my Laptop with 3 monitors and also have my Internet, Printer, and a couple of others USB items plugged into it and have never had a problem with the operation of it. HOWEVER, this morning (09/21/2017) after I had checked for any new Windows Updates, and installed them, I noticed my Plugable wasn't working right. I tried everything I could to fix it and then I found that a DisplayLink file that was part of the "Insiders Preview Build of Windows 10" that I had just download, had corrupted it, it was not the Plugable. I went to their website and sent an email to their Support people and within an hour I received a reply and they requested additional information and had me to download and run a small program to localize the possible problem. I then sent the results of the Report their file had created to Support via email and in a short time I received an email from Support (Man named Bob) with a list of procedures for me to do and I did, I followed each step in the manner he requested and within a few minutes my Plugable was back on line. That's the kind of Support I like. They took care of me with no problems and I am grateful and am looking forward to checking out some of their other products and if I can use them I will deferentially buy them.

The first one of these I purchased failed within the first month. I began to have intermittent ethernet connectivity problems. Plugable asked me to download a bit of software to log the problems, but then the unit simply failed to turn on so I never got to log anything. Needless to say I was a bit frustrated. I wonder if the Amazon gorillas at the warehouse drop-kicked the unit across the floor before shipping it out to me. However, Plugable Tech Support responded with amazing speed. Within one day they had shipped a new unit out to me via Priority Mail, as well as providing me with a pre-paid shipping label to ship the old one back. The new one is up and running with no problems. I own my own business and I use this unit as my docking station for my company laptop, so that I can bring the laptop home and work on things in the evening. The Plugable is connected to a CAT5 ethernet cable. I have a dual-monitor setup running both monitors at 1080p (1920x1080). I have USB connections for keyboard, mouse, a web cam, and a Western Digital MyBook external storage drive. I have experienced no problems with monitor response, including watching You Tube videos. I have no problems with ethernet connection speed (other than the failed first unit) and no problems with mouse or keyboard response, etc. It works very well, and I am going to consider the first unit as a fluke. Stuff happens,and they stepped right up to it. I highly recommend this product.

If I could give Plugable more stars I definitely would. The docking station is awesome. The size is perfect as it does not take up any valuable space on my computer table. I was having trouble getting my new monitor to connect with the docking station. I cannot express how extremely helpful they were in getting me up and running. I was sure if the problem was the docking station or monitor...it was neither and turned out to be "user" error. They patiently worked with me until they got me up and running. I am very pleased with the awesome service I got. Many times you purchase something electronic/computer related and you're on your own to figure it out or even worse connected to who knows where while you are on hold forever. I got a very prompt reply to my email requesting help. The problem was one of the settings needed to be changed on the monitor. It had nothing to do with their product, but they struck with me until it was resolved. I highly recommend this product and company to anyone wishing to purchase a docking station!!!!!!!

I purchased this docking station for a new office; I use a Surface Pro 3 for most of my mobile computing but in a new workspace I wanted the luxury of a larger screen as well as the ability to use a full-size keyboard and trackball. At first I planned to install a full-size all-in-one desktop PC, but then realized I could purchase this Plugable dock, a monitor, keyboard and trackball for much less. In short: The Plugable is fantastic. I bring my Surface Pro 3 to the office, plug in the USB cable running to the Plugable, and I'm ready to work in about 10 seconds flat. Honestly, the Plugable probably has a few features that I'm not using - I admit that I've never read the instructions beyond how to install the Plugable's driver. It has made my Surface Pro 3 much more enjoyable to use, to the point that I forget that I'm theoretically using a tablet to do all of my work. Get the Plugable - you won't be disappointed.

Works great! I use this with my Microsoft Surface Pro 3 as a "home base." All the reviews pointed me in this direction rather than the official Microsoft Surface dock, and I'm glad I went this way. Plugged into this docking station I have two external widescreen monitors (one running HDMI to HDMI, the other DVI to DVI, both at 1920x1080 - no discernible difference between the two monitors), wired ethernet, another USB 2.0 4-port hub to connect non-power-sucking peripherals (keyboard, mouse, card reader), audio out, and a USB 3.0 card reader. A single USB 3.0 plug runs to my Surface to lasso all of this together. When I want to leave the house with my tablet, I unplug it and run. When I come back and want to work at my desktablet "workstation," I plug it back in and everything magically works. Can't imagine living a mobile lifestyle without this.

I recently bought a Surface Pro 2 (running Windows 8.1) with the hopes of using it as my daily driver. The Surface's lack of ports is a real problem when used as a desktop machine especially to a guy like me that measures his manliness by the number of monitors he's using. There is the official Surface Deck, which is a sexy piece of machinery, don't get me wrong, but it's $200, not available right now, and itself has frustrating ports. For instance, while you can connect two monitors to the Surface dock, you have to do it by daisy chaining monitors off of the DisplayPort. Who has time for all that? And my existing monitors don't have DisplayPort connections anyway. What's a fella to do?And in walks the Plugable UD-3900.While the UD-3900 wasn't built specifically for the Surface Pro 2, it works beautifully. Even with the incredibly snappy Amazon Prime shipping Plugable sent me an email before I got the unit with a link to the latest drivers and contact information in case I had problems. Being impatient like I am, I installed the drivers right away and anxiously awaited the package.When the UD-3900 showed up it took no time to hook it up and start using it. Everything just worked. Mostly. But I'll get to that later. I've used USB monitors in the past, and they've always disappointed me. They were always a little laggy and sluggish. I was worried the UD-3900 would suffer the same disappointment. It definitely did not. I was able to drive both of my 23" monitors with ease. The additional USB ports were very handy and the added network speed of the UD-3900's Gb Ethernet jack was extra icing on the cake. I can't explain how easy it was to get everything working flawlessly. It just worked. With one exception...The UD-3900 was sending all its audio through the crappy, tinny little speakers on the monitor I had hooked up via HDMI. That wasn't quite the experience I had in mind. Even when I connected my regular speakers to the headphone jack on the UD-3900 the sound stayed on my monitor. I replied to the email Plugable initially sent me and told them my tale of woe. They replied in less than an hour, on a Saturday afternoon! They gave me a couple of things to try. When those things didn't pan out they immediately sent me out a replacement unit. I got the replacement unit today and it works like a champ.A few of my friends are picking up Surface Pro 2s, and I'm recommending the UD-3900 to all of them.tk

Some headaches with the DisplayLink USB Gigabit Ethernet driver on Windows 10 (x64), but the hardware is solid and dual-screen support works well. This is a great add-on if you have an Ultrabook with limited room for ports, however it took many reboots to get it all working. Not sure if this is due to my flaky Asus Zenbook USB3 drivers, Windows 10 (x64) or the hardware drivers themselves.

Great device. The Display Link driver for Mac still has some issues. Sometimes it will kick me out while working and just go back to the Mac login screen. This has only happened a few times but apparently there is still a bug there. A very small amount of lag is there when using the DVI port. When my screensaver kicks in the DVI display goes blank when plugged into this dock. All of this is related to the DisplayLink driver.The gigabit speed is great. The USB 3 hub works great. Charging my phone from the power port is pretty slow but works fine if I have time to let it charge.

I use this with my Lenovo Yoga Pro 2. I plugged in a 2nd monitor, a wireless mouse, ethernet cable and charging cable for my cellphone.I would call this mostly plug n play. I had to restart my laptop several times before the correct video drivers were updated. Everything else worked right out of the box. It even came with a VGA converter for the second monitor. You can download drivers directly from the web if you don't have a cd player like my computer at www.displaylink.com/support/downloads.phpMy only complaint- the USB3 up cable that came with the package was way too short and I had to purchase one that was longer. Otherwise this would have been a five star rating.

Great product for Mac users with one external display! They are currently trying to get some bugs out for multiple display users, however, I am only using one so they keep their star for the issue. Its a plug and play deal for us mac users. You just have to download a 15mb software.... its more like a driver though, you never see it and never have to open anything.-1 because the product only supports two usb3.0 ports, of all of the ports on the back only ONE supports the charging feature, and it does not come with a vertical stand. Do note that it comes with a great "sticky pad" under the unit to keep it from moving. All in all, it is a great product.To the company: It would be great to switch another one of the usb 2.0 jacks to a 3.0 jack. We really only need two 2.0 jacks.

I recently migrated from a gigantic desktop replacement mobile workstation to a much more compact (but still potent) mobile workstation. The larger predecessor models all were made to mate with a true docking station--i.e., a gigantic proprietary port on the bottom into which the docking station would snap when the computer was set into it. Ultra-thin models don't have this port, so this type of docking station is the next best alternative. It requires making two connections instead of one: both the USB 3 cable and the power cable must be connected manually to the computer, but then everything else can stay plugged into the docking station: Ethernet cable, USB devices, dual monitors, speakers, etc.My only problem, which is not necessarily the fault of this device, is that I initially could not get my dual external monitors to work with it. The docking station has one HDMI and one DVI port, and I initially ordered an HDMI to DisplayPort and a DVI to DisplayPort cable, but plugging into the DisplayPorts on my monitors did not work. When I ordered a new pair of cables that both plugged into the DVI ports on the monitors, all worked well. Upon further research, I'm guessing that is because DisplayPort is actually a somewhat different signal, not just a different plug form factor. By contrast, DVI and HDMI use exactly the same video signal (even though HDMI adds audio carrier capability), so when eliminating a major signal conversion, everything worked fine.

I have a 2013 Macbook Air and once you download the software you can output the screen VIA USB to this hub. The output is not perfect as you can get some visual breaking / distortion in the picture. They blame Apple as the limitation they can't fine tune it further. I'm hoping the next OSX release will allow them to update this potentially great Mac product. For my usage as a photo editor and spreadsheet pusher, it works great. I can see this being a nuisance for those who wanted to play game and for that I would recommend just using the Thunderbolt port.

I've been using this for almost a year - the hub still works as well as it did when I first got it. The monitor displays were easy to set up and it does what I needed - lets me use my "desktop" setup off my laptop when I'm at my desk.My only complaint may be this hub, or it may actually just be USB 3.0 in general, I'm not sure. But I was noticing significant lagging/dropping off issues with my wireless keyboard and mouse (dongles were both plugged into the hub). I replaced it with a wired keyboard and voila! it works great (do you have any idea how hard it is to find a decent wired keyboard anymore?!). I currently have the wireless mouse dongle plugged directly into my laptop. Its not the ideal solution because when I take my laptop to other locations, I have a different wireless mouse I keep in my bag (which means I have to keep up with both dongles).Overall, this hub is a good solution...I'm just hoping they keep making improvements ;-)

This works extremely well with my Samsung laptop. I'm surprised at the complete lack of delay running so many items through a single USB 3 port. I have one HD monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, and ethernet plugged in and everything works perfectly. I'm particularly pleased with the functionality of using the laptop's monitor as a dual monitor. When I don't need dual monitors, I can close the laptop and the monitor plugged into the docking station works as a single display. Very nice.My one complaint is that the only audio output on the docking station is the headphone output on the front of the device. Every other cable is able to plug into the back; the speaker cable plugged into the front makes the whole thing lopsided on my desk. I would prefer an actual line-out for speakers on the back of the device.

Minor issues, but this beats what I've used in the past. The only technical issue I've had is my USB phone doesn't boot up when the PC is powered on - I need to reseat the USB to get its attention (all USB ports act the same). Other than that the power supply is large and takes up at least 2 spaces on the power strip......and I do wish this device had it's own power supply connection for my laptop like other docking stations, though using the laptop supply isn't a huge hassle. I wasn't sure I liked the stand-up form factor but this hides neatly behind one of my monitors.I had to load new USB drivers for 2 of the three PCs I use with this. This wasn't overly complicated and actually turned out to be a good thing - fixed a glitch I had with Outlook :) Another plus is that I haven't seen the screen glitches I get with my docking station at work. Pretty happy overall.

I purchased the UD-3000 months ago. It had all the connections that I would need to dock my laptop, and make connecting all my devices easy. However, I did experience a problem when I would shut the computer down; leave the docking station plugged in; and restart the computer. For some reason the connected docking station would cause my screen to be blacked out. I couldn't see the password screen; nor could I enter the password. This is on Windows 7 Professional- 64bit. I tried unplugging the docking station, but the black screen remained. I would have to force a shut down, unplug the docking station, and restart without the docking station plugged in. After the computer is up and running could I plug in the docking station and have everything function properly. I called the company to report this issue. The rep. wasn't aware of such an issue and replaced it free of charge. The new one did the same thing, so I called again. The rep. couldn't understand how this was happening and refunded me; allowing me to keep the product! Outstanding customer service!! After several months of daily use I have to say that it's one of the best docking stations I've ever owned, and I've had several. It never dropped connections and it isn't slow in response. I have a portable USB hard drive 3.0 connected and the transfer rate is really good. Internet speed dragged alittle, but then switched my modem to higher download and it now transfers about the same rate as if the modem was plugged in directly to the laptop.Last week, I happen to go to their website and notice they had available a new driver. I installed it and now the issue with the black screen at startup is gone. I don't know how long the driver had been available, but this has made things so much easier. Thanks Plugable! Would give them 4 1/2 stars, but Amazon doesn't allow half stars. I have tried to contact Plugable (phone message say to contact them via email) to offer payment for a product that now works as intended, but haven't heard back from them.

This is going to be a two-part review. A review of the first unit I received and another for the replacement.Unit the first:It arrived on time in a box that wasn't shrink-wrapped. I didn't think anything of that at the time but it becomes more important later.After opening the box I noticed that the cables weren't in bags or twist tied. The main unit also had a shred of plastic along the top that looked like the remains of protective wrap. It was also covered in smudges.This looked like a used unit.I hooked everything up and things appeared to be working well until I checked the network connection.It was only running at 100Mbps. Not 1Gbps.I contacted Plugable support and they verified that the NIC connection should be 1G and thought it odd that the unit appeared used, following up with a suggestion that I consider exchanging it for another unit. Fortunately exchanges with Amazon are easy so I decided to go that route.Later in the day I decided to try out the audio and found that wasn't working and following up by looking through the Plugable support pages indicated that audio doesn't work with Win10 and that it's a USB driver bug that Microsoft needs to fix. Wonderful. I didn't purchase the unit for the audio support but not being able to use something that's a part of a purchase, grates.So I spent a few days using the defective, used unit while waiting for a replacement.Unit the second:Hey! This box is shrink-wrapped. Good. That means that the unit is going to be new or someone's playing the Best Buy game and re-shrink-wrapping used items.Opening the box showed a unit covered in protective plastic, cables twist-tied and adapters in little bags. Everything looks fresh from manufacturing.Got everything swapped out and watched as Windows went through its "new device" convulsions and what do you know, the NIC is showing 1G. That's a great beginning.Even better is the audio works! Sounds pretty good too. Freaked me out a little when I played the test sound as nowhere in the manual or on the box does it mention that this thing has speakers.So far so good.-5 stars to Amazon for sending me a used unit+5 stars to Plugable for their fast support+4 stars for the product. I'll bump it up to 5 if I fall in love with it after using it for a while.

Well, with it's USB 3.0 connectivity, and all the touting about the relatively decent graphics performance, I was very much looking forward to this for use on my ASUS Zenbook UX31A with a 3rd generation Intel I5 processor (which as I said, has USB 3.0 Super speed ports). This was connected to a 24" Samsung display at 1080p resolution.The good:- Well made and balanced - stays upright pretty easily- I do appreciate how Plugable uses the Displaylink drivers directly - always gives you the latest version of it- Drivers installed flawlessly and without a rebootThe not so good:- There is still noticeable lag in the mouse and keyboard actions- Dragging things like Windows around your desktop also cause lag, along with tearing of the image. A big bump in CPU use is also noted when this happens- Youtube drops many, many frames in 720p, and there is compression appliedFor regular Excel, and Word, this may prove ideal, but I think I will return the device, and make do with a regular USB 3.0 dock with a USB sound card, and Ethernet adapter, with the penalty of having to plug one additional thing in every time (the HDMI port on my laptop). It's just the laws of computing (cramming 1080p video bandwidth down a USB pipe) that is the limitation.UPDATE 10/3/2012I received an email from Plugable after they had read my review and suggested one key change: That I enable Aero desktop in Windows. Apparently non-Aero Windows (such as the Windows Classic theme I was using) are not accelerated by the GPU and instead are rendered by the CPU. After doing this, the lag and compression artifacts decreased significantly - almost to imperceptible levels, and large spikes in CPU were no longer present. I was also able to watch Youtube videos without dropped frames in HD. I am awarding two additional stars, one that represents the performance of the product, and the other for the excellent, and unprompted customer service that Plugable provides. I also failed to mention that I had a 3TB USB 3.0 hard drive plugged in to the device as well, with no noticeable issues or performance hit.

It works ok. There are weird issues when connecting a screen to this while using a mac.

I have two of these docking stations and they work well for the USB connections and USB display drivers, but I keep getting intermittent issues with the network connections. It will just drop unexpectedly. Sometimes a reboot will allow it to work again, but sometimes it doesn't. I am going back to just using my laptop's network port but I will keep using the LapDock as it does make it easier to connect my two external monitors, Microsoft Natural Keyboard, and Logitech Trackball.

The main problem with this docking station is that after any power interruption, it goes out and takes an extraordinary amount of time to reset, even though it's plugged into a UPS.Today, at about 4 pm, our power 'blipped' (it isn't uncommon here - it just went out for a second and came back on). An hour and 45 minutes later, the Etekcity still has no blue light. Usually it comes back - after a while.Because of this, I can't trust it. Otherwise, it's fine,

works well, but the layout is cumbersome. other units stand on their own and thus hide all the wires better.

I like it but I have a touch screen laptop and I haven't figured out how to unplug it without deactivating my touch screen. Sometimes my laptop touch screen works when I unplug the dock and sometimes it doesn't. I can't figure it out.

I wanted to love this dock. It is a great size, weight and had all the ports I needed. Initial setup was straightforward and I was off and running in a matter of minutes with my Surface Pro 2.That was when the problems started. Often when I was trying to multitask with a 2 monitor setup, it would hang for about 10 seconds and then respond. If I undocked, I could use my laptop without issue.I tried various things. If I unplugged the Ethernet, it would become much more stable. If I used only one monitor, it would be more stable. The kicker was when I tried to plug in an external mSATA SSD USB drive (low power draw, non spinning disk). This brought the system to its knees.I returned and purchased a competitive product that hasn't had any of these issues.My setup: Surface Pro 2. USB 3.0 hub has 2x24 inch monitors plugged in, audio cable, usb dongle for keyboard/mouse and ethernet. With this setup, I couldn't achieve stability.

I am using this docking station with my Acer laptop which has Win 10 Pro OS. It is relatively easy to install. You must install the driver first, reboot and connect the docking station. However, my laptop developed an issue which is when the laptop is not connected to the docking station, the laptop screen becomes unstable and it flicker. I am trying to solve this issue with “Plugable” support. They have been very responsive, but it is not been resolved. I am going to restore the OS, and start over the process. If it does not work, I am going to return the product. However, when the laptop is connected to the docking station, everything works very well.

Great replicator/expander and display adapter. To be over USB 2.0 on a very old laptop, it does a great job even at 1920x1080. I'm not gaming or doing anything with animation, and while there can be a slight, almost imperceptible, latency when moving things about, it does extremely well given the circumstances. Very pleased.Update: So a quick update. A lot of noise gets generated on the speaker jack, and I know it's the Plugable because the sound is muted, and it stops when I unplug the jack. Also, there are consistent flickering issues at the top of the screen, and it occasionally locks up requiring it to be completely power cycled. Gets the job done, but for the issues, it's a bit overpriced.

I am using this unit with a Dell XP13, Windows 10.I finally have it working, but don't assume it is plug-n-play. The driver that Windows 10 automatically downloads is buggy. First, I got no Ethernet, Then, there was no display (I have a VGA 1920x1200). If you have problems like this, your first stop should be http://www.displaylink.com/downloads/windows (the driver on the manufacturer's http://plugable.com/drivers/displaylink did not work for me). However, if you already have a driver installed, first download and run "DisplayLink Install Cleaner" which is here: http://www.displaylink.com/downloads/file?d=64 (it takes a minute to run, so be patient).At some point, Windows 10 did an update, and then my problems returned. I tried reinstalling the latest driver, but it would not install saying that the installed driver was already latest. This is where the Cleaner came to the rescue. The next reinstall went fine and the unit started working again. I suspect this procedure will need to be repeated when Windows 10 upgrades.Note, I did not test the HDMI port nor the audio. The USB ports worked even with the older drivers.In conclusion, if you are willing to mess with drivers, this unit works fine.

I struggled to know exactly how many stars to give this one. It works perfectly, about 85% of the time. I would give it five stars during those times. So, most of the time, everything is good, nothing is bad. I love the convenience of simply plugging one usb cable into my laptop, and then my "desktop" workstation is all set to go.But about 15% of the time, there is a problem with either the sound, or the display, or one of the other peripherals I have plugged in. The problems are most likely due to Windows updates, but when a company provides an interface like this, they really need to stay on top of things like that. One frustrating thing is that it isn't always the same issue, either. Sometimes, the sound goes out when the computer has been dormant for a while. Sometimes, the screen won't come on. Sometimes, the sound issue is fixed by making the plugable the default sound device. Sometimes, it is already is, and I have to restart the computer; but I have to make sure and unplug before I restart, because if I restart with it plugged in, that causes new problems.I'd love to give it five stars, but these consistently recurring issues are frustrating.

I have DELL XPS 13 9343 which comes with Intel HD 5500 and running Windows 10 Pro.After tried different approaches (including reset my laptop), here is how I make it work.1. DO NOT plug in USB cable to your laptop yet. Do the following first.2. Intel recently upgraded HD 5500 driver to 10.18.15.4279. You need to download it from Intel web site and upgrade display driver first. DO NOT upgrade it from Device Manager or DELL web site. Both provide outdated driver which could cause your laptop screen to go black and eventually blue screen.3. Download the DisplayLink driver from Plugable web site. The default driver from Microsoft simply doesn't work (dlkmd.sys problem). If you do step 2 right, the installer will proceed. Otherwise, it will request you to upgrade OEM driver first.4. Now, plug in USB, and it should work properly.I don't think this is an issue with Plugable. However, I wish they provide a warning or notice in the package to remind buyers how to avoid these Win10 issues. At one point, I totally lost control of my laptop because DisplayLink driver issue. I am glad it is working properly now.

I have nothing major to report, but there are just little annoyances that make the product not meet it's full potential.My laptop is an Asus G74SX with Windows 7 Ultimate. 8GB RAM and 2 500GB HDD.1. Installation was a bit of an issue. I followed the recommended method and downloaded the latest drivers from the various parties. My laptop reported using Fresco Logic USB3 so that is what I downloaded. Those drivers cause the system to BSOD. I had to do a system restore and start over. Next time I just updated the drivers from Windows Update and used the supplied Display Link driver off of the CD. That worked fine.2. When the system goes into sleep mode, I have to press the laptop keyboard to get it to wake up. I reported this to plugable and was given some instructions to change settings to no avail. Sometimes, when coming out of sleep, the monitor plugged into the hdmi port will not work until I reboot the system. I power everything down, including the ud-3900.3. When I reboot, I get a message that "this device can perform faster" like when you plug a usb2 device in a usb1 port. It then disappears so I think it may be when it is initializing the usb2 ports in the ud-3900.Good things: I have both usb3 ports in use with external usb3 drives. The sound works thru the UD-3900. The network adapter seems to work fine. Disconnecting the laptop is easier with just one (usb3 cable) connection.Before I found the ud-3900, I had connected everything thru the laptop's available ports and it worked fine, but this gives me the ability to add a second or third monitor and makes connecting and disconnecting much faster. Plus, having the sound come thru desktop speakers is much better.

Do not Buy this if you cannot afford to have your devices disconnect! I have purchased 3 of these and they are used in an application where continuous LAN connectivity is vital, where the machines need to stay in communication with our server while accessing a database. All 3 devices randomly disconnect several times per day causing the database connection to be severed and crashes the program. It is not the LAN port which is going out, but the device's USB connection to the laptops. USB is not set to disable or sleep on the machines, and our DELL USB 3.0 docking station does NOT do this using the same DisplayLink drivers.If you just need a casual device to dock at and do not mind 2-3 disconnects from all your devices per session, then this is a good value. It is really just a momentary blip and not too inconvenient, unless you then need to close down 15 FoxPro database error windows and restart your database program.

For a Mac – ONLY BUY AS A USB HUB. None of the display options were reliable. I have to connect both external monitors directly to my Mac. Very disappointed...

Latency problem with mouse and keyboard

Stay away from this dock - it has four USB 2 and none of them work (they are dead for me in Win8.1); it has two USB 3 but if you connect a portable hard drive the other one will start failing (I have a mouse/keyboard dongle on it and the keyboard stopped working). Both display and ethernet ports work fine, so I'm giving it two stars only. I do not recommend it - put a (very) little more money and buy a Pluggable.

I bought this to do dual displays for my Macbook Pro Retina running MAC OS X 10.10. Unfortunately the display link driver, which you have to install from their CD (I downloaded on the MBP) is in beta for Mac OS X 10.10. The displays do output, but there is a noticeable performance decrease from the standard mac display driver. So much so the windows are slow and choppy dragging from one screen to the next, using mission control, and the mouse scrolls are lagging behind. The screen would also flash white and black, and then finally while on a very important call, one of the displays stopped working, and I had to unplug the dock to work off the Mac. I emailed the company to find out when their production display link driver would be released two days ago, and am waiting for a response. They clearly note they cannot respond to all requests, which isn't a good sign in my customer service book. I'm testing the dock with my Chromebook and Windows 8 laptop, which could serve another use case purpose for dual displays.

I had to download latest driver and software and still did not work on all my three computers, windows 7 & 8. contacted the company and did not get any answer. I returned it.

Very disappointed. Was hoping this would replace my Dell Port Replicator but nope. First, the laptop has to be open to turn on the power where the replicator has a power button of its own. I could live with that but then I tried watching a video. I have a powerful video card in my Precision Workstation and the video window became unresponsive once it finally got going. It seemed fine for Microsoft Office products but not able to handle video. It also required the purchase of an obsolete cable to hook up my second monitor, which I thought was odd and looking back, my first clue that this isn't a first rate piece of technology. I'm just glad that Amazon stands behind their products and has an awesome return policy. Another lesson learned....

I tried to get it to work with a HP EliteBook laptop running Windows 7 64 bit. I was suffering from major lagging problems and could hardly move around. I worked with the Tech Support via email to try to resolve with latest software but it didn't help. The end for me was turning on the laptop, no docking station, monitor, or peripherals connected and not Ethernet and WiFi; laptop was suffering my major lagging could hardly move around but got Plugable drivers uninstalled and that solved the lagging. I wanted this product to work for me but it did not.Technical support worked with me (via email) very well to try to resolve issues and even wanted to send me a new replacement station. They didn't agree it was a software issue but with just turning on the laptop and it being un-usable I couldn't see trying another unit.

Very disappointed with the docking station. I expected to be able to connect 2 - 27 inch monitors to it. 1 via HDMI and 1 via vga. The vga one appears to work ok, but the HDMI one has been a disaster. I am running windows 10 and a surface pro 2 and using a USB 3.0 (the only usb port on the surface pro 2) and the HDMI display continually blinks and flashes and is essentially un-useable. I searched for help on their web-sites and they do suggest a work around of messing around with the registry settings which does work for a few minutes but before long the displays starts flashing/blinking/etc again. I ensured I had the lasted DisplayLink drivers as recommended and yet the problem persists. Obviously if one of these was not going to work I would prefer it to be the vga connection since that is lower res/quality, but failure of the HDMI connection seems like a big deal. This product seems overpriced for what it claims that it does, but fails to deliver on.

I recently bought this laptop docking station to set up a dual monitor workspace in my basement. The ability for it to split the signal and output to two monitors has been great. It has been almost exactly what I was looking for.The issue I have with it, I would have imagined would be the easier part of the engineering... the other USB ports barely work. I plugged my wireless keyboard and mouse into the docking station (currently the only thing I have plugged into any of the USB ports) and it seems to lag severely and sometimes not work at all. When I unplug the receiver and plug it into the laptop itself it works great, but that defies the point because I swap the workstation out between four different laptops.For $95 to not have a single USB port that can work continuously for 10's of mins... is inexcusable. I went with this more expensive option hoping to avoid issues like this. This product does little more than an HDMI splitter would do, for three times the cost.

My office purchased three of these docking stations in 2014. Because I wanted my home office to be set up the same way, I later purchased my own.During 2016, all three of my work's Plugables failed. Now, after two years of solid performance, mine has failed as well. I have been troubleshooting for hours on my two laptops, a Windows 7 Lenovo and a Windows 10 Asus. I have tried uninstalling DisplayLink and failed be complete a reinstallation because, at the setup's instructions, my laptops are unable to detect the docking station when I plug it in.Otherwise, this unit has provided good performance, with only slight drag on the mouse using dual monitors. I just wish the device could have lasted longer, but two years seemed to have been the life span of all four units we have used.

I've been using it a few weeks. It's plugged into an Acer notebook, USB3.0 port. I have two external monitors running FHD. One monitor is plugged into the Notebook's HDMI port. The other is plugged into the Plugable's HDMI port. I extend my desktop across all 3 screens. Works perfectly most of the time. But shortly after I started using it this way, my screens would freeze for a moment and I'd get a message that the Graphics recovered. After several days of that, the monitor plugged into the Pluggable HDMI port started flashing on and off. Moving the mouse around cleared a pixel path. I have to unplug HDMI port on the Pluggable. Wait until I hear a beep. Plug it back in again. Then I have to move all my work windows around again. It's a loss of 3-5 minutes, 2-3x a day. I'm not sure if this is a factor but it seems to happen only when I have a website on the screen that's flashing pictures on screen. I dont recall this ever happening when I'm editing video or using text heavy applications like Outlook or Word. When it started, Googling the error message about the graphics reset asked me to update the drivers. All drivers were already up to date.

This dock worked wonderfully for about a year, then apparently internally exploded.I didn't know why it stopped working and it was past the warranty, so I intended to fix it. I figured there was a loose connection somewhere that needed to be soldered again or one bad component. Instead I opened it up to find that everything had exploded and there was no saving anything. I've added pictures of the board.

In theory this product had everything I was looking for - HDMI support, multiple USB ports, Ethernet, and audio inputs all going to my laptop via one USB cord. The reality was far from it.The Quick Start guide was slightly confusing (appears it was translated or written by a non-native speaker), but I know my way around a computer. As instructed, I gave the docking station power and plugged it in to my Windows 7 Professional laptop. This caused a conflict with my USB dongle for my wireless mouse and keyboard, which required a full (20 minute Windows) reboot to resolve. The two devices never worked together.After a reboot, I left the other USB ports open and tried to install the drivers via the enclosed CD. It did not like my current USB 3.0 drivers, so I updated those to the latest versions. Then the software claimed to have installed correctly, and I saw Windows had installed USB Audio drivers, USB port drivers, and lots of other goodies.Once I rebooted (again), the docking station was recognized. However, when I plugged in my HDMI monitor, the resulting resolution would not fill my 16:9 screen no matter what resolution I set the monitor to. If I plugged the HDMI back directly to the laptop, no problem. If I plugged audio into the docking station, nothing happened. If I tried to plug in my USB wireless keyboard and mouse again, it froze the computer.A very disappointing result to a promising idea. Maybe it doesn't play nice with Windows 7, but this had to be returned.

I have a lenovo y400 with a geforce GT 650m graphics card and this docking station keeps crashing the graphics card. i spent a lot of time trouble shooting and finally gave up. Dont waste your time with docking station.

DVI port did not work. Tried 2 separate monitors, different DVI cables, tried with a VGA cable using their DVI to VGA adapter.... Monitor fails to pick up any signal from this. I did download the drivers from CD that it came with as well.Also, my I noticed my mouse was very glitchy and would jump all over the screen while plugged into this as well. (the mouse would work just fine plugged directly into the laptop)

On the page it specifically states "5. Linux: Displaylink provides open source libraries.Driver is community written.". This is a flat out lie which the company knows and was relayed back to me via email. I will be returning the device.

I bought this docking station and it stopped working after three months and now I can't return it. The HDMI port stopped working. I have contacted Etekcity and after two weeks have not heard back from them.

The headphone (speaker) output was erratic. When I tried to change the cable the jack broke off inside the unit. It appears that this product is real junk. Other people complained about the adio output so this is a common problem.

I connect my Dell XPS 13 laptop to the docking station which I then connect to a keyboard, Ethernet and a monitor. I have found that there is a very long lag between the laptop and the monitor. Often, only one of the two screens will work or they go black for a minute and then come back on. The mouse lags also when I have the laptop plugged into the docking station and it is fine when I unplug it. I recommended the Plugable docking station to friends, but now I deeply regret it.

I have tried every "solution" on their support page, and NONE of the USB ports work. Not a single one. This is pretty much useless, because all I've been able to successfully do is connect my monitor through the hub, but given that I can't connect anything else, there's no point in having the device when I could just connect a monitor directly.

Failed for me. Hate is too strong of a word for this, as I have a few items from Pluggable that work just fine. This thing would not stay connected at all with my two external monitors and don't even try plugging multiple external drives into it. Well, at least WD 2TB passport USB 3 drives. My other Pluggable unit works just fine as was 1/3 the cost and 1/25 the size of this unit as well as unpowered. I wanted the powered unit to take the stress off the USB ports on my system, But alas, poor Yorick, it was not to be. so, had to return this one.

The first time I wrote a review it was because this driver caused Windows to crash. Now, I do a Windows update and the device it not recognized. The new driver from their website does nothing. No monitors recognized. Not only that, but you cannot call anyone to get help.Horrible customer service and horrible product.

Another crappy port replicator, second one I have tried, made it a few days longer than a month, and now no longer returnable. I use it with an HP Omen and the LG ultrawide, was able to make it work after all the driver install for the 2560x1080 wide screen, but the display stopped displaying through HDMI, I now have to plug in directly, defeting the entire purpose of the docking station