Club 3d MST Hub Issue

[oliverm3]

I'm using the new 13.10 driver since yesterday but I was using 13.8b2 since I had the hub.

Defcoms are you using a mini dp to dp adapter for the connection to your computer?

I guess we'll see I did the:
1. Remove all old drivers.
2. Reboot and get in the OS
3. Shutdown
4. unplug all devices and cables.
5. Reboot
6. Plug in the devices.
7. Reboot
8. Install the drivers.
a. AMD cat 13.10
9. Reboot
10. Set up the hub.

As suggested by support.
13.10 lost a monitor during the setup right after the driver was finished installing.
Adding it to a display group turned it back on but I'm not to confident that the driver resolved any issues.

Maybe the hub has a problem using adapters of any kind or that I have them on both ends.
I'll try the club 3d mini dp to dp adapter next. I'm using the one that came with my Devil 13.
Since it came with a 1k card I would expect it to be a quality adapter but who knows.

I'll keep you posted.

[Defcoms]

I don't know what else to try sounds like you have covered everything I would have done. You using windows 7?

[oliverm3]

Windows 8

Ordered the Club 3d mini dp to dp adapter from Germany guess we'll see in 11-30 days if that's the problem.
I did notice today that plugging and unplugging the mini dp connection for the driver install steps I must not have had it seated all the way and only one of the 3 monitors turned on.

I'm hoping that maybe that adaptor is the problem.
At this point I'm just on a mission to solve the problem I could go back at any point to not using the hub since I only had screen tearing when sliding windows around in windows 8 never in games.

[WLD13]

Hi all! I'm having the same issue with random monitors blinking off using the Club3D displayport mst hub. I'm a design engineer and work alot in Solidworks and other engineering programs while also watching movies, working in Office, and generally multi-tasking my butt off so my system is probably a bit different than what most of you are running. Apparently I am way ahead of other pro-side users and can't seem to find much in this topic except on gaming forums so maybe by posting my issues in here we can figure out a solution. I just got it all running this evening and am having issue (randomly both time between blinks and which display) with 1 display at a time going black for a few seconds and then coming back on by itself. OK, so a bit about my setup:

HP Z800 Workstation
Dual Xeon Hexcore E5645's
48GB Mushkin Silverline Memory
Intel 520 Series 240GB SSD (OS & Programs)
Seagate ST1000DM003 1TB for storage
AMD Firepro V5900 (Just cleaned and fresh-installed Catalyst Pro V12.104)

2- ASUS VS247 (HDMI) passive DP adapter
1- Acer H233H (HDMI) passive DP adapter
1- Club3D DP MST Hub (aslo bought from amazon from link on this thread, took about 2 weeks,
had to swap power cable for US 110V style)

I'm running all 3 HDMI passive adapters off the mst hub and the hub is plugged into the DP on the card. second DP and DVI port on the card are unused at his time. In addition to the monitor blinking I am also seeing quite a bit of multi-colored pixel storming (just learned what to call it) on all 3 monitors, especially noticable on dark backrounds but I've read this could be due to older cheap-o HDMI cables. Maybe by seeing the same issue on a workstation card using the Catalyst Pro Software, someone will be able to figure this out and get it solved. I'm sure there are lots of you out there who would love to see this fixed before dropping the money on one of these hard to get hubs.

Willy

[oliverm3]

Hey Willy,

I've been working with Club 3d support. They are working on a new firmware for me to try on my hub. I should have it in a couple days.
I'll post the results and firmware here once I have it.

I'll let them know that you're having this issue as well.

I looks to me like it's pointing to a hub issues with this range of hardware.
My Sons AMD my Intel and your Workstation.

Willy are you running Windows 8?

I think defcoms said he is running 7 and he's not having the issue.

[Defcoms]

Yeah I am not having any issues with my hub at all. I am not running any active or passive adapters though. The only adapter I use is to connect the hub to my GPU, it's a mini DP to DP adapter that came with my MSI reference 7970's. All 3 of my monitors are the same spec wise. 2x Asus ve278q, 1x Asus vk278q the center screen just has a web camera but all 3 are native Displayport monitors. I do have a active dvi adapter I could hook up to on of my screens to test with and see if that screen drops out.

[WLD13]

Oliverm3, Thanks for the assist! I did forget to mention I'm running Win 7 Pro x64.

As a trouble shooting update, I unplugged one of my monitors (the ASUS in case it matters) and plugged it directly into the 2nd DP on the card (by way of the passive DP-HDMI adapter). That monitor now does NOT blink off, only the two running throught the MST Hub now. i consider that a step in the same direction you are leaning that it's an issue with some aspect of the hub and I for one would love to see a firmware update make it go away. The fact that Defcoms is running Win 7 without any DP adapters downstream of the hub supports this as well.

I was going to test out my DP-DVI and DP-VGA adapters but I see that you are using DVI and I'm on HDMI so that probably isn't the issue. Instead, while we wait for that firmware update, I will try switching to running my identical monitors off the Hub and the odd man out through the card directly and see if it is possibly an issue with adapters and different monitors. Every little variable elimination should help them figure this out Thanks again guys!

[Defcoms]

I am wondering how they would update the firmware.

[oliverm3]

I guess they take them apart for the firmware because I just heard back. They want me to return the hub and they'll send me a new one with the updated firmware. Hopefully they ship one out first before I have to return this one.

I guess I could run without for a bit but the screen tearing annoys me.

I guess we'll have a wait a couple weeks for the next status update. I'm sure that it's going to take a while for me to get my new hub from the Netherlands.

I'll keep you posted.

[WLD13]

Thanks for the update, do you have contact info for them that I could use to get the ball rolling on my hardware issue or are they wanting to see if it works before they claim it as a fix?

[oliverm3]

Thanks for the update, do you have contact info for them that I could use to get the ball rolling on my hardware issue or are they wanting to see if it works before they claim it as a fix?

Yeah you might as well get the ball rolling it'll take some time shipping back and fourth to the Netherlands

I have been e-mailing them at [email protected]
I tried the online support form on their page but never received a response.

[oliverm3]

Wow I'm impressed they shipped it two day from the Netherlands.
So we should have an answer by this weekend because it's scheduled to be delivered on Friday.

Tested it again today and it's still repeatable 2 out of 10 reboots lost one monitor.
It is strange that two never go out only one and not always the same one.

[WLD13]

I'm impressed with their response time as well! I emailed them and within about an hour they responded. The said they were sending you an updated hub and if it fixes the issue then they would take care of me too. They really seem to want to have a happy customer base. Oliverm3, thanks for the updates and hopefully we'll have good news by the weekend

[oliverm3]

So far so good 50 reboots and in and out of various games with no issue.
Its looking good since it would drop a monitor 2 out of 10 consecutive reboots.

I'll continue to aggressively test over the weekend and post the result but I think they may have solved the issue with the firmware update.
Total cost for the hub trying adapters and shipping back to the Netherlands $320. Don't tell my wife
I guess I took one for the team

[oliverm3]

Day two with the new hub no problems.

To bad the hub doesn't indicate which firmware it's using to distinguish a potential problem hub.
That way people don't drive themselves nuts trying adapters or drivers when the problem is related to the device.

So far so good though played a couple hours of games today and did about 40 reboots just to see if one would drop out.
And it has been problem free not a single monitor drop.

[WLD13]

Thanks for the updates, they're encouraging. Hopefully after you've passed it along to club3d they will contact me so I can be as happy as you are it's too bad it's not user-updateable firmware.

[oliverm3]

Crap, Turned the system back on today after breakfast and lost the middle monitor.
Rebooted and it came back and has stayed on but I was hoping that I would not see that again.

[oliverm3]

3 days since the last one and I lost the middle monitor when going in to Saints Row IV last night. Had to alt+F4 and start the game again since I couldn't see the menus.

Not sure where to go from here.
I hope WLD13 has better luck.

I haven't been aggressively testing so the 3 days was just normal computer use a couple hours a day. I may sit down and do a reboot count to see how often they're going out now with this new firmware.

[WLD13]

Waiting on my hub to show up, UPS shows it should be today so I will update this weekend with my results.

Oliverm3, sorry to hear your problem isn't completely gone. Out of curiosity, does your hub get warm? Do you have a mess of cables (like I do) behind the computer case around the hub? Not that I think that would be an issue exactly, just wondering.

[oliverm3]

I haven't really checked if the hub gets hot. I'll see tonight.
I have a good amount of room around the computer since I keep it on the outside of my desk in the open.

Between the 7990 Devil 13 video card and my overclock intel 4770k it kicks of so much heat I don't want the computer anywhere near me

I have lost the monitor on first boot though in the morning so I'm sure it was pretty cool at that point.