Customer Reviews

Accell UltraAV B087B-002B DisplayPort/DVI-D Dual-Link Adapter (Black)

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I bought this adapter to convert my third monitor to read as a DisplayPort monitor for Eyefinity,.. and it works as intended.
I am running two HD 5870's in crossfire.
As most know that have brought the New ATI 5000 series card it requires three different signals to make Eyefinity work this is why 3 DVI/HDMI signals will not work as they can only handle two and that is where Displayport is needed to add that third signal.
Dont believe all the BS about NON ACTIVE (DP to DVI) or (DP to VGA) adapters working to save money.. to put it simple they WILL NOT!
You need this Adapter to make Eyefinity work if all your currant monitors are DVI/HDMI and do not have a Displayport input.
Only one of your three monitors will need this adapter.
What this adapter does is convert one of your currant DVI/HDMI monitors into a Displayport monitor that both Windows and ATI drivers see as one.
You can buy three NEW 21.5" 16:9 DVI/HDMI Monitors with true 1080p @ 1920x1080rez and this adapter for one of them, still have the same quailty and pay less then what ONE Displayport monitor cost new.
For all of you people out there having issues with this ACTIVE adapter blinking off and on or staying in sleep mode, you might want to make sure that under POWER Management you have USB selective suspend setting disabled. The only issues I have had is the same as people that have set-ups with all Displayport monitors and thats some flickering on the bottom of the screens and that is do to Drivers,... NOT this adapter.
More then likely this issue will be ironed out with more mature Drivers. I hope this info helps some people!

This is the adapter you need to use ATI's 5800 series (5870, 5850) with a 3rd monitor using their eyefinity.

My original review is at the bottom, however since writing it I have returned the product for an exchange. Kudos to amazon as usual it was a quick and painless process. The second unit they sent me works great with 0 flickering problems. It seems that perhaps bizlink had a bad batch or just shoddy QA at the factory.

-------------------- Original Review-------------------

If you go to [...]you will see all the issues people are having. It is a BizLink adapter rebranded (also the same as the dell or sapphire) and unfortunately if you are pushing high resolutions in eyefinity it has the dreaded screen flicker in most cases. In my case the screen is actually flickering 50% of the time and is unusable. This might be an ATI problem and not an Accel one but his product is listed as "approved hardware for eyefinity" by ATI yet fails to function properly in a majority of cases.

Spare yourself the trouble get a display with built in displayport functionality, if this is not fixed in the next version of catalyst I am returning this product if I can.

Finally... an adapter that works with ATI's Eyefinity with 3 monitors plus it does 2560x1600 which I am using on a Dell 30".

Pros:
* Works with 3-monitor ATI Eyefinity (I'm using a Sapphire ATI 5770 card)
* Works at Dual-Link 2560x1600 resolution (using it now)
* Solved my flickering red pixel problem on my Dell 3007WFP-HC (not sure what this was caused by - monitor and/or card incompatibility)
* Truly active adapter (I've bought some that said "active technology" but didn't work with 3-monitor Eyefinity.
* Appears to have high build quality
* Built-in latch for DisplayPort connector
* 2-year replacement warranty
* Seems power efficient - the unit does not seem to get all that warm
* Easy setup

Cons:
* Expensive
* Hard to open packaging - don't cut yourself opening it
* [IMPORTANT] May seem to work at first, but may exhibit very annoying flickering/blanking later

Other:
* Requires a USB port for power. Mine is plugged into a self-powered USB hub which I suspect is the best way to power the unit with a minimum of problems.
* Significantly cheaper passive adapters will most likely not work with a 3-monitor Eyefinity setup, even some that claim "active tech" will not work
* Designed in USA, made in China

UPDATE 2010-03-15: I woke up this morning to severe flickering on my Dell 3007WFP-HC. I don't know why it just happened this morning after working fine for a few days. I turned the monitor off and on a few times and finally got it stable again. I'd like to find the cause of this. Someone reported it's an ATI BIOS issue and I'm doing some research on that. I'm knocking a star off until I find the problem.

UPDATE 2010-03-18: I updated the BIOS (which I obtained from Sapphire tech support) on my Sapphire 5770 video cards using atiflash.exe and so far so good, but it's too early to tell if this fixes the problem. Usually the video is stable anyway. If I have further episodes of flickering (losing video to a black screen than getting it back) then I will update this review.

UPDATE 2010-03-24: Unfortunately another flashing episode occurred. It seems to happen when I wake up in the morning and turn on my monitor (the computer stays on all the time). I have ordered a USB powered wall plug to try. If that doesn't work then I'll try to get a replacement adapter. Disconnecting the adapter from USB power and then reconnecting it seems to solve the problem but Windows 7 loses the monitor and annoying re-arranges my windows. Down to 3 stars until I am happy with a solution.

UPDATE 2010-03-30: It's been a few days and there have been no further flashing/blinking with power provided by a "Belkin Dual USB and AC Wall Charger for iPod".

UPDATE 2010-04-03: Down to two stars. I had another flickering/blinking issue this morning, even with the new "Belkin Dual USB and AC Wall Charger". This seems to happen when I go to bed earlier than usual and the monitor has been powered off longer than usual when I turn it back on in the morning. I decided to exchange the adapter. While it is stable most of the time, I don't want to have to deal with this problem because it is very annoying when it does happen. I hope the new adapter will work better as I've been told getting a new adapter may solve this problem.

UPDATE 2010-08-03: I never did get the new adapter to see if it would fix the blinking issue. It was out of stock for so long that I canceled it and ended up getting a couple of Dell U2311H monitors that have native DisplayPort inputs, so this adapter became unnecessary.

I bought this adapter to hook up a Thinkpad x200 laptop (via the docking station) to a HP 30 inch monitor with 3 DVI inputs at my work.

The item looks and feels okay. Once I plugged it in, it worked right away! I tweaked the display to output the highest resolution. After that is done and a few seconds later, the screen started to flicker. I thought something was wrong with the refresh rate, etc. I did a lot of tweakings and it still did not work. Finally I saw a reviewer here claimed that you need to use a wall powered USB hub to make it work. I don't have one off hand, but I was using a docking station, so I assumed that should be fine. Then I tried the USB ports from the monitor and same issues.

I finally called customer service, and what a mistake! The CS rep lady told me that she was told by some customers that "you" have to use a wall powered USB hub in order for it to work. I was like "does that mean I need to buy an extra USB hub to use this item? If your company is aware that it needs to draw lots of power, why don't you just make a wall plug instead of USB?" After a few more minutes of useless conversations, I ended the call but decided to give it a final try the next day.

I brought my USB hub that has one extra port to draw double power to try it. Failed. I then use one of those USB to wall adapter to try to force the power in. Failed. All in all, I tried the above 2 kinds, my monitor's, my laptop's, and my docking station's and none of the USB port works. Yes, you may say I did not try what other reviewers suggested: a wall powered USB hub, but I just don't have one myself and don't want to spend extra money to make this work! They should have just make one that uses the wall power.

To summarize, just "buyer be aware".

I think I should waited a bit, but this thing just worked perfectly out of the box.

1. Dual-Link Cable from Dell 3007wfp (30 inch monitor) to this unit
2. This unit plugs into the display port in the back of the lenovo docking station

Test ran;
1. resolution works at 2560x1600
2. Windows 7 power saver where the monitors get shut down, and this worked bringing the monitor back up from powersaver.

I hope I can reedit this if things go bad later, but for now it works exactly as it was supposed to.

The device works very nicely, as long as its USB connector is connected to a USB port that supplies enough power. On my laptop, my Dell 30 inch monitor started flickering constantly until I connected the USB dongle to a powered USB hub. That solved the problem. I assume if you connect one to a desktop pc with a decent power supply, it will work fine.

This adapter does not support resolutions over 1920x1200 @ 60hz. (No matter what you do it will not work with a new 120hz LCD) It forces it back down to 60hz. Just thought I should warn people as this adapter is expensive and they do not inform you of this limitation on the website.

Using this in an eyefinity 3 monitor setup. Unfortunately this is the only adapter cetified for 2560x1600. After reading the reviews I decided to buy a dedicated high-power USB power supply (rated for 1 amp operation, double the normal USB power limit of 0.5A) hoping that this would prevent some of the issues reported. After about a month of use, I've never seen flickering, but about once a week the signal delivered by Accel completely drops and the monitor goes to sleep without any video signal. Power-cycling the Accell fixes the problem immediately.

I did break out my DMM and measured the voltage being sent into the unit under load. From my PC's USB ports it was 4.60v and from the external power supply 4.59v. which should fall within spec.

Hopefully another manufacturer will deliver a competently engineered alternative design that's certified for 2560x1600 with eyefinity. This has all the hallmarks of flawed product design, so buyer beware!

This adapter is well built and relatively small.
The display port and usb cords are long enough so that the adapter can lay flat on the floor attached to my desktop computer.

I am using it in a three monitors setup with an ATI 5700.
It is driving my main monitor a 30" Dell at 2560x1600.
Except for an occasional flash, it works perfectly. The flashs are very seldom, I notice them once or twice a day and I can't say for sure that they are actually coming from the adapter itself or the graphic card although I would bet on the former.

However, I originally used it to drive one of my side monitors a 20" Dell in portrait mode at 1200x1600. The monitor would often (several times a day) loose its signal and the only way to get it back was to reset the display resolution (Changing back and forth between two modes). This monitor is working flawlesly without the adatper (both my side monitors are identical and both had the issue so I am really certain it is the adapter and not the monitor).

In conclusion, nice product but some potential incompatibility.