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Dell u2711 displayport problem "entering power save mode"

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Dell u2711 displayport problem "entering power save mode"

This question has been answered by S.Greaves

Problem started when I replaced the DVI cable with a Displayport cable (have a Sapphire 5670 card) many times the monitor would not start up after sleep mode, and now it hardly starts at all when power on the PC even from a cold state, I know for sure it`s not the cable or the PC, and it cant be the ATI drivers either as I dont even get the boot commands, it`s just black and says "entering power save mode" IF I get the PC to boot and pause at the dos commands before windows starts, and then turn off the monitor when in pause, it never starts up again, so the problem must be the sapphire graphic card or the Dell monitor, but how do I find out? I dont know anyone with a displayport monitor or video card to test with.

All Replies
  •  

    Sharing the sentiment of another poster on this issue:  I didn't pay $1000 for a premium monitor to have such an annoying problem.  Additionally I have a professional Nvidia workstation graphics card with 2x displayPort and 1x DVI.  Apart from the fact that I have a 24" Ultrasharp already using the DVI port I'm not keen on spending another $100 on an active displayport to DVI adapter to continue using my screens.

    Additionally I don't know how you ended up saying that it was only two non-dell PCs and retail ATI and only one dell machine that had the issue when just a few days before you said the problem existed across multiple OSes, Graphics Card manufactures etc.

    Anyway I'm already fed up with the issue and I want to know what is being done about it.  If not dell then who is providing a fix?

    I found another way of reestablishing the link with the screen (only two monitor setups one with DVI).  In windows 7 I use the 'control panel\Display\screen resolution' and select 'extend these displays' in the multiple displays drop down.

    Having said all this I do love the dell ultrasharp series.  I've bought 6 so far between work and personal use and the colour and consistancy is brilliant.  This U2711 is even better that my older 24" ultrasharp, which I think is excellent.  I'm just disappointed that no fix is to be found for this yet and there is no indication that this issue is being worked on.

  • I've just got a mac mini and suffer the same problem with U2711 on both DP (DP-miniDP cable) & HDMI ports. When the mac enters sleep mode, u2711 goes to sleep too. When mac wakes up, u2711 doesn't. I have to shutdown the mac and remove the power cords.   

  • My problem is resolved. U2711 can wake up together with mac mini after I disable DDC/CI (i.e. menu > Other Settings > DDC/CI) on U2711. 

  • I will give it a try.  I hope it also works when I turn the monitor completely off when I leave it for extended periods of time.

     

    I have a pending Product Support Request,  I'll share if I get any useful out of it.

  • If I get the PC to boot and pause at the Bios Dos screen, then turn off the monitor when in pause, it never starts up again.
    * In what usage model would you need to do this?

    * If you turn the monitor off while in Bios Dos mode, there is no command or hot plug detect link training to do another DP handshake. If you want to turn the monitor off/on in Bios Dos Mode, use the DVI port

    Summation =
    * For DP, there are no Dos drivers to support link training or hot plug detect

    * You cannot turn off/on the display when the PC is in the Bios Dos mode. This will result in no picture and you must reboot the PC

    * Removing the DP cable or power cycling the monitor does not bring the display back. This is normal behavior and you must reboot the PC

    * This happens only on DP and does not affect DVI and VGA

    * This behavior is across the graphics industry. It applies to all graphic cards which affect all DP displays

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  • I must agree with you Chris that to pause the computer at boot and turn on the monitor and try turning it on again is not something that most are likely to do as there is no use case for this.

    I don't particularly care that the monitor cannot be switched off and on in bios/dos mode.  Who uses dos these days outside of a console?

    My problem is that whilst running Windows 7 if I turn off my U2711 monitor and come back a few hours later it will not wake up when turned back on, showing "Entering Power save mode" on the screen before the power light changes to pulsing orange.

    I don't have the luxury of simply putting it in another DVI port as I'm already running another monitor off that and my graphics card only has two other DP connections.

    If I am to buy an expensive active DP to DVI adapter to handle this monitors resolution will it make a difference to this problem since it will still be using the DP port on the graphics card?

    Has their been any correspondance back from the graphics card manufactures DP consortium to fix this issue?

    As a side note I turned off my monitor last night and turned it back on again this morning and it came on.  I was most surprised and all I can think of is that I had a movie paused on that monitor overnight.

     

  • Well I would be happy if only the monitor could start up at boot, and wake up from windows sleep mode, but it only starts up at about 1 of 10 tries!, actually I think I am gonna return this and claim it dont work as it should, and then buy a KDL-32EX700 LCD TV instead, it`s cheaper and gonna use less power also, the only thing I will miss are those USB ports on the side, the 3.6M pixel res I hardly ever use.

  • POSSIBLE SOLUTION

    Hi, I recently bought a U2711 for use with my PowerBook Pro. It is cheaper than the equivalent 27" from Apple, but uses the same LCD panel (although other Apple users be aware, the screen isn't flush like on the Apple screen, so you get distracting reflections from the frame!!)

    Anyway, after using it for a few days, I soon reached a situation where I just could not get the screen to start up. I'd plug the DisplayPort cable into my laptop, the monitor power switch would glow blue like it was going to do something, then you'd see the - I'm sure for many of you like me - dreaded "Entering power saving mode" message.

    I was pulling my hair out with this: I plugged and unplugged the monitor many times, pressed the on/off switch on the monitor, rebooted OS X etc, all to no avail.

    Finally I had an idea - pull the power cable out of the monitor, and then put it in again i.e. do a hard reset of the monitor. 

    That fixed it!!! While I don't relish having to regularly do this, at least I working again.

    WHAT IS THE CAUSE

    I'm a run a computer software company, and have 20 years+ of hardware experience. Unfortunately this problem will either be caused by a fault in the monitor hardware, or a bug in the monitor firmware. I doubt it's a hardware bug, since otherwise it wouldn't work for some amount of time before failing, and the work after a reset.

    WHAT IS THE SOLUTION

    Dell, either you need to get us a firmware update quick, or if it is a hardware fault, you need to fix it and replace our monitors. I paid good money for this and don't want to spend my life hard resetting it.

     

  • Hi, I also had this problem with mac mini (bought december 2010) and the dell U2711 display.
    The first time i connected the mac mini via a display port cable (mini displayport to displayport) it ran without any problems at 2560 pix resolution.

    But then after restaring my mac the display had no more signal from the computer.

    The only solution is: disconnect the power cable of the display an d connect it again or use a connection plug board with a switch to turn off the power of the display everytime you shut down your computer.

    You also have to disable the powersaving option in the system presets, only activate the screensaver. 
    If your mac goes to powersave mode, the signal for the display gets lost.

    Thats not really satisfying, so we all want Dell to do something about that!

  • nvb21, you are a genius - this worked for me as well.


    For those who might be interested (ahem, people who write the firmware for this monitor), my story is slightly different than most on here:

    I have a mid-2010 15" MacBook Pro, which I successfully connected to my u2711 every day for the past month with a miniDP to DP cable.  I had no problems until two days ago, when I could no longer get a signal on the u2711.  Unplugging and replugging the miniDP cable to my MBP gave the usual "flicker" on the laptop's screen, and the u2711 would briefly go out and back into power save mode, but there would be no video, nor would the u2711 show up on my MBP's list of attached displays.  

    Here are the experiments I performed:

    Connecting my MBP to the u2711 via a miniDP to DP cable gave no signal.

    Connecting my MBP to the u2711 via a miniDP to DVI adapter gave no signal (in past, it would drive the Dell at the 1900x1200 of a single-link DVI adapter).  

    Connecting my MBP to the u2711 via a MiniDP to VGA adapter worked fine at low resolution (1600x1200, I think, I can't recall for sure).

    Connecting my early 2009 Mac Mini to the u2711 via mini DVI to DVI worked fine at 1900x1200.

    Connecting my early 2009 Mac Mini to the u2711 via mini DP to DVI worked fine at 1900x1200.

    Connecting my early 2009 Mac Mini to the u2711 via mini DP to DP did not work.

    Connecting my MBP to a 27" ACD (via miniDP, of course) worked at full resolution, thus discounting the MBP as the culprit.

    Connecting my MBP to a 2209WA via miniDP to DVI adapter worked at full resolution as well.

    Connecting my MBP to the u2711 via an Apple Mini-displayport to Dual-Link DVI adapter, then a DVI-D cable did work successfully, and I was able to drive the screen at full resolution via DVI.

    Rebooting the MBP did not change anything.

    Trying a different miniDP to DP cable did not change anything.

    Loading Windows via Boot Camp did not yield successful miniDP -> DP or miniDP -> DVI connections with the u2711 on the MBP. 

    Unplugging and replugging power to the monitor did not fix anything either.

    Then, I read nvb21's genius idea of disabling DDC/CI on the u2711, which allowed me to successfully connect my MBP to the u2711 via miniDP-DP cable.  Even after re-enabling DDC/CI, everything works fine.  So, now, everything appears to be back to normal.  I just wish I'd read nvb21's post before four hours of testing and a trip to the Apple Store..

    I know little of DDC/CI, but the fact that my u2711 worked well with my Mac Mini and via the MBP with the Apple Mini-displayport to Dual-Link DVI adapter (which is an ACTIVE adapter, and would liekly present itself to the u2711 as a different video card than the MBP's direct DP connection) before I read nvb21's post, leads me to guess that if there is some sort of "hardware handshaking" mediated via DDC/CI, it somehow got buggered up between the u2711 and MBP pairing, and disable/re-enabling DDC/CI reset that system.


    I'll post again if I have more problems, so if I haven't that means the above solution worked well for me.

  • swahid
    Even after re-enabling DDC/CI, everything works fine.  So, now, everything appears to be back to normal.

    swahid
    leads me to guess that if there is some sort of "hardware handshaking" mediated via DDC/CI, it somehow got buggered up between the u2711 and MBP pairing, and disable/re-enabling DDC/CI reset that system.

    Now that seems to be the most significant post I have seen on this thread yet. I have had less problems running on DP since I went into the menu system and disabled then re-enabled DDC, although I was still seeing an unacceptably long delay before the screen woke up, so I didn't think the problem was solved.

    I have since changed to using the Dual Link DVI cable supplied with my Dell 3008WFP, and the screen wakes up much faster than when on DP. The PC didn't detect the 3008WFP correctly initially, just calling it a "DDC Display", but it has since detected it correctly and is using the correct driver.

    I might try the DP again later to see if it is still slow in awakening, and if so, try the DDC off/on trick again, to see if it improves things. I may even try a factory reset to see if it improves things or reintroduces the problem.

  • I put back the DP cable (have not had it for a long time) and tried that "DDC/CI disable" thing, Well at least the monitor started up at boot! , thats a good start! it still did not work if you turn off the monitor in bios, then it never starts up again and you got to reset the PC

    Finally the desktop came up, the icons was in an other order of course! that was another problem with using the DP cable!

    I tried the sleep mode and rebooted a few times and it worked every time but that don`t say much, it worked pretty good the first weeks I had the monitor also so...!

     

  • Hello,

    I believe one of the issue is the displayport cable that came from the monitor.  I got a new cable from monoprice and the problem seems to go away.  The signal was very unstable using the dell cable.  Once in a while, the monitor will go into power save mode and I have to power up and down the monitor a few times to get it back on.  After I replaced it with the new cable, I haven't power on and off the monitor once for 2 days.  I hope this frustration will go away.  

  • Sprity
    I haven't power on and off the monitor once for 2 days.

    Two days isn't a long enough test for me, but please let us know if you get to a week or two with no problems.

    I need to get a longer cable anyway, but have been holding off buying one as I didn't know if I should risk it and get a DP cable, or go safe with a DVI cable. I would prefer to use DP, so your results are of great interest to me.

    Thanks for sharing your experience.

  • It is NOT the cable