2408WFP Power save mode problem

All,

Please test this, if the monitor is stuck in PSM (power save mode) and the PC is ON, disconnect the monitor power cable from the bottom of the monitor, wait 5 seconds and reconnect it. Power the monitor on. Does it wake up?

Chris,

Please refer to my post earlier.  My testing show the problem is in the monitor itself.

After read through several different posts in DELL community that mention about this issue, I remember that you said DELL already aware of this problem and create this problem in your own lab.  I can not believe that DELL still not solves this problem. 

After outsourcing tech support to other country DELL tech support has been useless.  I talk to one of your tech in the phone for a long while and he is helpless.  We spend more that ten minutes just try to communicate what I have is a laptop and not a desktop.  English is not my first language, but I had live in the US for 20 years already.  Not only communication is a problem, I don't think the tech in other country has enough technical training.  DELL tech support becomes a false security for customer.  Stop outsourcing tech support to other country.  Chris, please forward my E-mail to Michael DELL.

In the end, I have to say that DELL customer support is very good and send replacement quickly.

My problem was the graphics card on the mac.  Replaced it and the monitor is working great.  Applecare was excellent in getting it fixed in 2 days on a weekend.

All,

I can extract alot of data from your post. What I need are the following sent to me in a Private Conversation to put in unified excel document which I will send to Displays engineering:
Dell PC Service Tag number or Retail PC
Monitor Order number
Video card
Video card driver version (Dell or Retail)
Dell or Retail video card
Operating system
How many monitor exchanges have you already received and what were those dispatch numbers?

I am having the same issues as this post. I am running Windows 7 Ultimate with the following:

ATI Radeon 9600 128MB: Driver Date 4/24/2009, Driver Version 8.56.1.15

Dell 2408WFP: Driver Date 5/11/2009, Driver Version 1.0.0.0, Rev A02

Both Drivers were downloaded today and are the latest version.

I tried your suggestion and that did not work. Disconnecting the power cable from the bottom of the monitor and reconnecting it again did not work. However, the following did work:

1. Log into Windows 7, turn off monitor, and then it back on - will be on save mode and will not display Windows.
2. Connect computer via VGA cable using VGA -> DVI connector and now it will display Windows.
3. Turn off monitor and switch back to the DVI only cable, turn on monitor - now Windows displays fine using DVI port.

So using the VGA port is working fine 100% of the time. I can power off and on the monitor and display comes back just fine. Using DVI (either 1 or 2) port fails and only comes back if you do the steps as I outlined above. So where do the problem reside?

My PC is actually a dual boot machine. It can boot to Windows XP Professional. If I do the same test with DVI port it works just fine. If i turn off the monitor and turn it back on it works just fine and does not stay in save mode.

I appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks,

Butch

I was wondering if anyone has really got a fix for this problem. I am using 2x 2408wfp Rev A02 monitors and I get the power save problem all the time. It is sometimes the first monitor I have and sometimes the second. I have tried all of the workarounds in this forum post and the problem keeps coming back. I have updated the monitor drivers with those from the Dell site and turned off the 2 DVI settings in the ati catalyst drivers as per one of the posters from Dell in this thread.

OS: Windows 7 Pro

Graphics: Radeon 5870 with latest catalyst update

The only thing that sometimes works is when I right click and open the display properties. If I set it to a different resolution then set it back the monitor comes back to life. The problem is that sometimes the properties screen comes up on the monitor that is in power save mode.

This is very frustrating so I am hoping that it is still be at least looked at.

Thanks

Not a true fix, but attaching a KVM switch seemed to fix ths for me, even when there was only one computer attached.

I use two cheap 2-port KVM switches. I have a both a VGA version KVM and a DVI version KVM, and both seem to work to fix this.  In other words, when you switch from one computer to the other (you don't even need a second computer hooked up) it sends the proper initialization signals to the monitor to "wake it up".  Even if you experience the problem after a cycling through monitor inputs, you can just toggle the KVM and the screen will wake-up (like it should without the KVM).  In my example, I have a dual-monitor setup (two 2408s) with one using a VGA connection and the other a DVI connection to the computer (it doesn't seem to matter which is the primary).  The DVI side is usualy the one that won't wake up. 

Ok, now hear's the wierd part, it doesn't seem to matter which type of KVM that I use.  I have had each one hooked in isolation, and they both worked.  So for example; while the VGA port on one monitor was hooked up to a VGA KVM, it would refresh both monitors (the VGA and the DVI one).  Worst case, I would have to toggle the KVM back and forth once. It appears that the video drivers are reacting to the KVM being switched and reset both sides of the desktop.  So, it seems that the monitor should do the same thing when cycling through its input choices, but it does not.  My theory is that there is a protocol of some sort that the monitor is not fully participating in.

Without the KVM hooked up, the only way I could get things working was to bring up the Display Properties dialog on the VGA side of my dual-monitor setup (not always an easy task).  Then configure the "dead" DVI monitor at a different resolution and then back to the correct one.  In some conditions, I would only have to say No to the "Do you want to keep these settings" prompt, and then it would refresh and come alive.

I'd be curious if this works for anyone else. My KVMs are fairly new, but not bleeding-edge .  One is an IOGear and the other is some off-brand that I bought at Fry's.  Nether were more than $35 bucks.

I finally contacted Dell Support and after much discussion they decided to send me a replacement monitor next day delivery (monitor comes with a 3 year warranty with next day replacements - main reason I bought this monitor). When I received it the next day it was a refurbished unit. I proceeded to test the monitor and found that the DVI port had the same issue. In addition I found out that the VGA port would only display black and there was a slight buzzing noise that my original monitor did not exhibit. I got on the phone with Dell Support again and told them my results. Also, I mentioned that I was disappointed that I was sent a refurbished monitor instead of a new one.

Second replacement monitor arrived the next day and low and behold it was another refurbished unit. I then proceeded to test it out only to find out it still had the same DVI issues. VGA issue and buzzing noise was not present. After talking to support again they tried to convince me that it was a video card issue. They had sent two replacements and issue was still present. I asked them to justify their reasoning and the were not able to come up with a valid one. I told them that the issue is with the DVI port switching since VGA switching was working fine. Fortunately, this time I was able to convience them to send me a new rather than refurbished. I mentioned that sending 26 lbs boxes next day must be very expensive. Of course the support rep stated that their policy is to only send refurbished units after 30 or 90 days (my unit was < 1 year old). They had to get approval to send me a new unit. At first they tried to replace with a ST2410 which did not match my 2408WFP. I stated that the U2410 matched with my original monitor so they finally sent that to me next day delivery.

Third replacement monitor arrived and it was a new U2410. I proceeded in testing it and DVI ports worked just fine. My only disappointment was that the reader card on the monitor no longer supports CF memory cards. These cards are used in high end digital cameras rather than the common SD cards that point and shoot camera uses.

Unforunately, after using the U2410 monitor for a couple of days I noticed a green tint when using windows photo viewer. This issue has been detailed in: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/peripherals/f/3529/t/19305520.aspx?PageIndex=9. The solution is to download and use a new ICM file: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/peripherals/f/3529/t/19321152.aspx. This is the 3rd beta verison of the file.

So my advise is to be very persistent when talking to Dell support.

Good luck,

Butch

I have been having the power save issue with my 2408WFP for a very long time now... What was that DVI option you are talking about? I am interested to see if that fixes my problem. Thanks.

30 to 90 days is incorrect. Ouside of the first 21 days from the invoice date, the replacement will Refurbished/Used.

I have a brand new 2408wfp bought from DELL UK and delivered on 20 March 2008. It has the powersave problem detailled here and elsewhere on the internet - once it is in Powersave I have to reboot the PC via the power switch. The reason for posting is that I have an ATI 9800 pro video card using the DVI input  and was using catalyst 8-1. Last night I upgraded to the latest Catalyst 8-3 issued on March 5th 2008.  http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/aiwradeonx-xp This has solved my problem and I can now get back from Powersave by any keyboard or mouse activity. I suggest others with a similar problem who are using ATI video cards should do the same rather than getting a new monitor. Tom.

I can't believe this!!! After search around for 2 days (plus countless on and off searching in the past 9 months) and trying to resolve this issue, tried all the latest and greatest drivers, BIOS etc. I come across this message, and said to myself. Ah, let's try to downgrade to Catalyst 8.3 (from 10.2).

And TA DA!! It works like a charm!

However this still post a question. This *maybe* AMD's fault in the video driver. *BUT* why with 10.2, it works fine with other DVI LCD I have except 2408? And this may cause future problems if I decided to upgrade my OS and has to use newer video driver.

Now this get me interested to find out at which version of Catalyst driver my 2408 stopped wake up from stand by mode.

 Update 1: Just jumped from 8.3 -> 8.12 and worked fine.

Update 2: Catalyst 9.1 is the last version that seems to work. I have tested 9.2 & 9.3 twice just to make sure and with those version I can't bring the monitor out of sleep mode. IMHO this is not a perfect fix, since the other DVI LCD works as expected when I was using 10.2. It seems like from 9.1 to 9.2 something get changes and Dell 2408 just don't like it.

I hope this posting will help (or shed some light) for those of you just like me who suffer from the 2408 power save issue.

Is 9.1 still working for you? I've been struggling with other versions on an All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro all year. I installed ATI Tray Tools and the Hotkey/Display Driver Reload works, but it's not the greatest solution if the machine is locked (have to put in user name & password then hit enter blind before the Hotkey will work). I am going to try 9.1 tonight.

What I was thinking would be a cool solution would be to run the Driver Reload Hotkey/Command when the card reader on the monitor is detected on USB.

This is provided you have a USB connection from the monitor to your machine.

In other words:

- Monitor is off and/or in standby.

- Power on monitor.

- PC detects USB card reader

- [Insert software or script here] uses that detection as a trigger to send the reload display driver command via ATI tray tools.

Not the cleanest but it would be "automatic". Perhaps something could be done with the Autoplay, but that implies you leave a card in the reader at all times.

If anybody has any tools that would detect USB mount and give you a signal you could use to trigger something, that would be ideal. The only stuff I've been able to find so far was for Ubuntu.