Power save features with Dell monitors

I've got a 2001FP monitor (same family as yours) with a DVI connection that will not work correctly with Windows power down or screen savers. Dell tech support was unable to fix it (other than to keep shipping new monitors that behaved just as erratically and had more bad pixels than the one I got).

My final workaround was to set the monitor into a totally manual on/off mode, which means I do not have screen savers or power down modes. Otherwise, I will often get a black screen of death on bootup, which makes it impossible to safely shut down or restart the computer. And if you can't boot up, you can't use the OSD (on screen display button) on the monitor to change the settings!

Fortunately, I was able to occasionally boot up and so I was able to access the OSD and turn off the monitor's power save mode. (To do this, Press the OSD button on the monitor, which is directly to the left of the (-)(+) and power buttons, use the (-)(+) buttons to highlight the AUDIO/VIDEO item, press OSD to select, use (-)(+) to highlight VIDEO, press OSD to select, then use (-)(+) to highlight YES+ (video on during power save) press OSD to select (gray box appears over the YES+), and repeat these steps to set AUDIO to YES+ (if you have the Sound Bar option installed.) Exit the OSD or wait for it to disappear.)

This workaround is not perfect because you will now have to manually use the power button to turn off the monitor after you shutdown the computer. But this is better than switching back to a VGA cable as Dell tech support seems to be recommending. (I hate analog VGA at 1600x1200 because of the pixel jitter and sync problems that are unavoidable since converting a high speed analog signal back to digital form is impossible to do perfectly. This is why I paid extra for a DVI interface!)

You might want to check these OSD settings to see if your powersave mode is turned on or off.

Through a Dell support call and my own trial and error experimentation, I did solve the monitor shut-off problem somewhat. I discovered this magic combination: screen saver set to none, and under monitor power schemes, turn off monitor set to never, turn off hard disks set to never, and system standby set to 15 minutes (or another interval), and system hibernates set to never. This set up does put the system into standby at the set interval and turn off the monitor which then restarts when I touch the keyboard or mouse.

It's not the set of Windows features I wanted, but at least my monitor does black out and the power button turns amber. For over night, I can turn off my system or hibernate it manually.

Perhaps this combination will work for other users.

Ken