U2711: Capacitive buttons do not work. Help!

Does the Diagnostics <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell> run? If yes, then we know the #1 button works, just doesn't light up.

No, the diagnostics won't run.

If I pull the monitor cable out, the little moving box appears as described, but pressing buttons 1 and 4 for 2 seconds doesn't work.

The LEDs do work though. When the monitor powers up, all the leds come on (5, then 5 and 4, then 543, then 5432, then 54321 - then reversed).

However, once that's done, only the bottom light comes on when I move my hand near, and only the bottom button responds to being touched (which, as it's the exit button, just produces the lock icon). So it seems to be a fault with the capacitive stuff - 4 of the buttons just seem to stay dead, no matter what I try.

I contacted Dell today and they're going to arrange for a replacement.

I can imagine this being the sort of thing that breezes past the factory test. The screen works, after all... I guess they presume that the buttons are so unlikely not to work that they don't bother testing.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

A follow up to this problem.

Today I took delivery of a replacement for this malfunctioning monitor. On the new monitor, the only the bottom light lights up when I move near it. However, when I press that lit button, the menu appears and the other lights light up by the menu options. On the old monitor, pressing this bottom button gave a 'locked' icon....

I wonder if there is a mode the monitor can be in where the controls are locked out from tampering... that might have been the problem all along.

Anyway, I have my 'new' monitor. It wasn't really new as it didn't come with the factory coverings taped to it. Still, if it works, fine. The buttons work.  That's a good start.

Unfortunately, it has another problem. All the pixels on the right half of the panel glitch by 3 or 4 pixels horizontally with a frequency of roughly once or twice a second when cold, reducing to once or twice a minute after an hour.

Here's a youtube video showing the problem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoKqEecIz3c

This affects the menus, and it doesn't matter whether any inputs are connected, or what resolution a computer is driving the display.

Third time lucky as they say!

Is the flicker present when the monitor is on but disconnected from the PC?

>Is the flicker present when the monitor is on but disconnected from the PC?

Yes it was (Yesterday at least - see below). I verified that the effect was independent of source. No matter what resolution or source I tried, the same pixels were affected, and with nothing plugged in, the menus and screensaver message was affected by the problem.

The other thing was the frequency of the glitch. When powered on, it was initially fine, then after 2 minutes or so was glitching once or twice a second, but after an hour, the glitches were every 15-30 seconds.

However, this morning, the monitor refused to power up at all - definitely had power. (Cables are all ok - I put my trusty old monitor back in its place with the same cables (including power) and it was fine).

Whatever was wrong with it seems to have got worse.... hopefully it'll make it easier for the menders to identify the failed component.

Anyway, not to worry. I should have had a new replacement anyway, rather than this badly tested refurbished replacement. If you ring the customer care number, and pick the reasonable choices, you end up talking to the wrong people. That's being sorted now, so I'll hopefully be third time lucky, as Dell are sending me a new replacement (which is what should have happened first time around).

Thanks for the help anyway.

Im having the same problem with padlock on my U2711...nothing on Dell support.

I really dont want to send/replace the unit (seems so wasteful) when the screen works fine expect I cant get into the menu...anybody have any ideas?

Yea, that's a shame... apparently this has been implemented in all of dell's monitors. It also works on my Dell 2007FP that I use at work. Hopefully it will fix  jamesdwy problem!

Try pressing and holding the menu button for 15 seconds. Supposedly, this should UNLOCK the monitor menu (that's what the padlock means)

What a shame that Dell's customer support couldn't suggest this to me before it had to embark on a costly monitor replacement. I couldn't find any such info in the user manual either...

Oh well!

Try pressing and holding the menu button for 15 seconds. Supposedly, this should UNLOCK the monitor menu (that's what the padlock means)