U2711, strange power saving and OSD freezing issue

Chris,

Thankyou for your prompt reply!

Chris writes:

> Did the seller mention any issue with the U2711 prior to the purchase?

Nothing prior to the purchase, no. After I described the issues, the seller's response was, "How frustrating. I never encountered anything like that. It sounds like something within the settings that should be easily fixed, but I'm sorry to say I can't offer any suggestions. Perhaps a Dell forum will have the answer? I'll take a look myself and see if anything comes up."

As I say I tried a factory reset but that had no effect.

> Can you replicate the issues with the U2711 when connected to a different computer?

I tried your suggestion to check the monitor with a different system; I used a Gigabyte X79 setup fitted with a 980 Ti. At first the display came up, but after rebooting to allow the desktop icon locations to revert to normal, the display lost the signal shortly after POST but before the Windows boot message would normally appear, ie. behaving just as before; the screen stays blank, and all of the OSD buttons (including the power button) are unresponsive, as if the control system has frozen. I removed the power cable, waited 30 seconds, reinserted the power cable, after the usual initialisation the monitor picked up the signal, which of course by now was the full desktop. Next, I shut down the system, and again after a pause the power saving mode was activated, after which the power light stayed orange and all buttons were unresponsive. Thus, the behaviour is identical. If you like I can record a movie demonstrating this behaviour.

Does this monitor have any firmware updates that are available? If so, is it possible to update the firmware in some automated manner? eg. a USB stick and some special button combination when power is supplied? I am willing to attempt to repair the monitor if I can find out what is wrong (since I'm sure it's out of warranty by now), but first I need to determine the fault.

Alternatively, please point a manager to my LE PC build page and ask if they'd be willing to donate to the cause, from Dell I mean. :)  The people at the Learn Engineering channel intend doing a review of the system I'm giving them; it will increase their rendering and storage performance by two orders of magnitude (so they will be able to create much more detailed and involved videos), but at the moment they don't know I plan on including a monitor aswell, that was to be a surprise.

Otherwise, I'll just have to pursue a repair with the unit I have, as I can't afford to source another.

> Since Dell doesn't disassemble and replace internal components,

> unknown as to the "faulty power circuitry".

In your experience though, what do you think is the most likely cause of the problem? Corrupt firmware? Overheating/faulty power delivery circuitry? I found references on forums to the U2711 not handling power saving correctly when connecting via DP, but in this case the issues persist when using DVI instead. Is there any kind of diagnostic I could run? eg. something connected via USB, sending commands in some way? (perhaps I'm thinking too much in terms of the old days of being able communicate with devices via serial ports & terminals). Do you happen to know who manufactured the parts for this particular model? Maybe I could ask them for advice. I expect the screen is made by LG, but I doubt LG makes the rest of the circuitry. It's a shame because the screen itself looks perfect.

Thanks! :)

Ian.