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U3818DW, MacBook Pro, USB Type-C intermittent connection
Hi!
In Feb '19 I purchased two of
Dell's 38" curved ultra-sharp monitors (U3818DW) with USB Type-C connection.
Lately a pretty bad problem has developed with one of them!
Since last week, when I connect my Apple laptop to the monitor, the connection breaks. What happens is: I type on my external keyboard (USB, connected to the monitor) for a bit (less than a minute) and the connection breaks. Then, I type on my laptop keyboard for a bit (using my laptop screen) and the connection comes back.
This cycle happens about two or three times a per minute.
In fact, it's happening right now as I type this.
I've tried swapping out the USB Type-C cable, but that doesn't help.
I think what
may be going on is that the USB Type-C "channel" from the monitor is doing a lot of work -- re-charging my laptop (it's currently at 29%) and also transmitting the USB signal from my keyboard and mouse, which are connected to the monitor, not the laptop. Maybe this is overloading the monitor's ability to transmit and receive both power, video signal, and keyboard signal? Then, when I switch back to using my laptop keyboard, the USB-C cable doesn't have to transmit as much -- just power. When the load lightens, the monitor is able to detect the laptop signal again. When I go back to using my external keyboard again, which is connected to the monitor, the cycle repeats.
My question is:
Can I get Dell to send me a new monitor with USB Type-C connection that works reliably? The monitors were purchased in Feb 2019, so it surely must be under some kind of warranty.
Is there a fix for this .... or do I have to return the monitor for repair or refund?
Many thanks,
A.L.
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
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March 19th, 2019 08:00
Dell does not repair monitors. We only exchange them after the fault has been replicated when testing on our validated Windows 10 operating system. Unfortunately, we can see here on the U3818DW validated operating system page that the proprietary Apple operating system and hardware were not tested/validated by Dell. For Dell to troubleshoot, you need to test/replicate the U3818DW USB Type-C issue on a Windows 10 PC.
Read through the U3818DW threads on the Apple Forum. If an applicable thread is not found, start a new thread out there. Perhaps the Apple users have some troubleshooting ideas and/or possible Apple proprietary cabling to purchase.
macuser277
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March 19th, 2019 09:00
Follow-up:
Power on my laptop is now up to 46% and I've connected my keyboard/mouse directly to my laptop. The problem is continuing.
Now I'm going to try connecting my power supply "brick" directly to my laptop to stop it from trying to draw power from the monitor itself.
After that, I'm going to ask my colleague (who is using the other U3818DW monitor with his MacBook Pro) to switch monitors with me for a time to see if he has the same problem. It might be an issue with the USB-C slots on my laptop.
USB-C -- such a convenience! But maybe not working all that well just yet?
macuser277
3 Posts
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March 19th, 2019 10:00
I just now cross-posted to an Apple forum - here is the link:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250243447?page=1
I also posted a followup to the Apple forum.
Seems like the problem is related to low battery charge on my laptop. Once the battery charge rose above 79%, the problem stopped. (Big relief -- I don't want to stop using my fancy new monitor.)
I've been using Apple laptops for decades, and it's always been the case that if my laptop isn't connected to external power source, it can't easily drive an external display. Probably this is true for all laptops?
DELL-Chris M
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March 19th, 2019 12:00
Sounds correct to me. When using Laptops with monitors and/or docks, I have always connected the Laptop AC power adapter.
Spyhunter
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June 7th, 2019 07:00
williamf23
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July 19th, 2019 08:00
We are using a lot of Chrome OS devices (Pixelbooks, Lenovo, Dell, Acer etc) with these monitors and we are seeing the exact same issue.
If the battery level of the device is below a certain percentage, the monitor connectivity is intermittent. As soon as the battery is above 85% or so, connectivity stabilizes.
While I understand you can simply plug in an external AC adapter, the whole reason we spend the extra money on these monitors is for the simplicity of the monitor being able to function also as a full dock.
I'm hoping a future firmware release will address this. The last release did a lot to make these monitors usable with non-Dell devices.
Thanks.