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December 8th, 2020 08:00
U2421E, single USB Type-C, multiple signals?
hello everyone, with this monitor is it possible to give multiple signals simultaneously with a single usb-c cable? audio, video, internet, 90w power supply?
jphughan
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December 8th, 2020 09:00
@aleangiulli Yes, that is the purpose of the display and the USB-C port. The display can run power, video, USB data, audio, and Ethernet all over a single USB-C cable and all simultaneously. (Ethernet and audio are part of general USB data.) But that does require that your laptop actually provide support for the necessary technologies. For example, some laptops have USB-C ports that do NOT support receiving power for charging or sending video for a display. In that case, those functions obviously won't work if you connect that laptop to the display. But if your laptop has a USB-C port that supports charging, video, and USB 3.x data, then everything will work.
jphughan
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December 11th, 2020 06:00
@aleangiulli Docking stations might still offer more features or ports than certain USB-C displays. For example, the WD19 can provide up to 130W of power to systems, which is needed for certain systems. Dell's current USB-C displays cannot provide that much power. And of course a docking station can be useful for people who already have displays that do not have USB-C connections if they do not want to buy new displays. But yes, for people who are buying new displays, choosing a display like the U2421E could mean that they do not have to buy a docking station even though they might have needed to buy one if they bought a different display.
For information on your system, I checked the documentation available on support.dell.com. The direct link to the documentation page for your system is here. The Setup and Specifications document has useful information, and the Service Manual shows you to remove and replace every component in your system if you ever need to do that.
jphughan
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December 29th, 2021 16:00
Hi @aleangiulli, I'm glad I was able to help. In terms of moving from the 9700 to the 9710, what is making you want to upgrade? The 9710 isn't very different from the 9700. The 9710 uses CPUs that come with the new Intel Xe GPU, which means you can run DisplayPort HBR3 over USB-C and also four total displays without having to allow the NVIDIA GPU to have direct control of the display outputs (which was only possible on systems with top NVIDIA GPU option). With the 9700, you could only run three total displays and only use HBR2 over USB-C unless you had that option and chose to enable it. Additionally, the 9710 launched several months ago, so you would be buying that system roughly halfway between the 9710's launch and the likely launch of the next generation XPS 17. I don't know exactly when that next generation system will launch, but Dell seems to update systems approximately every year now. So again, why are you thinking about getting the 9710 if you already have a 9700?
aleangiulli
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December 10th, 2020 03:00
Thanks for the reply.
but does the "monitor u2421e" have normal usb-c or thunderbold usb-c?
also, how do i know if my "dell inspiron 17-7791" supports all these signals with one cable?
my laptop has a usb-c port that supports charging, currently i charge it with a usb-c charger.
thank you
jphughan
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December 10th, 2020 07:00
@aleangiulli Checking the documentation that Dell publishes about these products would answer these questions. The U2421E is a regular USB-C display, not a Thunderbolt display. And the "Setup and Specifications" document Inspiron 7791 indicates that it its USB-C port supports Thunderbolt 3 and Power Delivery. Ports that support Thunderbolt 3 have to support USB 3.x and video output, and you've confirmed that the system supports being charged over USB-C. So your system will be able to use all of the capabilities of the U2421E over a single cable.
aleangiulli
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December 10th, 2020 10:00
thank you very much for the replies.
from your answer I understand that my laptop has a usb-c with thunderbold, while the u2421e monitor has a usb-c without thunderbold, is that correct?
to transmit all the "signals" (video + audio + internet + power supply) doesn't it have to be usb-c with thunderbold?
jphughan
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December 10th, 2020 11:00
@aleangiulli It's called Thunderbolt, not Thunderbold. But no, the U2421E does not need Thunderbolt to carry all of those signals. If it did, then it would have to be a Thunderbolt display -- but it isn't, because it doesn't need to be a Thunderbolt display in order to do what it does. Regular USB-C can support USB 3.x (for Ethernet, audio, and the built-in USB ports), and USB Power Delivery (for charging), and DisplayPort Alt Mode (for video), all simultaneously. For reference, there are several USB-C docking stations that do this as well. Dell makes the WD19 dock, which is a regular USB-C dock and supports doing all of those things at the same time. Thunderbolt 3 allows PCI Express to be carried, and it also supports carrying more video bandwidth than regular USB-C. Dell ALSO makes a dock called the WD19TB, which supports Thunderbolt 3. That dock can support higher-end display setups than the WD19 and also allow you to connect actual Thunderbolt devices to the dock, which isn't possible on the WD19. But the regular WD19 can do all of the things you're talking about even though it's just a USB-C dock, not a Thunderbolt dock. And the USB-C port built into the U2421E works the same way.
aleangiulli
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December 11th, 2020 04:00
perfect.
thank you very much for all the answers, I proceed to buy the "monitor u2421e", we hope it works also as a dock station.
1) the dock stations are destined and finished if the moniotr will also do this function ??
2) one last thing, where did you get all the information about my inspiron 7791 laptop? on the DELL website is not there, where did you find the technical details?
thank you
aleangiulli
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December 11th, 2020 06:00
ok perfect, proceed with the purchase.
I need a monitor with dock station included.
thank you so much
aleangiulli
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December 25th, 2020 16:00
thank you very much for your answers.
I bought the monitor, it works very well, it transfers all the signals with a single usb-c cable, also charges my laptop with 90w.
I have two questions for you:
1- is the monitor usb-c port 5Gbps or 20Gbps?
2- when the laptop battery is charged, can I tell the monitor to stop charging but continue to transmit the other signals?
thank you so much
regards
jphughan
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December 26th, 2020 08:00
@aleangiulli Glad to hear everything is working. The U2421E manual should tell you the capabilities of the display’s USB-C port, but it would either be 5 Gbps or 10 Gbps. It couldn’t be 20 Gbps because that would require using all 4 high speed lanes of the USB-C connector for USB data, which would make it impossible to use video. I believe the U2421E only supports 5 Gbps (USB 3.x Gen 1), but again the manual would tell you.
As for charging, the display wouldn’t have a way to know when the system is fully charged. If you do not want to keep your system fully charged, you need to control that on the system, not the display. I wrote a post here that describes a setup you might want to consider in order to keep your battery running longer.
aleangiulli
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December 26th, 2020 11:00
1- I follow your advice, I set "Dell Power Manager" to 80% maximum charge and 50% minimum charge.
this setting can only be done via "Dell Power Manager"?
can you do with windows 10 with laptop that don't have "Dell Power Manager"?
2- from the manual of the monitor I can not understand the maximum speed of the usb-c, can you help me?
thank you so much
regards
jphughan
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December 26th, 2020 11:00
@aleangiulli The section of the manual that discusses the USB ports only mentions SuperSpeed USB 5 Gbps and says “USB 3.2 Gen 1”, which is 5 Gbps.
In terms of changing battery settings, the system firmware has to support that. Dell Power Manager just gives you a way to change that on systems that support this. You can’t just install Dell Power Manager on any PC to gain this capability. But on Dell systems that support this feature, if you did not have Dell Power Manager installed you would have to do it directly within the BIOS setup. On Lenovo systems that support this, you can change those settings either in the BIOS or in Lenovo’s Vantage app.
aleangiulli
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December 26th, 2020 16:00
my dell inspiron-17-7791 laptop supports the dell power manager, so i set the battery to 50% and 80%, following your advice.
i read that the manual only mentions SuperSpeed 5Gbps and says "USB 3.2 Gen 1" which is 5Gbps, but i thought usb-c was faster.
only 5 Gbps is enough to carry all the signals? video + audio + ethernet + power
jphughan
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December 26th, 2020 18:00
@aleangiulli The 5 Gbps number only applies to traffic that runs as USB data, which with your display is audio, Ethernet, and USB. Audio requires almost no bandwidth. Ethernet can only use 1 Gbps max but will usually be using less than that unless you are downloading downloading files at 1 Gbps. And then whatever you plug into your USB ports will have their own performance capabilities. Ethernet and whatever is plugged in your USB ports will be sharing 5 Gbps of bandwidth. If that isn’t enough, then something might slow down. You might see slower network transfers and/or slower file transfers to a USB hard drive, for example. But most devices cannot consume 5 Gbps of bandwidth.
Video is not carried as USB data and therefore is not included in the 5 Gbps max. It is running over a completely separate set of pins inside the USB-C connector. Power is also not USB data and does not use “bandwidth” at all. But it also uses separate pins in the connector.
I don’t understand why you’re so worried here. Before you got the display you were worried that the display’s features wouldn’t work properly because the display didn’t use Thunderbolt, even though it wouldn’t make sense for Dell to create a display with features that were impossible to use. But now you have the display and everything is working and somehow you’re still worried. Just enjoy your display.