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U4021QW, Latitude 3420, DPBS unusable
I've recently had a nightmare week with my PC setup after upgrading my Dell U4021QW monitor to firmware M2T104 that included support for DPBS (Dell Power Button Sync). I have now downgraded back to M2T102 firmware to remove the feature and regain control of my setup again.
I have two PCs connected to my monitor (Dell laptop via USB-C and desktop PC via DP) and DPBS makes the setup totally unusable. This is because my Dell laptop (connected by USB-C) switches off the monitor whenever you shut it down, even though the desktop PC connected to the monitor's DP input is powered on and sending video. If you power the monitor on again, the monitor powers up the laptop. It's impossible to use the desktop without the laptop powered up unless you remove the USB-C cable from the laptop before turning on the monitor.
Whilst DPBS is a brilliant feature for a single PC to monitor setup, it's totally unusable if more than one PC is connected to the monitor. I cannot believe that nobody in Dell has either predicted or actually experienced this use case prior to specifying and implementing DPBS in a monitor with no means to disable it. I am lucky, I had the old monitor firmware and could step back. But for anyone buying a new monitor with DPBS, they are going to find the monitor unusable with more than one PC.
Please think about putting in a menu option to disable DPBS on a monitor. And even when the feature is enabled, why not scan the other monitor inputs before the power down and skip it if there's a live video signal on another input?
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
Community Manager
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54.2K Posts
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August 16th, 2022 11:00
What specific Dell Laptop model?
For all of the monitors that have DPBS (Dell Power Button Sync) support, the displays team has already stated that they are not going to provide an option to turn DPBS off.
TalldaveUK
49 Posts
4
August 17th, 2022 12:00
Laptop is a Latitude 3420.
Not providing an option to disable DPBS on monitors with multiple inputs and KVM support would seem to be a big mistake. Surely someone working for Dell must use two computers and encounter this problem soon?
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
Community Manager
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54.2K Posts
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August 18th, 2022 04:00
I do not see the Latitude 3420 on the supported list?
PC which support DPBS function =
Latitude 3320/5421/7320/9520 2-in-1
OptiPlex 7090 Ultra
Precision 5760/7560/7760
XPS 9510/9710
TalldaveUK
49 Posts
2
August 18th, 2022 14:00
Whether it's on a list or not is surely irrelevant to someone wanting to use a U4021QW with two PCs, one of which happens to be a Dell laptop? The M2T104 firmware renders the monitor unusable as the laptop shuts the monitor off when you close the laptop down. And the Latitude 3420 with BIOS 1.20.0 is most definitely doing just that.
If I just used the laptop with the monitor life would be a dream as the feature works perfectly and negates the need the fiddle with opening & closing the laptop screen to power it up.
jhbjhb
3 Posts
3
September 17th, 2022 14:00
This isn't a "glitch". It makes the monitor unusable in a common use case where monitor has dual PC inputs. Dell basically turned a clever monitor capable of handling multiple inputs into a single use monitor if you want to use USB-C! My laptop is Latitude 9420 and my monitor is U3821DW.
jhbjhb
3 Posts
3
September 17th, 2022 14:00
Hi tall Dave,
I completely agree. This makes my brand new monitor U3821DW almost completely unusable on a dual-computer system. Complete madness.
To make things worse - it took me about 3 days to even figure out what was going on because DPBS was only added as a feature recently to the U3821DW and so there is NO MENTION of it in the instructions! Kind of a big feature to not mention at all in the instructions.
I can't believe they're not going to fix it but it seems they have no intention to.