Precision 7710 Won't Detect Monitors - Both Monitors Appear as Single TV

tkister,
Please post the emails minus their address and names from Dell engineering showing the troubleshooting they have done.

Forget the dock for now. Test each S2740L by itself connected directly to the Precision 7710 and post pictures of how they look, and what resolutions and what Device Manager shows.

Precision 7710 HDMI out --> HDMI to HDMI cable --> #1 S2740L HDMI in port
* Post a picture

Precision 7710 HDMI out --> HDMI to HDMI cable --> #2 S2740L HDMI in port
* Post a picture

I have done what you suggest already.

I'm only really asking about the discrepancy between the device manager and the two graphics control panels. Dell already has an open ticket for the overall issues (described below).

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The resolutions are all native resolutions, with no settings changed (no display scaling, etc.) The resolution of the monitors and the laptop is 1920 x 1080.

These images are not 100% accurate, as the camera and the screen seem to interact in a way that changes the visual effect so it's not quite what I see. But it might give you some idea.

This is a closeup of the text. You can see the gaps and jags in the letters.

The background pattern is also visible on the monitor, and it shouldn't be.

I cannot post all of the communications I have had with Dell, as I have been struggling with this issue for about nine months, and there are way too many emails. It would take me a full work day to compile them all. There are also hours and hours of phone communications. (Can you access this information on the Dell side, since you appear to work for Dell?)

I have tried plugging the monitors into the laptop, and the poor quality of the display is still an issue. Both monitors look the same. However, this is not the only issue - I also have cursors that are distorted, cursors that don't respond, flickering, large blank areas of the screen, menus that appear (30 or more of the same menu at the same time) and float on screen for just a second, windows that open and close so quickly I can't see what they are, and colors that are just wrong (for example, an app will say something is blue because I made it blue, and the display shows it as white or green or whatever color it was before). Colors also disappear from one monitor to the other.

Oh, and my absolute favorite - when I disabled the Intel display driver as an experiment to see if I could just use NVIDIA, and my UI was HUGE – the desktop icons were literally about four inches across.

Yesterday, a Dell tech remoted in and ran a color calibration on the monitors, which (unsurprisingly), didn't help. Interestingly, when a Dell tech remotes in, the already poor quality plummets, so that the text looks like an old Xerox of an old newspaper. The Dell tech said that this shouldn't happen and that the text looks crisp and clear on his end (of course).

The Dell tech also told me not to bother sharing the pictures or taking screencasts, as this would be a waste of time, since it doesn't tell him what's causing the problem. (Dell seems to be stuck in some sort of Kafkaesque logic loop in which they can't help me but are obligated to help me but can't help me.

That's pretty much what the conversation yesterday sounded like:

Dell: "I can't fix the problem because I can't see it."

Me: "I can show you."

Dell: "No, that won't help."

Me: "Then, how do we fix it?"

Dell:  "We can't, unless I can see the problem."

Me: "I can send you a picture."

Dell: "No, that won't help."

And round and round...

To be fair, he finally submitted a refund request, which may or may not be approved. And this is not an issue related to any one individual – everyone has followed their scripts and tried their best to be helpful.

It's clear that something's wrong with the system and that it has nothing to do with me or anything I did, and yet we just go in the same circle over and over while my beautiful HD monitors gather dust, and I try to do my job on a single laptop monitor in between calls and emails from Dell.

I just spent two hours composing my response, and the website won't accept it.

Dell is sucking the life out of me.

After I cool off, I will try again.

The first pictures almost seem like a VGA cable is used (clearly visible echo's), but I assume you are running DVI?

I have exactly the same issue with my 7710 running Windows 10 and a Quadro M5000M. It is extremely frustrating. I have also found that it is absolutely useless to try and setup multiple displays through the Nvidia or Intel control panels. The only way I get multiple displays (2 external + laptop screen) is through the Windows display control panel. Why the heck are we able to change settings in so many places? This should be consolidated into one place!

Oh and there is no way to get better than 1920 x 1080 resolution on my external displays either.

I have tried running from a docking station (bottom port) from Display port, DVI  and VGA outputs and even from the side HMI port on the laptop in many different combinations but to no avail.

How is it possible that a machine that sells for over USD 5k has these trivial problems??? Who is responsible? Dell, Intel, Nvidia or Windows 10?

Additionally, when I run Soliworks 2016, whether on laptop display only or connected to external displays,  the model will box up and lag!

I know this is not an isolated issue because 3 other coworkers (if not more) of mine have exactly this same issue! the temporary workaround that we have found is to re-install the Nvidia driver for a few hours of good graphics in Solidworks. Can you imagine how annoying it is to have to save and close your large assembly models to re-install a driver and then re-open them? We easily waste 15 minutes a day on this  workaround!!! That's approximately 65 hours a year of lost productivity per employee.

DELL, please help us figure this out! We have been buying Dell laptops every year since the early Precision days and have never had such poor performance from a new laptop EVER!

LOL. I'm using HDMI to HDMI and DVI to HDMI.

After more than 9 months, a new graphics card, a new motherboard, a new SSD, and (just this last Friday -- lucky me) another re-imaged hard drive, I think it's safe to say it's not a cable issue.

New issues started appearing after the last troubleshooting episode with Dell just a few days ago -- issues that remained even when the computer was not docked -- so I tried to reinstall the OS (which I've done 5 or 6 times already), and the computer absolutely died. Could not install OS. I had a business trip the next day, and couldn't take my laptop, which was a disaster. So Dell sent yet another hard drive.

And now I'm starting to worry about my 27-inch monitors. They are heavy and delicate, and not meant to be moved once or twice a week for 9 months. (I noticed some new weird pixelation for the first time today when I tried yet another fix. I'm too weary to plug them into my old desktop AGAIN to compare the performance.)

Dell won't even resolve the issues with this defective system they sold me and all the time and money I've lost -- I doubt they'll consider providing me with new replacement monitors if they stop working because they've been handled and moved too often.

I'm so outraged I can't find words, and certainly not words fit for public consumption.  I know I'm not alone in this either, although I have probably spent more money and time than most individual customers. I don't know if they've ever been sold for just selling defective equipment.

"In March 2007 an article titled "Computer Giant Faces Consumer Consumers Allege They Didn't Get the Tech Support They Paid For" appeared on an ABC News website.:emotion-29: "Part of the claims that though Dell gave the impression of an "award-winning service" available to consumers "24 hours a day, seven days a week", consumers faced "nightmarish obstacles" to get help and technical service for their computers. New York had received 700 complaints about Dell — more than the number of complaints for any other related subject."

I've been using a Dell Precision 7710 for 18 months with SolidWorks 2016 and 3 screens (laptop and 2 Dell monitors, U2412M at 1920x1200, and E2009W at 1680x1050).  Using two DVI cables (not Display Port).  Seems to run largely fine and I feel like I get a ton of work done with this setup.

Just turn off the Switched Graphics option under Video in the BIOS (press F2 during bootup display of the Dell logo).  When I tried to turn it on, it no longer recognized the 3rd screen.