We just got our first order of 38 U2414H monitors.  They are A03, manufactured August 2015.  We are experiencing a "blackout" problem that's been widely reported since these monitors came out.

We are connecting the monitors to display ports, mostly on docking stations, but also a few desktops.  The problem exists whether there is one monitor or two.  If we connect two monitors, they are connected like this:  PC/Dock à Monitor1 à Monitor 2.  The second monitor is daisy chained from the first using a second display port cable. 

 

Initially connecting the monitors and getting them to work seems to work fine.  We plug them up, the PC detects them and you can use both monitors. 

 

Problem 1:

After that initial setup, the monitors occasionally go off for a second and then come back on.  Literally for a second.  It’s happened three times so far while I’m typing this email.  If there are two monitors set up, they don’t always both go off, but each of them does occasionally go off and come right back on.  Rarely, but occasionally, both go off at the same time and then come back on.

 

Problem 2:

When we restart or just turn a computer on in the morning, the PC boots up normally. In problem 1 above, the monitors are on most of the time, but occasionally go off for a second.  In this case, the monitors are off most of the time and occasionally come on for a second.  The PC is fine and opening the laptop shows that you can work just fine, but the two U2414H monitors just blink on for a second and then back off.  They alternate or occasionally both come on at the same time.   After 2 to 5 minutes of this, they both come on and you can use them.  Problem 1 then takes over and you just have to deal with that until the next reboot.

 

We have the problems on desktops and laptops, with Windows 7 and Windows 10.  The problem occurs with no drivers installed, with the drivers installed from the CD, or with the latest drivers from support.dell.com.  It also occurs with a mix of PC drivers, old, or completely up-to-date.  The problems occur on PC’s as old as 4 years, or brand new ones just unboxed last week.  The problems are well documented on the internet, there are lots of people with the same problems that we are having, but I can’t find a good solution.  We are having the problem with every monitor and I can’t imagine that there are really this many bad ones on one order.  There has to be a fix, I just need to figure out what it is.