I am sorry to read through this forum topic, and sorry to hear of your woes. While my personal experience with Dell support has run hot and cold over the years, like others here Dell Monitors have been my choice for quite a long time. So I was looking forward to trying the Dell 4k experience, after reading reviews online and talking to folks who were using (non Dell) 4 k monitors. But stumbling across this forum has killed that desire. ChrisM it reads as though you are frustrated by the message you have to deliver over and over (i.e., no user initiated firmware fix; no fix to products coming off the line for quite awhile), but as an observation, this forum topic reads as an object lesson on how to chase customers away.
Time to start shopping elsewhere. All the best to those of you trying to get a "fix" that makes sense, but thank you from someone who would have been there too, had you not been vocal and shared your experiences. Here's hoping Dell, corporately, decides to release products in the future with clearly obvious and easy to reproduce bugs fixed rather than waiting for the complaints to start rolling in. And I would encourage Dell to go out of its way to directly resolve and satisfy every one of you on this forum, to try and start making amends.
I setup my screen resolution: 4K @ 30 Hz and run Diablo III Game in 1920x1080 (60Hz) the contrast levels was low, the same test but with Windows in 1920x1080 (60Hz) - before run game - the contrast levels are perfect.
Anandtech just wrote an interesting write up on this monitor containing this gem...
Unfortunately MST support is incredibly flaky. It works great, and then your computer hibernates and the monitor won’t wake up until you power cycle it. Or the two sides get out of sync and you have correct colors on one side and an incorrect color profile on the other side. I had half of the screen change resolution on me one day and the other side remain the same. After a firmware update I felt most of these issues were resolved, but as soon as I updated the Dell Calibration software, the monitor would no longer stay in sync in MST mode anymore. You also have to give up Uniformity Compensation on the Dell to use MST.
Note: The firmware update that I installed is not being provided to end users. You would need to exchange your monitor for a refurbished one with the updated firmware from Dell. More details can be read in the thread on Dell's website here.
and
The MST feature on the Dell UP3214Q started out working poorly for me. It didn’t wake up from sleep and the other issues I mentioned. A firmware update from Dell seemed to resolve all of these. It always woke up from sleep and the color profiles managed to stay in sync as well. Dell also released a new update to their calibration software that lets you take advantage of the two CAL presets in the monitor. As soon as this was installed a new issue cropped up. In MST mode, the two halves of the monitor would flicker, then it would turn off completely, then back on, then repeat. Only disabling MST fixes this, which then puts me back at a 30 Hz refresh rate.
So at the moment, UltraHD is half-ready when it comes to hardware and software. It has improved a bit over the past few months ago, but it still isn’t quite ready for everyone yet.
So this at least confirms that the firmware update aims to resolve the MST issues, and that aside from some issues with calibration software, it works. But I really don't think it's acceptable to have to return my perfect panel to correct this error. I will freely admit that I'm no Anand Lai Shimpi (who is awesome, by the way, and incredibly diligent and impartial in his tech coverage) but I still think I could manage a home firmware update. If the odd update fails then the monitors could be returned to Dell and reflashed - how is that any different to Dell's current proposal? If not end user firmware update then seriously, why not? Is there a good technical reason? It must be cheaper for Dell too. I just don't get it.
I connect a 2 cables into Dell UP2414Q, 1 DisplayPort and 1 HDMI at same time, but only DisplayPort cable setup for 4K @ 60Hz, the HDMI cable its only physically connected.
After that the monitor had none of the problems mentioned in the topic, it is working perfectly. The only problem is during boot, the bios screen is not shown.
I thought I would share my findings on this issue as I came across this thread from the Anandtech post. I have been experiencing the same issue as others since day one. Running at 30hz wasn't an acceptable solution. So I employed the following workaround.
My current workaround involves "TeamViewer". When I shutdown my monitor I cannot get it to turn on without pulling the power cable and reconnecting and waiting for the boot up. To avoid this, I use my phone's TeamViewer application to remotely log into my system. When the monitor turns off, it is being detected as a different monitor and running a much lower resolution (Display: 1. Display device on: VGA, Resolution: 2560 x 1600). Once I power on the monitor, it detects as the Dell over DP using 4k resolution. I then use my phone to change the resolution down a notch. Once I hit apply the display wakes up and I can then set my resolution appropriately and log off of TeamViewer. This becomes my nightly ritual when I get home from work. I have also set my monitor to never turn off the display, only to black out the screen and just manually turn off the monitor if I plan to be back in a few minutes.
However, I have noticed some full screen applications that change resolutions can cause my display to completely stop, fortunately for me I have only come across a few applications that caused this and I just avoid using them.
This workaround has made me mostly happy with the display. At which point I await for nvidia to better handle MST to avoid this issue, or for Dell to provide an appropriate resolution path. Depending on how the resolution is handled, determines if my current state of calmness continues.
How about providing a reason for us not beeing able to update our own firmware? Simply stating NO isn't really doing that much if your job is to keep your customers even remotely satisfied with their purchase of a faulty product.
The Dell Displays team decided the process was to difficult for customers. The chance of "bricking" the monitor bios was to great and would lead to "unnecessary" monitor exchanges. They set the Dell policy and the Dell Legal Teams agreed with it.
Chris, thank you very much for the prompt reply. So they are concerned with replacements, all the while shipping new monitors with the old firmware, knowing full and well that those monitors will have to be reprogrammed at one point or another in the future through the replacement program. Talk about "unnecessary". I guess the inability to update the monitors firmware is in itself a lesson in over confidence bordering on arrogance. I'd imagine the firmware, with its MST monitor splitting etc, is a pretty complex piece of software. Shipping it to customers with no way to correct any bugs found, not to mention any feature improvements, seems pretty stupid to me. Should have gone with ASUS or Sharp on this one. Pretty work Dell.
Note: The firmware update that I installed is not being provided to end users. You would need to exchange your monitor for a refurbished one with the updated firmware from Dell. More details can be read in the thread on Dell's website here.
I don't understand why Anandtech has the "priviledge" to install themselves the firmware and we cannot. It should be a choice for us the end users also. If you are not comfortable, fine, send it back to Dell and they will do it for you. I cannot afford to send a monitor back and get a flaky one, but patched with the new firmware.
Chris, can you please put some lineance on this? Unless Dell is willing to provide me with a brand new patched monitor, I will not accept refurbished items. Think of the added costs just for that. I will keep on exchanging the monitor until I have a perfect one, instead of simply installing the firmware myself. I understand that you might avoid firmware costs on 2-500$ monitors but we are talking here of a $3000 one. What is the difference if I install the firmware myself, beside saving to Dell a ton of cash? I might be unlucky but every single monitor I purchased from Dell, I had to exchange it several times until I got a perfect one. I'm not going to gamble the Dell roulette, just because a firmware patch.
The fact a display has issues was of concern, but not that much since the fact those can be repaired by firmware. BUT, the fact firmware is not freely available to customers (I'm a computer engineer, I can handle firmware update) is such a show stopping thing that I've cancelled a purchase of UP3214Q I just did and asked for a full refund from the shop - mid shipping (it was almost at my door).
I hope Dell will learn from this. A thread like this one can not stay unanswered and this whole deal with no firmware available to customers of a $3000 monitor? Gotta be joking, Dell, right?
When, and IF, this situation changes. I'm willing to actually buy a working display. But next time I will be much more careful and won't just jump onto Dell if not really confirmed up-front.
"I don't understand why Anandtech has the "privilege" to install themselves the firmware and we cannot." * I have no idea how Anandtech got it. Not from me!
I will keep on exchanging the monitor until I have a perfect one, instead of simply installing the firmware myself. * Go for it. That is what they are saying to do.
hedrums
13 Posts
0
March 30th, 2014 10:00
Sorry, meant to add: on the drivers from EVGA...
tompp21
1 Rookie
•
41 Posts
0
March 30th, 2014 11:00
Results of updated EVGA firmware were posted a few comments back - in effect, no change.
Zuu111
1 Message
0
March 30th, 2014 15:00
I am sorry to read through this forum topic, and sorry to hear of your woes. While my personal experience with Dell support has run hot and cold over the years, like others here Dell Monitors have been my choice for quite a long time. So I was looking forward to trying the Dell 4k experience, after reading reviews online and talking to folks who were using (non Dell) 4 k monitors. But stumbling across this forum has killed that desire. ChrisM it reads as though you are frustrated by the message you have to deliver over and over (i.e., no user initiated firmware fix; no fix to products coming off the line for quite awhile), but as an observation, this forum topic reads as an object lesson on how to chase customers away.
Time to start shopping elsewhere. All the best to those of you trying to get a "fix" that makes sense, but thank you from someone who would have been there too, had you not been vocal and shared your experiences. Here's hoping Dell, corporately, decides to release products in the future with clearly obvious and easy to reproduce bugs fixed rather than waiting for the complaints to start rolling in. And I would encourage Dell to go out of its way to directly resolve and satisfy every one of you on this forum, to try and start making amends.
tompp21
1 Rookie
•
41 Posts
0
April 1st, 2014 04:00
Got no further communication from Dell Support since Friday (215499-1642958). (11 days without any action)
leopsoares
5 Posts
0
April 1st, 2014 06:00
I make a new test with 335.23 driver.
I setup my screen resolution: 4K @ 30 Hz and run Diablo III Game in 1920x1080 (60Hz) the contrast levels was low, the same test but with Windows in 1920x1080 (60Hz) - before run game - the contrast levels are perfect.
HydrogenAlpha
3 Posts
0
April 1st, 2014 17:00
Anandtech just wrote an interesting write up on this monitor containing this gem...
Unfortunately MST support is incredibly flaky. It works great, and then your computer hibernates and the monitor won’t wake up until you power cycle it. Or the two sides get out of sync and you have correct colors on one side and an incorrect color profile on the other side. I had half of the screen change resolution on me one day and the other side remain the same. After a firmware update I felt most of these issues were resolved, but as soon as I updated the Dell Calibration software, the monitor would no longer stay in sync in MST mode anymore. You also have to give up Uniformity Compensation on the Dell to use MST.
Note: The firmware update that I installed is not being provided to end users. You would need to exchange your monitor for a refurbished one with the updated firmware from Dell. More details can be read in the thread on Dell's website here.
and
The MST feature on the Dell UP3214Q started out working poorly for me. It didn’t wake up from sleep and the other issues I mentioned. A firmware update from Dell seemed to resolve all of these. It always woke up from sleep and the color profiles managed to stay in sync as well. Dell also released a new update to their calibration software that lets you take advantage of the two CAL presets in the monitor. As soon as this was installed a new issue cropped up. In MST mode, the two halves of the monitor would flicker, then it would turn off completely, then back on, then repeat. Only disabling MST fixes this, which then puts me back at a 30 Hz refresh rate.
So at the moment, UltraHD is half-ready when it comes to hardware and software. It has improved a bit over the past few months ago, but it still isn’t quite ready for everyone yet.
So this at least confirms that the firmware update aims to resolve the MST issues, and that aside from some issues with calibration software, it works. But I really don't think it's acceptable to have to return my perfect panel to correct this error. I will freely admit that I'm no Anand Lai Shimpi (who is awesome, by the way, and incredibly diligent and impartial in his tech coverage) but I still think I could manage a home firmware update. If the odd update fails then the monitors could be returned to Dell and reflashed - how is that any different to Dell's current proposal? If not end user firmware update then seriously, why not? Is there a good technical reason? It must be cheaper for Dell too. I just don't get it.
Anandtech article http://www.anandtech.com/show/7906/dell-up3214q-review
leopsoares
5 Posts
1
April 1st, 2014 18:00
More tests...
I connect a 2 cables into Dell UP2414Q, 1 DisplayPort and 1 HDMI at same time, but only DisplayPort cable setup for 4K @ 60Hz, the HDMI cable its only physically connected.
After that the monitor had none of the problems mentioned in the topic, it is working perfectly. The only problem is during boot, the bios screen is not shown.
Thiengy
1 Message
0
April 2nd, 2014 14:00
Hello,
I thought I would share my findings on this issue as I came across this thread from the Anandtech post. I have been experiencing the same issue as others since day one. Running at 30hz wasn't an acceptable solution. So I employed the following workaround.
My current workaround involves "TeamViewer". When I shutdown my monitor I cannot get it to turn on without pulling the power cable and reconnecting and waiting for the boot up. To avoid this, I use my phone's TeamViewer application to remotely log into my system. When the monitor turns off, it is being detected as a different monitor and running a much lower resolution (Display: 1. Display device on: VGA, Resolution: 2560 x 1600). Once I power on the monitor, it detects as the Dell over DP using 4k resolution. I then use my phone to change the resolution down a notch. Once I hit apply the display wakes up and I can then set my resolution appropriately and log off of TeamViewer. This becomes my nightly ritual when I get home from work. I have also set my monitor to never turn off the display, only to black out the screen and just manually turn off the monitor if I plan to be back in a few minutes.
However, I have noticed some full screen applications that change resolutions can cause my display to completely stop, fortunately for me I have only come across a few applications that caused this and I just avoid using them.
This workaround has made me mostly happy with the display. At which point I await for nvidia to better handle MST to avoid this issue, or for Dell to provide an appropriate resolution path. Depending on how the resolution is handled, determines if my current state of calmness continues.
My system specs:
Monitor: U3214Q
Hz: 60hz over DP using MST
Video Card: EVGA GTX780 Ti
Windows: 8.0
zypher32
2 Posts
0
April 4th, 2014 02:00
How about providing a reason for us not beeing able to update our own firmware? Simply stating NO isn't really doing that much if your job is to keep your customers even remotely satisfied with their purchase of a faulty product.
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
•
56.9K Posts
0
April 4th, 2014 07:00
zypher32,
The Dell Displays team decided the process was to difficult for customers. The chance of "bricking" the monitor bios was to great and would lead to "unnecessary" monitor exchanges. They set the Dell policy and the Dell Legal Teams agreed with it.
tompp21
1 Rookie
•
41 Posts
0
April 4th, 2014 08:00
Zypher32,
zypher32
2 Posts
0
April 4th, 2014 08:00
Chris, thank you very much for the prompt reply. So they are concerned with replacements, all the while shipping new monitors with the old firmware, knowing full and well that those monitors will have to be reprogrammed at one point or another in the future through the replacement program. Talk about "unnecessary". I guess the inability to update the monitors firmware is in itself a lesson in over confidence bordering on arrogance. I'd imagine the firmware, with its MST monitor splitting etc, is a pretty complex piece of software. Shipping it to customers with no way to correct any bugs found, not to mention any feature improvements, seems pretty stupid to me. Should have gone with ASUS or Sharp on this one. Pretty work Dell.
T3CK
1 Rookie
•
33 Posts
2
April 4th, 2014 14:00
I don't understand why Anandtech has the "priviledge" to install themselves the firmware and we cannot. It should be a choice for us the end users also. If you are not comfortable, fine, send it back to Dell and they will do it for you. I cannot afford to send a monitor back and get a flaky one, but patched with the new firmware.
Chris, can you please put some lineance on this? Unless Dell is willing to provide me with a brand new patched monitor, I will not accept refurbished items. Think of the added costs just for that. I will keep on exchanging the monitor until I have a perfect one, instead of simply installing the firmware myself. I understand that you might avoid firmware costs on 2-500$ monitors but we are talking here of a $3000 one. What is the difference if I install the firmware myself, beside saving to Dell a ton of cash? I might be unlucky but every single monitor I purchased from Dell, I had to exchange it several times until I got a perfect one. I'm not going to gamble the Dell roulette, just because a firmware patch.
AnthonyJay
25 Posts
0
April 5th, 2014 13:00
The fact a display has issues was of concern, but not that much since the fact those can be repaired by firmware. BUT, the fact firmware is not freely available to customers (I'm a computer engineer, I can handle firmware update) is such a show stopping thing that I've cancelled a purchase of UP3214Q I just did and asked for a full refund from the shop - mid shipping (it was almost at my door).
I hope Dell will learn from this. A thread like this one can not stay unanswered and this whole deal with no firmware available to customers of a $3000 monitor? Gotta be joking, Dell, right?
When, and IF, this situation changes. I'm willing to actually buy a working display. But next time I will be much more careful and won't just jump onto Dell if not really confirmed up-front.
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
•
56.9K Posts
0
April 6th, 2014 14:00
"I don't understand why Anandtech has the "privilege" to install themselves the firmware and we cannot."
* I have no idea how Anandtech got it. Not from me!
I will keep on exchanging the monitor until I have a perfect one, instead of simply installing the firmware myself.
* Go for it. That is what they are saying to do.