Dell u3011 intermitently goes black

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Level 1

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Dell u3011 intermitently goes black

Hi, I have the latest MBP up to date and I am using a Dell u3011.

The screen works fine until it goes black (the LED remains blue, it does not go to sleep) then either it will come back on after a couple of seconds or it does not come back on at all

Then I have to turn the screen off and on and wake the mac up again.

I am mostly using the Macbook in clamshell mode but I sometime leave it open it behaves the same.

At first I was using the crazy expensive Dual DVI cable from Apple Store, then a friend of mine put me on to MDP to DP port and that worked well for a while but now it's back to the same.

I have good days where I can work for a few hours and bad days where it drives me crazy, doing it up to 10 times in 15 minutes. This is my second monitor and they both had the same issue.

does anyone has the same issue? Rather anyone had the same issue?

your help is appreciated, it seems it happens more frequently as my workload increases😐 .

MacBook Pro with Retina display, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Jun 21, 2013 5:42 AM

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Answer 1

griff w

Level 4

3,622 points

Jun 23, 2013 12:30 PM in response to Niop

Hi there,

I would recommend taking a look at some of the troubleshooting steps found in the article below.

Apple computers: Troubleshooting issues with video on internal or external displays

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1573

-Griff W.

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Answer 2

Jan 6, 2014 10:10 PM in response to Niop

Did you ever get a resolution to this problem? Same issue here - multiple Macs, it seems like a U3011. I had no issues with the monitor on DisplayPort into a ThinkPad, but have not tried dual-link DVI with Mac combination.

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Answer 3

Apr 9, 2014 11:07 AM in response to filmackay

I had a similar problem. I was using Display Port Cable the did not have a 'choke' (round cylindars at the ends). Once I switched it out with the 'choked' cable the problem with intermittenly going black (or blank) magically dissappered.

Also I have noticed, when I was using the wrong cable, that when I switched to a lower resoultion this problem did not occur. That tells me that with a higher resultion the montior/cable is more sentisive to magnetic interference.

Hope this helps.

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Answer 4

Niop Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 17, 2014 3:48 AM in response to filmackay

Hi all,

I did manage to solve this problem, however I am not entirely satisfied that this is what fixed it.

we used to have a hard drive (for time machine), a mouse, an iphone cable/docking station plugged at the back of the screen.

It turns out that as soon as I stopped using the usb ports at the back of the monitor, the issue disappeared.

Maybe I had a bad usb from the mac to the monitor ? I was using one that was pretty think and I'm pretty sure it came with the monitor.

I do not know if it is a coincidence, I did not re-plug everything back in to see if the problems would come back, I do not want to jinx it.

I ended up buying a powered usb board on ebay and I'm using that for the ever growing usb devices on the desk.

I hope this will help someone out there.

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