Mac Pro with Dell UP2414Q Sleep Wake Issue

I think I might train myself into the habit of turning the monitor off at night. Although it is nowhere near as bad as some of my previous monitors, it does generate a fair bit of heat from the top vents, when it is only on screensaver. I need to be green about this. The Mac Pro can earn its keep over night though. It's currently transcoding a large back catalogue of clips. It's amazing how much more efficient it is compared to my old 12-core 5,1. Overall a great system and I do love working on this display, despite the early hair pulling.

I see aha. I am really looking forward to having one for my degree. I can see what you mean about heat generation but then again in shared student accommodation electricity is cheaper than gas for heating so I think in the ice box that I'm going to be living in compared to the sauna I do now it will be just about the right temperature 😁

Yes, it's highly intelligent heating. If you're improving the world more than burning its resources, it has to be a good thing, on balance.

I hope your system handles the shock of the change.

"I can consistently use the switch on off routine for the monitor when it (also consistently) fails to wake up from extended sleep. That might just have to be the way it is."

"Mind considering the price for 4K at this point in time I'm not really feeling like a need to complain about a niggle which just involves me pressing a button."

Has a particular solution been found? What's the "one button" workaround? NONE of the following work for me, and I regularly have to force-power-down my Mac Pro, risking data loss from open apps (which means I must disrupt my workflow but not LEAVING running apps overnight):

- Sleeping the display (even repeatedly) with the power button--which isn't really accapetable because it prevents the screen from password-locking (although Apple could fix that security issue).

- Powering down the display.

- Unplugging/replugging the DisplayPort cable.

- Hitting Command F2 to Detect Displays.

- Connecting a second display (and clicking Detect Displays in System Preferences).

- Letting the screen saver start before auto display sleep (or before hitting the power button).

- Doing Lock Screen from the menu icon before auto sleep (or button).

- Going the the Login Screen before auto sleep (or button).

ALL of the above DO work sometimes... but the problem still happens about 50% of the time I try to use the machine after hours away. I'm probably kidding myself that I have any control over the odds.

There are four "software-like" symptoms that make me think this MIGHT in part be an Apple issue (though clearly a Dell issue too):

1. Sometimes when it fails to recognize the woken display, once it finally does (even if it took a reboot), it loses its color calibration in System Preferences. It reverts to over-brilliant sRGB instead of the normal default Dell UP2414Q (the built-in profile that came from Apple). A few clicks to fix, but extra annoyance.

2. Time seems to matter: if I wake the display within a few minutes it seems pretty reliable. Overnight is what's so risky. This "feels" like software... maybe.

3. Sometimes, the computer is entirely "frozen" invisibly... I think. It's still pumping out heat (expected: I run Folding@Home protein research) and Caps Lock still lights, but input is ignored. I judge this by doing the volume buttons: they don't click. Most of the time when the display isn't recognized I can still hear the volume work, but sometimes I can't--and in those cases, I have found nothing I can do but hold the Mac power button, force a hard crash-and-burn, and pay th price. I have never seen such a crash with the screen on, so it feels related.

4. Once in a while, my OTHER external display (a Qumi projector I connect only occasionally) "inherits" the same problem, and I can't get EITHER screen to be recognized (even when volume works fine and the machine is awake and not crashed). I have never had this problem in years of using the Qumi by itself--(but that was with a MacBook Air and different OS, so not a great test).

Besides, even if it's a Dell problem entirely, the fact that Windows doesn't do this suggests that SOMETHING on the computer end could work around the issue. And since Apple won't sell a retina display of their own... I'd love an OS X fix for this!

And since Apple won't sell a retina display of their own...

Is there something wrong with these displays?

http://www.apple.com/displays/

Apple only offers one single display model on that page, and it's not a retina display.

This particular Dell is the only desktop retina display (a.k.a. 2x high-DPI) that you can currently buy. (Recent MacBook Pros have them built in.) I'd have loved an Apple display (better made, better supported, durable glass, no fake plastic "aluminum," TB hub, 3 speakers, camera mic) and maybe someday Apple will offer a retina display, but until then... if you've ever used a retina display on a laptop, iPad, or modern smartphone, you'll know why Apple's aging (and super-thick) Thunderbolt (but not TB2!) display doesn't cut it.

The sharpness of 4k at 24" is gorgeous.

I also have this problem. Apple knows about it. I submitted a bug report and it got marked as a duplicate issue. We can only hope that a future OS update will fix it. Yosemite, perhaps? My monitor is a Rev 1, btw. I’ve seen others say this problem happens with the Rev 2 Dell firmware, so it appears to be an Apple issue.

The workaround seems to be: Turn the monitor off completely. I’ve never had an issue with it not being detected when the power button is activated. One issue is that this kills the power to the monitor's USB hub too.

Another thing that seems to work is manually sleeping the display with Shift-Control-Eject. The monitor seems to wake up reliably when the display is manually slept versus automatic sleep.

So for now I just leave the Mac Pro on all the time and manually sleep the display at night. I use a screen saver during the day (hal 9000 in full screen mode - http://www.halproject.com highly recommended!)

The display is very much worth the effort. Easily the most beautiful monitor display I’ve ever seen.

This is still cutting edge stuff, unfortunately. Some problems are kind of inevitable. Teething and all that. It will get better.

I can’t wait until I can get a 30inch monitor with this dot pitch! 😀

I have found a workaround that has not failed yet. There is a setting in the energy savings panel that says don't put the computer to sleep when the monitor goes to sleep. If this is not checked the mac pro will go to sleep when the monitor does. When you wake the mac pro is seems to reestablish communications with the monitors.

I agree, the picture quality is worth some effort, and I'm glad some have had better luck getting the Macs to come to life. But in my case it also means crash damage when I have to force-power-down my entire Mac Pro once or twice a week without a clean shutdown of the OS or my running apps. That's BAD practice, even worse when repeated.

"The workaround seems to be: Turn the monitor off completely."

"Another thing that seems to work is manually sleeping the display with Shift-Control-Eject"

Neither of those has worked for me. My display frequently fails to be recognized in both situations. (I'd actually prefer to turn the display off; except that prevents screen lock--poor security practice. Which is why I tried going to the Login screen and THEN powering off. Still won't wake reliably.)

If even fails if I fully unplug the Dell from power and then reconnect. I still sometimes can't get a picture. (And I often hit Command-F2 repeatedly to Detect Displays over and over in hopes of getting the "right timing"... but that doesn't help.)

I've been trying everything for months looking for a pattern that helps. Nothing does. It seems very random other than duration of time spent with the display of or asleep (quickly re-waking or powering-on the display seems to work OK, but not waiting overnight as happens in actual practice).

(Note: I'm talking about total failure to wake, not "one side black" failure. I see that one-side annoyance rarely, and have always made it go away by powering down or re-plugging a few times. And I've never seen color variation between the sides. But I frequently have total failure where the display will not wake.)

Clearly experiences vary a lot. Odd!

>>Clearly experiences vary a lot. Odd!

Agreed. I’m wondering if the particular graphics card model plays into it also? I’ve seen some conflicting information about this.

I have the low end D300 gpus. The reports of real bad behavior seem to be with the D500 & D700 models - especially when multiple displays are brought into it.

I have to think that Apple is on this and that an update will fix this. They are really pushing the whole 4K thing real hard.

"There is a setting in the energy savings panel that says don't put the computer to sleep when the monitor goes to sleep. If this is not checked the mac pro will go to sleep when the monitor does. When you wake the mac pro is seems to reestablish communications with the monitors."

Haven't tried that! (I can't since I run my Mac 24/7, folding@home.) But I have tried getting the Mac to go to sleep manually and re-wake after having the problem, which should be similar. No luck. But all of these tips might help someone! Thanks.

Anyway, short-term I'm experiencing data loss, but long-term I'm hopeful: Apple already supports THIS particular display model specifically in two ways: a) they include a custom calibration profile for it with the OS (unless there's a way a display can sent that profile the machine? never heard of such a thing) and b) they treat its scaling modes like a retina device, not like other (bigger-pixel) 4K displays.

"Agreed. I’m wondering if the particular graphics card model plays into it also?"

Good thought--we shouldn't lose sight of that detail in case it matters.

I'm on D700s, for the record, and no posted workarounds have helped.

Unfortunately, it looks like Yosemite has not fixed this issue. 😟

Oh well. The "pushing the off button" thing works for me about 99% of the time. I guess that's the way it is for now.

I'm trying out one of these monitors with the plan of getting a second one if it works out over the next couple of weeks or returning it if it doesn't. This display is absolutely beautiful though, so I'd very much like this to work out. However, I've just seen firsthand the wake from extended sleep problem which is not encouraging. I tried the technique here of turning the monitor off and on using the power switch, but as soon as I turn the monitor back on, the MacPro reboots. I'm running Yosemite, the UP2414Q is a new Rev 01, using a DP 1.2 compatible cable, and running 4K@60Hz. So far, system and display stability is actually considerably better than I've been experiencing with the pair of DVI monitors I previously had hooked up, but I've also noticed that every problem with the nMP creeps up after a few days, so keeping a close eye on it.

I may have jumped the gun on pronouncing the problem unfixed in Yosemite, at least for my configuration. Things do seem to be better. I'll post again if I get a reproducible situation.

I've found that the UP2414Q wake-from-extended-sleep issues are really intolerable since they seem to make it necessary to restart the computer. Turning the UP2414Q power on and off doesn't seem to wake it and for some reason when I hit the power button on the UP2414Q to try to wake it, the nMP reboots. I'm also trying out a Samsung U28D590D which doesn't appear to have the same wake-from-sleep problems but I'm going to keep an eye on it for a few days as well before determining which one to keep.