This is how I see it. I run 2 ASD and the Dell. I couldn't have fewer than 2 monitors on my desk at this point. It's just too easy/nice.
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Dell 6K U3224KB Monitor
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Good evening, and sorry if this question had already been asked.
I got this monitor a couple weeks ago and fight the famous issue with Dell monitors not waking up from sleep. I am using MacBook M1 Max (Sonoma 14.1.*) connecting to the monitor through TB. If I have “Fast Wake Up” setting disabled, it never wakes up. If I have it enabled, it does not wake up occasionally, perhaps one time out of ten.
Interestingly enough, LG 5K connected to Dell through daisy chaining wakes up even when Dell does not.
I wonder if any of M1 Pro/Max users have the same issue. At this time I seriously consider returning it.
Thank you!
PS I got 18% ebates cash back posted to my account
I got this monitor a couple weeks ago and fight the famous issue with Dell monitors not waking up from sleep. I am using MacBook M1 Max (Sonoma 14.1.*) connecting to the monitor through TB. If I have “Fast Wake Up” setting disabled, it never wakes up. If I have it enabled, it does not wake up occasionally, perhaps one time out of ten.
Interestingly enough, LG 5K connected to Dell through daisy chaining wakes up even when Dell does not.
I wonder if any of M1 Pro/Max users have the same issue. At this time I seriously consider returning it.
Thank you!
PS I got 18% ebates cash back posted to my account
Dell is a Thunderbolt display?
LG 5K is a Thunderbolt display?
LG 5K is connected to downstream Thunderbolt port of Dell?
That can't work since the LG 5K requires two DisplayPort connections over Thunderbolt to achieve 5K60 and Thunderbolt only provides two such DisplayPort connections per host Thunderbolt port and 5K60 takes much of the bandwidth (≈29 Gbps) of Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gbps) so there wouldn't be much remaining for another display anyway.
If you connect the Dell first, then the LG could be working at 4K. If they go to sleep, then when they wake up, the LG might get enabled first leaving no DisplayPort connection remaining for the Dell.
If you don't care about 5K, then you could try connecting the LG using a 20 Gbps cable to force it to 4K only. You could maybe add a custom timing to get 5K39 if you really want 5K. Not sure if custom timing works on Apple Silicon Macs.
You have to use SwitchResX or a similar utility to know if the LG is outputting 4K or 5K. Double click the currently selected resolution in the Current Resolutions tab to see the pixel clock and the active pixels. 4K is 3840x2160 ≈500+ MHz. 5K is 5120x2880 ≈900+ MHz.
Best solution is to connect LG UltraFine 5K to a separate Thunderbolt port of the host.
I have mine connected by TB directly to my M1M Studio and have no issue w/ it waking up. It's slower than the ASDs but it always (100% of the time) wakes up. And BetterDisplay consistently repositions the windows.
Yes, same as @tstafford for me: It always wakes up, but sometimes takes upwards of 10 seconds to do so..
Also, while waking up, all windows will switch over to the second monitor (like the 3224 was unplugged) before switching back as the monitor lights up.
Also, while waking up, all windows will switch over to the second monitor (like the 3224 was unplugged) before switching back as the monitor lights up.
Dell just posted a new firmware update (MT205). The change log says:
- Improve DP2.1 compatibility
- Fix compatibility issue with DDM v2.2
- Fix Color Preset Modes bug
Actually, I was able to warranty the monitor since it seemed to be purchased by a business. Just got the new monitor and from what I can tell, it looks like it's a newer built model and might have the flickering issue solved. Will update in a few days.
Hi, like some others here, I've recently decided to buy this monitor. Some things took me completely by surprise, though, as I don't recall them being mentioned here:
- It's quite warm! I can really feel it in my face, and I had to put it quite a bit further away than my older 25" monitor (U2515H). And that's with brightness in the 10%–20% range.
- I got HDR working, but whenever I enable it in macOS, the monitor's brightness goes way up, and all brightness settings are disabled (OSD menu, DDPM, third-party apps). Does that match everyone's experience?
- Sound quality is okay to me, but after 5-10 seconds of silence, it's as if the speaker entered as sleep state, and it took about half a second to wake up. Since I'm not usually listening to anything, that effectively means beeps and other notifications are inaudible.
- This is my third day with it, and for the third time the monitor woke up with half the screen glitched, in bright green (see attachment). The first time it happened I reattached the TB4 cable on the MBP's end; the second time I reattached the monitor's end, and this third time is making me worried it won't go away. Has this ever happened to anyone else?
Yeah you probably got a lemon. I’ve never had that green screen happen to me. Honestly I’d probably get a studio display if I could repurchase but Dell warranty is pretty good. If you can reproduce this issue, then just get a warranty replacement or return it. If you want hassle free, get the studio display.
I'd 100% return it. Mine doesn't produce any heat at any brightness level. And I've never had it do anything like that green block. I run mine right next to a pair of ASDs and it is a solid performer. I strongly believe you have a lemon.
Brightness - I think that's the same on mine. However I use BetterDisplay which obviates this problem. And makes toggling HDR easier too.
Sound - I don't use monitor speakers on either the Dell or my ASDs
This sounds abnormally extreme, particularly at such low brightness. I've sometimes noticed a bit heat from mine but nothing like you describe, and my brightness is usually between 50-75%. If I've been at the monitor for many hours, then maybe I might start to "feel it in my face"? LOL. But all monitors give off heat (they are essentially fancy light bulbs) and this Dell is definitely one of the cooler monitors I've had. Many moons ago I had a Dell 2405FPW and that was like putting your face in front of a space heater. Was kinda nice in the winter tho.
I believe this is as designed, but as @tstafford mentioned, third-party apps like BetterDisplay can in fact allow brightness control even with HDR. You probably want BetterDisplay installed anyway, since it enables using the Apple keyboard function keys to control brightness and volume. The free version suffices for this.
I haven't had this problem.
Have you tried a different TB4 cable? Does it only happen over TB4 or does the same problem also occur using DP or HDMI? A bad cable I think is the most likely explanation. Also, not to sound like a broken record, but what firmware does your monitor have and have you updated it?
FYI, many pages back, one or two people reported something similar, namely, that after wake, sometimes only half of the screen's backlight would turn back on. I also experienced that myself once or twice when I first got the monitor. But I believe this backlight issue was (silently?) fixed in an earlier firmware update as I haven't seen any recent reports of it, and I only had this issue before I updated to the M2T103 firmware shortly after I got the monitor. Not exactly the same symptoms as your half glitched screen but perhaps it is the same underlying issue or related.
I agree with the others here that you might have gotten a lemon, but instead of returning it, I suggest contacting Dell support to get it fixed. My monitor also arrived with (different) problems out of the box (possibly due to shipping), but working with Dell support was super easy and they quickly sent out a replacement and all has been well ever since.
Yeah, agreed. I have no objections to feeling the heat radiating when my hand is an inch away from a screen. But at arm's length with below-average brightness? (From an inch away it's also definitely warmer than the U2515H.)
I tried DDPM, BetterDisplay and Lunar, and none of them have any effect. DDPM and the monitor's OSD menu disable the brightness slider; BetterDisplay and Lunar still let me send DDC instructions, but they are ignored.
Thanks for the reply. It's one more indication that there's something wrong with this particular unit. The number of people in this forum who had to request a replacement appears rather high, and I had hopes that after 6 months Dell would have improved their process, but I guess I wasn't lucky.
TB4 cables aren't exactly easy to come by 😅 I don't have any other than Dell's supplied one, and I'm always running it over TB4; I'll try using HDMI later, but since it's completely erratic, it'll be hard to know for sure.
Normally I'd agree with you that it's more likely a cable issue, but given the other problems I can't discard it's yet another problem with the monitor itself, i.e. no point in asking them to try a cable replacement first instead of shipping the entire thing back.
It came with M2T102 and I updated it to M2T105, to see if the sound and HDR issues would be fixed. (I also upgraded macOS to 14.2 between the second and third occurrences)
It does sound like your unit has some hardware fault or two, but this particular symptom sounds like a software / settings issue. Are you able to change the brightness with the keyboard shortcuts using BetterDisplay when HDR is disabled? If so, that really suggests a software / settings problem. I don't use Lunar. Have you tried uninstalling it, in case Lunar is somehow having a negative side effect? I think for everyone here, changing the brightness with BetterDisplay "just works" with and without HDR. I'm not sure how many people here are running macOS 14.2 yet, so maybe that introduced some new issue? I'm still on 13.6, although I've quickly tested 14.0 and 14.1 on a separate bootable volume. I haven't tested 14.2.
I think that's mostly selection bias, i.e., this thread is mostly going to attract posters who have issues with the monitor and are looking for help, and doubly so because initially Apple didn't properly support running this monitor until macOS 14.1. Also, this is a large item and so shipping carriers likely share in the blame. The box of my first copy arrived really beat up and with the tape seals completely broken. It had clearly been really tossed about during shipping.
Like every other company, Dell support has a troubleshooting process that they will ask you to go through before authorizing a replacement to be shipped out. For me, it didn't take much time and was just a bit of faffing about changing various settings unproductively in the OSD and macOS before tech support said, "yeah, let's ship you a replacement and give you a return label for the old one". If you truly like the idea of this Dell and are just unhappy your copy is not working as promised, I really do recommend calling Dell support to get their help as opposed to just returning it for a refund and going with some other monitor entirely. Again, I thought Dell support was really great; I was immediately put in touch with a helpful tech support person and it didn't take long to get a replacement.
Good to know! Maybe others who are running 14.2 can chime in with their experiences.
I am so very glad you posted about this issue (not been on the forum for a while). As you can see I suffered the same issue when connected to my Mac Mini Pro 2. I only seem to have developed the issue after a few months of having no issues at all.
The monitor was connected to the Mini using the Dell supplied Thunderbolt cable. I'm pretty sure the issue was seen shortly after the firmware was updated to version M2T104.
Since then I've looked to test by switching to using HDMI (no issues seen) and switching to a better quality thunderbolt cable. Since switching to the new TB cable (and 2 days later updating the firmware to M2T105), I've now not had the issue for nearly 9 days, prior to that I'd seen it around every 4-7 days. So it's early days yet I guess but I've got my fingers crossed that the cable change or firmware update have resolved the issue?
I hope one of those solutions clears this up. Fingers crossed - I've not had this issue (or any other) with the monitor.
I'm putting my money on the cable being the culprit. FWIW - My dell is connected using the braided TB cable that comes with the ASD. Guessing that's a fairly high quality cable.
I'm hoping so too! The braided TB cable that came with the ASD should indeed be of good quality. The braided one I'm now using is around 1.5 times as thick as the Dell supplied one.
The latest firmware update lists:
Fixes & Enhancements
The latest firmware update lists:
Fixes & Enhancements
- Improve DP2.1 compatibility
- Fix compatibility issue with DDM v2.2
- Fix Color Preset Modes bug
Good luck and report back. On the whole, I'm really happy with the Dell. Although for most folks I'd probably recommend the ASD. The tighter Apple integration is hard to pass on for folks who don't have 100's of posts on MacRumors.
Not a problem, I will do so. For me the ASD was way overpriced and too small. Moving from a 32" UW display, I just could not go down to a 27" screen. Plus I needed a fully adjustable stand and I was not willing to pay the hellish price Apple wanted.
Don't think so. @dluz reported having the problem both before and after updating to the latest firmware (M2T105). dluz also reported having the problem before and after updating to macOS 14.2, though I'm not sure what other versions of macOS dluz was using. What versions of macOS have you encountered the problem on? If anyone is running Windows, maybe they can chime in if they too have had this problem.
My bet is also on a bad cable, but who knows. It's even possible that this issue is some bug from Apple, e.g., in macOS. Whatever the case, I encourage both you and dluz to contact Dell support to both report the problem to them and to possibly get a solution, as Dell is in a much better position to help you both.
FYI, I'm running macOS 13.6 and have used all firmwares from M2T102 through M2T105 and I haven't noticed an issue. But I'm generally connected to M2 Pro Mini using HDMI. If it'd be helpful, I could switch over to using my Dell TB4 cable and see if I notice the problem on macOS 13.6. But I won't be updating to 14.x anytime soon.
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Yep I wasn't sure myself as to whether the firmware made a difference or not. The combination of cable, macOS and firmware make it difficult to isolate the cause. I'm monitoring the situation to see where it goes on from here and if it does reoccur again I will raise a ticket with Dell over it. If changing the cable fixes it I'm happy, for various reasons doing a monitor switch out would be a major difficulty.
When I switched to HDMI it did indeed work well enough, but I found the monitor was much slower to respond when waking up and at times did not initially wake to the correct resolution, which it then changed a split second later which could cause odd window position / sizing issues.
When I switched to HDMI it did indeed work well enough, but I found the monitor was much slower to respond when waking up and at times did not initially wake to the correct resolution, which it then changed a split second later which could cause odd window position / sizing issues.