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I bought a Dell U3818DW some months ago and mostly things were fine - until recently I noticed that Windows 10 would more and more start using screen resolutions on system startup that are absolutely wrong for this monitor (external monitor only, using Windows-P shortcut).

It either is switched to 1920x1080 pixels or an even lower resolution, often even interlaced modes.

I usually managed to somehow get the monitor's actual screen resolution of 3840x1600 after a couple of Windows restarts, but now I restarted the computer ~50 times and it always goes into 1920x1080 pixels or some other mode.

I then tried:

  • Update the monitor's firmware: the current firmware is the most recent
  • Install the Dell U3818DW 21:9 monitor drivers (now it shows the monitor in the device manager)

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  • Update the NVidia M620 driver: updated, it was 2-3 months more current than what I had installed
  • Update the system via Lenovo Vantage: no graphics drivers etc. installed

None of these improved my situation.

I fiddled with manually creating the 3840x1600@60Hz screen res via the NVidia driver UI manually, but this only resulted in a black screen when testing, displaying an error message by the Dell monitor saying:

The current input timing is not supported by the monitor display. Please change your input timing to 3840x1600, 60Hz or any other monitor listed timing as per the monitor specifications.

Inspecting further in the "Advanced Display Settings" I noticed a view in the NVidia driver:

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Sorry, it's German. Here the list of all modes the driver or Windows or Lenovo or some combination of everything alltogether:

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As you can see, there's no mode being detected beyond the standard 1920x1080 pixels.

EDIT 1:

I have downloaded a Dell tool called "Dell Display Manager".

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Changing the resolution from there gets me into the standard Windows settings:

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Max. resolution still the 1920x1080 🙄😣

EDIT 2:

I just uninstalled the NVidia GFX card drivers and clicked "Delete the drivers from disk". A few minutes after having restarted Windows, the NVidia drivers were back - the external monitor switched on, into the wrong mode of 1920x1080.

I wondered where the came from. There seems to be some service running that restores them. I killed that service and went to download the latest NVidia drivers, resulting in:

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Seems like the driver is incompatible with Windows 21H1 or the latest pack? Errrrrmmm... why did the old driver work? Ugh.

QUESTION:

What's wrong??

How might I be able to fix this, that is, upon Windows re/start and switching to the external monitor, I just want to get the resolution that the device has...

Is it the NVidia driver? Is it Windows? Is it Lenovo? Is it the Dell monitor? Is it the integration of them all??

What is the problem in 2021 anyway?? 😤

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  • Oh and BTW I also tried using an HDMI cable as well as the same HDMI cable connected to my laptop's Mini Display Port via an adapter. Same result.
    – Kawu
    Commented Jul 20, 2021 at 10:31
  • Tried another HDMI cable, nope, no changes.
    – Kawu
    Commented Jul 20, 2021 at 13:41
  • I can only guess: I had/have Windows automatic updates active. So might this have something to do with my problems?
    – Kawu
    Commented Jul 28, 2021 at 11:23
  • Finally upgraded Window 10 from 20H2 to 21H1. No changes.
    – Kawu
    Commented Aug 2, 2021 at 17:10
  • 1
    Do you have another monitor you can use to test this on I know not always feasible. But it could very well be the Graphics card or the Monitor hardware. Just a thought after reading trough the post.
    – NetworkKingPin
    Commented Aug 2, 2021 at 18:09

1 Answer 1

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It's an issue with the Lenovo Thunderbolt firmware update from mid July 2021...

See

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-P-and-W-Series-Mobile-Workstations/P71-no-longer-recognizes-external-monitor-native-resolution-of-3840x1600-maxes-out-on-1920x1080/m-p/5091983

The download link to the fixed firmware update is right there.

🙄

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