Dell D3100 sensitive to touch or static electricity or EMP

MuddyBiker,

I suspect the issue you are facing is not static electricity discharge, or EMF "pulse" related. It's probably mechanical vibration-related. I'm presuming that when you say "opposite" you mean both employees are seated using the same counter surface and one person is bumping that surface slightly.

On my Precision 7730 and TB18DC, I note that the dual USB-C connector from the dock that plugs into the laptop does so with a few millimeters of space between the connector housing and laptop. Therefore mechanically, the connector housing does not make physical contact with the side of the laptop. Therefore, it is allowed to move up/down, left/right.

Any small movement of the cable will be sufficient to perhaps cause the USB-C male connector to move in it's socket on the laptop. This could cause an intermittent disturbance in the very high-speed serial information being transferred between the dock and the laptop.

What I have found which works fairly well is to first, fully distress the USB-C cable coming from the dock, like you would uncoil a brand new electrical cord that had bends in it. Determine where the dock is to be placed versus the laptop. If the cable is overly long, I've found creating a small loop or coil of a few turns and fixing the turns of the coil together with some twist-ties (or Velcro marshaling strips) so that the USB-C connector mates with the laptop and makes for a better, more stable connection.

See if that mitigates the issue you are seeing.  

Hello,

I was having this same issue, and chased it down to an inexpensive and poorly shielded HDMI cable picking up the electromagnetic interference (EMI) radiating from the static discharge (ESD) of me standing up from my chair.

I live in an arid climate, and the static buildup from ordinary activity is quite high. Every time I stand up there is a loud static discharge between my chair and my body. So I did some research into ESD and EMI and its effect on electronics. I read that the static buildup on your body from a chair can reach upwards of several thousand volts, and this can induce problematic interference on wires several feet away. That is when it clicked that this was an issue with radiated interference, and not a physical grounding problem.

Just like lightning causing crackles on an old AM radio, the static discharge was inducing enough noise on the HDMI cable to disrupt the video signal. It so happens that I work with audio/visual engineers. I raided their cable stash, and switched out my cheap HDMI cables for some of their shielded professional grade HDMI cables. The blanking monitor issue immediately went away.

So yeah, I now have a pair of $50 cables on a $125 docking station. But my monitors keep working and that makes me a happy and productive worker bee.

All the best!

Hello,

I'm using DELL DOCKING STATION D3100 and I can confirm I have same problem.

For me there is problem only with 2 monitors attached via HDMI cable (third monitor connected with DisplayPort has no any issue). If I connect Laptop via HDMI directly to monitor - there are no issues, it's only when monitors are attached to docking station.

In general when I produce various types of vibration, touch any cables, move monitors and try other physical moves - it does not reproduce the issue. I can reproduce this problem just in two ways:

1) when I quickly stand up from my chair (even in different room with opened doors between rooms - 3 meters from my desk)

2) when after standing up from my chair I touch the metal screw in my chair - I can feel the electric spark - it's for sure electrostatic discharge. This electrostatic discharge causes that monitors connected via HDMI are also dimmed for a few seconds.

For me it's not so painful but it's quite funny that I'm able to turn my monitors black for few seconds by touching the screw in my chair 2 meters from my desk :).

I didn't test that but I believe the suggestion given in the previous comment with changing HDMI cables can do the job.

Best regards

Kuba

I too had this problem with a Dell 3100 dock. The Display Port to DP cable worked fine with my Dell 24" monitors but the HDMI to HDMI display would go black momentarily multiple times a day. With static from my chair and the floor mat below it I discharge a lot of energy when sitting or getting up and standing. I too found the resolution by testing seven different  HDMI to HDMI cables and the one that worked I also got from our Audio Visual department on campus. The brand name on them is "Crestron" and has solved my static electricity problem that has been ongoing for over 6 months. Hard to believe but this actually worked for me.