Flickering Problem in Monitor BenQ XL2730Z

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Dosage

Dosage

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Apr 3, 2015
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Hello everyone.

I built my first PC two days ago and everything went very well. It was a pleasant experience and it's truly one of the most satisfying things when you see your self-built PC boots up successfully for the first time. What is not satisfying though is the BenQ XL2730Z 2k (1440p) monitor when it starts flickering. Every time I restart my PC when the monitor's refresh rate is set to 144hz, the monitor starts flickering on startup, and it continuous to flicker no matter how much time have passed. What is odd is that every time I reset the refresh rate to 120hz the flickering goes away. And what's is even more odd is that when I go back from 120hz to 144hz the flickering is completely not there. I don't suspect the graphics card. From the video, what would you suspect? Here's a short edited video of the flicker. Anyone please kindly share your thoughts with me. I am very thankful as always.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01f8rNaAjsM&feature=youtu.be"][/video]
 
Solution
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It has nothing to do with Freesync. You need to connect a USB anyways for freesync to work. DOn't be taking your BenQ apart.

I always wondered why people buy Freesync monitors with NVidia cards. Sync is such a great technology but people don't use it. People love NVidia cards, but then buy Freesync monitors cause GSync is too expensive. I'd rather have an AMD card and take advantage of Freesync. It's such a great technology anybody spending the money on a 1070 or 1080 card should have sync. The main gripe I have with NVidia video cards is a lack of GSync monitor on the market and the higher price of them. Freesync is cheaper and more common. benQ only does Freesync now and Intel supposedly was going to support Freesync with...
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That flicker every few seconds almost seems like a video card issue. If you go in the NVidia control panel or AMD Catalyst try removing the auto fan feature and set the fan at 75-100% fixed speed to relieve some heat. I've seen heat on a video card cause similar flickering. That would be the first thing I try as a quick test.

Next would be to try onboard video or second video card to see if the flickering is related to 144Hz on the monitor or if it's the video card. That will narrow it down to which device is the issue.
 
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Thank you for the quick reply. I really appreciate it.

I don't see or don't have the option when I go to Nvidia Control Panel for some reason. I only have 4 taps in Nvidia Control Panel which are 3D settings, Display, Stereoscopic 3D, Video. I don't have access to another video card, although that'd be a very smart thing to do. How do I disable the graphics card without unplugging it? I think I am not very keen on (or brave for) taking my PC apart because that's what I have been doing the past two days.
 
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If you use onboard video, go into the BIOS and enable that and set it for the first GPU device on bootup and plug your monitor into that. There may be an option to disable the PCI-E video card and use the onboard.

Honestly I've never used onboard video at the same time as a video card was plugged in so I don't know if it would work without unplugging the video card. In 20 years of building and repairing systems I've never encountered that situation. I am assuming you have onboard video as an option as most systems today do except for the non APU AMD chips.

As for the NVidia thing I can't answer your question since I have AMD on both my systems now so have nothing to refer too. I'd have to google it. Hold on let me try :) And found it.

There are no options to control fan speeds in NVidia control panel. You need a tuning overclocking program offered by the manufacturers. EVGA Prcision, MSI Afterburner, Asus GPU Tweak, etc... MSI Afterburner is the one I am familiar with most people using for overclocks and the one that was recommended in the forums I searched. I havn't used an NVidia video card in over 10 years so I'm not the best person to advise you in that department.

MSI Afterburner will work with non MSI video cards as well so you're good to go. RIvatuner is another similar generic program that's always been popular for overclocks. If you have a factory overclocked video card try reducing the memory and GPU speeds to defaults, non the factory overclock settings and adjust the fan speeds. It's always solved problems with AMD cards, not sure with NVidia card.



 
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Thank you so much for your answers and for the effort you're putting on writing them. I really appreciate your effort.

I can't connect on board graphics with this monitor to test it because on board graphics only have Dual-DVI, DVI, and HDMI ports. Non of these give you the option of 144hz at 1440p resolution as far as I know. The only port that gives you 144hz is Display Port available on the graphics card and the monitor. I tried to monitor the GPU temperature with MSI Afterburner but the latest version which I downloaded didn't have the option to display anything on the monitor. I'll have to look for another program that monitors the CPU, GPU, and RAM and display them on my monitor. But I don't think it's the graphics card's temperature that's doing the flickering because usually the PC would be idle, sleep, or turned off, which entail that the graphics card was also not under any use to get hot and start making troubles on the monitor.
 
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Thank you for being active on this post. I really, really, really appreciate your comments.

I have yet to play with MSI Afterburner as I am not experienced in this field. The graphics card I have is the GTX 1070 from MSI, its fans don't run unless the gpu's temperature has gone up to 70 degrees Celsius I heard. I'll try clocking it down a bit. But I don't see how this would help the flickering, as I moved to the GTX 1070 from a crappy 460m for the raw performance of this graphics card. I'll do as you said and keep you updated. Thank you again for helping me.
 
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Aha a 1070. No wonder. Many people are getting 144Hz flickering with 1070/1080 cards. It's a driver issue.

Try the latest Geforce Drivers. Some people are having luck with certain drivers, others with older drivers. Some have no luck at all. Some people are just running at 120Hz for now.

I doubt it's your monitor. That's why I had you test your video card first. It's not heat or clock rate related with a 1070. It's an NVidia issue.
 
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Hey, have a similar setup to you... any resolution at this point? I'm having the same exact problem. Honestly considering going back to a Radeon card. Incredibly frustrating!
 
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If you google 144Hz flickering 1070 or 1080 you'll get forums full of people having similar problems. As good as NVidia cards are the thing I hate is how they leave you in the dark about problems like this. At least AMD recognizes the problems, announces it, then works on a fix and releases it. Many people see this as AMD being full of problems.

Such as the recent Power related issues with the RX480. People said AMD sux, they have power problems. AMD admited the problem and said they are working on a driver fix to solve the issue, just be patient. NVidia would sweep it under the rug not to go public with problems, then quietly release a driver fix. Even still, NVidia still had a history of very good performing cards with low power draw and heat, but at a premium price.

NVidia GSync is great, but you pay $150 for it. AMD freesync is great, not as great as GSync, but it's free. That sums up the past 15 years of those companies.

 
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I can't thank you enough for being helpful and active on this post. I really appreciate the effort you put in writing these comments.

I tried toying with MSI Afterburner. I reduced the power limit, the memory clock speeds, the maximum temperature, and all of the changes I made didn't make any difference. The flickering is still there when I turn on my PC while the monitor's resolution is set to 2560x1440 @144hz. The problem isn't there when I reduce the refresh rate to 120hz and restart my computer or go back to 144hz as shown in the video.

I tried to turn off G-Sync, but to no avail because my monitor has FreeSync and the option to turn it off doesn't show up in the Nvidia Control Panel. I tried to turn off V-Sync instead from the 3D settings and that still didn't help solve my problem.

I tried to test this monitor and the graphics card playing the Witcher 3 on this PC today and I am also having a problem with the cut scenes at highest settings for my monitor. Every time a cut scene starts I see a black screen while I can hear the game playing. It doesn't quit, the monitor just shuts down for a couple seconds and then goes back on when I click the mouse's left or right buttons. I tried to use Geforce Experience and let them decide what settings are best for my graphics card and still the black screen didn't go away. What could it be? This doesn't happen when I tested with other games, only with the Witcher 3. I read in some forums that this is a common problem but no one had the exact problem I am having as the game quits on them and take them to the desktop.

Thank you everyone for your help. I really appreciate your thoughts.
 
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Hello there. I can feel your misfortune. I am so sorry to hear that you're having the same problem. I am still trying to find a solution to this problem. Does changing your settings to 120hz eliminate the flickering? It does on my monitor. I am starting to suspect the Nvidia drivers, the monitor, and Windows 10 Home at this point. I really started doubting Windows 10 Home that maybe I've missed something with the maximum resolution it can run or something. That's how desperate I am.

Thank you for your comment. Let me know if you have reached any conclusions.
 
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The BenQ monitor has FreeSync, and the nvidia card I have (1070) has G-Sync. Do you think that the monitor and the nvidia graphics card can't communicate well with each other which creates this problem? I am thinking about taking the BenQ apart and taking the FreeSync hardware out. It is risky because I don't know of any results and I don't want to void the warranty.
 
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It has nothing to do with Freesync. You need to connect a USB anyways for freesync to work. DOn't be taking your BenQ apart.

I always wondered why people buy Freesync monitors with NVidia cards. Sync is such a great technology but people don't use it. People love NVidia cards, but then buy Freesync monitors cause GSync is too expensive. I'd rather have an AMD card and take advantage of Freesync. It's such a great technology anybody spending the money on a 1070 or 1080 card should have sync. The main gripe I have with NVidia video cards is a lack of GSync monitor on the market and the higher price of them. Freesync is cheaper and more common. benQ only does Freesync now and Intel supposedly was going to support Freesync with their onboard video.

 
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Solution


Thank you so much for taking the time to read and reply to my thread. I really appreciate your reply.

Isn't 368.81 outdated? I have just checked which driver I had and I found that I have 372.54. I checked with nVidia's website and found that they have just released a new driver (372.70). I am going to install that and let you know if it's any good.
 
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Tried the latest driver, and no, it doesn't fix the flickering issue sadly. I think I'll have to report that to nVidia myself and let them know about it, and maybe they will address it. Thank you kindly for your suggestion though. I'll try the driver you suggested.
 
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I just installed that driver you suggested, (368.81) and it worked like a charm. Thank you so much for the quick fix. I don't see any flickering anymore and I can enjoy the full potential of this monitor thanks to you.
 
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I had the same issue. I will try to install that old driver version to see if it changes. Whenever nvidia releases the next driver, i will install to see the difference.
 
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You can be confident that driver 368.81 will work with no problems for you and trust me when I tell you because I've never memorized a driver version name before. I am even considering never upgrading to a newer version since this one is doing a great job.
 
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sorry to bump an old post but i found a work around for this problem, i created a custom resolution (2560x1440 @ 146 hz) and this solved the flickering issue for me
QEu5D
 
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Wow that sucks. You'd think just leave it at native 1440p and it should work fine at 144Hz. Stupid drivers. I wish video cards just plain worked without glitches.

On a positive note I'm having very good luck with my Radeon 480x and freesync. Works like a charm.
 
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