[SOLVED] on/off cycle on second monitor after waking monitors from sleep...restart fixes the issue ?

esbowman

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This is a very specific issue and hopefully someone knows what's happening. I have two monitors connected on my PC and when the displays go to sleep while a specific app is running, the second monitor starts an on/off cycle and there's no way to prevent it. Every 30 seconds the secondary monitor will shut off (or flashes black) and turn right back on, and only a restart of the machine will fix it. I believe it's when I have PureRef or Slack on the second monitor. I've found mentions of this issue and people say to use a different display port, different cable, etc. but this is software related. I haven't narrowed it down but my hunch is that it's PureRef, Slack or Spotify. When I don't have an app open on the second monitor it seems to not go into this cycle. Any hints on how I might isolate the issue, a system log I can view to investigate the cycle, or perhaps settings in Windows that I can alter to prevent it?

I'm running one Dell P2715Q as the primary monitor (set to main display) and one Dell S2721Q as the secondary. Both are connected via Display cables to a 3080 GPU.
 
Solution
So far my guess is that Slack is causing this, or it's simply a Windows issue after the monitors have gone to sleep. I'm still having random issues with the monitor defaulting to 59.997 instead of 60 for the refresh rate. Good news is that going to advanced settings and reselecting 60 fixes the issue but I sure wish I knew how to fix it for good. Is there perhaps a registry hack or a way to force the monitor to stay at the correct refresh rate?
well if a clean install didn't fix it, then it should be the hardware issue, maybe want to try clean install windows?

My procedure of clean installing windows:
Update the bios to the latest and load optimized then save and exit, clean install windows (delete windows partition and...
This is a very specific issue and hopefully someone knows what's happening. I have two monitors connected on my PC and when the displays go to sleep while a specific app is running, the second monitor starts an on/off cycle and there's no way to prevent it. Every 30 seconds the secondary monitor will shut off (or flashes black) and turn right back on, and only a restart of the machine will fix it. I believe it's when I have PureRef or Slack on the second monitor. I've found mentions of this issue and people say to use a different display port, different cable, etc. but this is software related. I haven't narrowed it down but my hunch is that it's PureRef, Slack or Spotify. When I don't have an app open on the second monitor it seems to not go into this cycle. Any hints on how I might isolate the issue, a system log I can view to investigate the cycle, or perhaps settings in Windows that I can alter to prevent it?

I'm running one Dell P2715Q as the primary monitor (set to main display) and one Dell S2721Q as the secondary. Both are connected via Display cables to a 3080 GPU.
What are your pc specs?
 

esbowman

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Thanks for the reply Koekieezz.

Here are the specs:
MB: Asus ROG Maximus XII Hero (wifi)
CPU: Intel i9 10900k
Memory: 64GB DDR4
GPU: MSI 3080 Suprim X
PS: EVGA 1300 G2 (i think)

I think I have a work around that keeps me from needing to completely restart the computer. I went to Displays > Advanced Display Settings for the second monitor and noticed that it was set to 59.997 instead of the native 60. Set it to 60 instead and the screen turned off then on. After that no issues and it "escaped" the 30 sec on/off cycle loop.

Now, this morning I turned on my monitors and noticed that Windows had defaulted back to 59.997 on the refresh rate for my second monitor, however I had all programs shut down before I turned off my monitors and it was NOT stuck in the 30 sec on/off cycle. So, I guess by going to the Advanced Display Settings and selecting a new frequency it's somehow resetting the monitor enough to escape the on/off cycle.

I still think perhaps Pureref, Spotify or Slack is causing the issue...maybe Pureref more likely because Spotify and Slack have more frequent updates/fixes. I looked in the Event Viewer to see if anything was being added to a log file every 30 seconds, but I'm not sure where to look. Didn't see anything right away.
 
Thanks for the reply Koekieezz.

Here are the specs:
MB: Asus ROG Maximus XII Hero (wifi)
CPU: Intel i9 10900k
Memory: 64GB DDR4
GPU: MSI 3080 Suprim X
PS: EVGA 1300 G2 (i think)

I think I have a work around that keeps me from needing to completely restart the computer. I went to Displays > Advanced Display Settings for the second monitor and noticed that it was set to 59.997 instead of the native 60. Set it to 60 instead and the screen turned off then on. After that no issues and it "escaped" the 30 sec on/off cycle loop.

Now, this morning I turned on my monitors and noticed that Windows had defaulted back to 59.997 on the refresh rate for my second monitor, however I had all programs shut down before I turned off my monitors and it was NOT stuck in the 30 sec on/off cycle. So, I guess by going to the Advanced Display Settings and selecting a new frequency it's somehow resetting the monitor enough to escape the on/off cycle.

I still think perhaps Pureref, Spotify or Slack is causing the issue...maybe Pureref more likely because Spotify and Slack have more frequent updates/fixes. I looked in the Event Viewer to see if anything was being added to a log file every 30 seconds, but I'm not sure where to look. Didn't see anything right away.
Could you do that in NVCP rather than doing it in windows settings?
 

esbowman

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Could you do that in NVCP rather than doing it in windows settings?
Yeah, I guess you can adjust things in the NVCP, but oddly it only shows 60Hz in the NVCP. No other options. I feel like if I'm going to simply toggle the refresh rate to escape the on/off cycle it's easier to do it through Windows advanced display settings. Still looking for an answer as to why it goes into that cycle though.
 

esbowman

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Mar 29, 2012
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So far my guess is that Slack is causing this, or it's simply a Windows issue after the monitors have gone to sleep. I'm still having random issues with the monitor defaulting to 59.997 instead of 60 for the refresh rate. Good news is that going to advanced settings and reselecting 60 fixes the issue but I sure wish I knew how to fix it for good. Is there perhaps a registry hack or a way to force the monitor to stay at the correct refresh rate?
 
So far my guess is that Slack is causing this, or it's simply a Windows issue after the monitors have gone to sleep. I'm still having random issues with the monitor defaulting to 59.997 instead of 60 for the refresh rate. Good news is that going to advanced settings and reselecting 60 fixes the issue but I sure wish I knew how to fix it for good. Is there perhaps a registry hack or a way to force the monitor to stay at the correct refresh rate?
well if a clean install didn't fix it, then it should be the hardware issue, maybe want to try clean install windows?

My procedure of clean installing windows:
Update the bios to the latest and load optimized then save and exit, clean install windows (delete windows partition and install that windows on that partition), install chipset driver, install the latest nvidia driver, and connect to internet to update windows to the latest.
 
Solution

esbowman

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Mar 29, 2012
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While I don't disagree with you and a clean install might fix the issue, I'm really not keen on nuking it just yet. I have so many things setup the way they're needed for my workflow and I'm in the middle of a project so I can't afford the downtime.

This is the only thing giving me an issue so while it's annoying I'm better off dealing with it for now. There must be a way to fix it. Seems very much related to the sleep cycle and something with having dual monitors, possibly Slack as well.