Question Why does my LCD monitor flicker?

Aug 27, 2024
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Here’s a good one for all you hackers.

I have a Hewlett Packard HP 30″ S-IPS—AKA Super-IPS, or Super In-plane switching—LCD monitor, model ZR30w. Owned it since 2009. I run it in its highest display resolution: 2560 × 1600 WQXGA (Wide Quad Extended Graphics Array) at 60Hz, first on Windows 7 and now 10. So far, so good.

Sometime around five years ago, I played some legacy games—Silent Hunter III and Railroad Tycoon II if you have to know—that could not support such a high resolution, but they played seamlessly on my monitor, as it naturally supports lower width and height dimensions. But after a period of days or weeks, when the computer reverts back to WQXGA mode in non-gaming usage, the monitor would start to flicker erratically. The symptom would always occur when I started-up my PC, or when I unlocked it after the screen turned off. Often the screen would flicker so much that it would blank out, making signing-in impossible. Just by fluke, I discovered that if I knocked on one of the corners of the monitor, it would properly display, with a possible flicker. But eventually, as long as I stayed in in the same video mode, the display would eventually stabilise, with a few intermittent blackouts, which could be “cured” by knocking one of the corners. It seemed as if when the monitor warms up, the flickering stops or is less intrusive, but tends to occur when I’m watching a YouTube video—Keyboard Cat if you must know.

It looks like the legacy games I played that set the monitor to lower resolution somehow permanently buggered up the liquid crystals when switching to other resolutions. It’s very annoying every time I sign-in having to gently tap the monitor to see the sign-in screen. Any reason why this might be happening, and a more stable fix to this nuisance? I can’t image this be a driver issue—which are up to date—but a dedicated hardware problem.

Thanks for making it this far.
 
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if knocking will help, it's probably a connection issue.
either the video cable or something inside the monitor. Flex cables or solder joints.
Most likely the monitor is faulty.
Oh, I’m sure something in the monitor is faulty and there is some connection issue. I highly doubt if it’s cable related as I’ve plugged it in and out whenever I’ve had to disassemble my system.

Just wondered if there was an easy diagnostic, and why would setting to a lower video mode mess with the hardware as doing so seemingly caused. Would have been nice to know if other users have ever experienced similar symptoms and what they did to resolve it.

Thanks, star.
 
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Just wondered if there was an easy diagnostic, and why would setting to a lower video mode mess with the hardware as doing so seemingly caused. Would have been nice to know if other users have ever experienced similar symptoms and what they did to resolve it.

Thanks, star.
I would try a different video cable/port on the GPU and monitor if available

I doubt that this is related to the low resolutions, more likely a coincidence that the monitor got faulty at the same time. 15 years for a monitor is quite a lot nowadays.

replace the monitor or disassemble the monitor and disconnect/reconnect everything. Might also be the timing unit usually known as T-Con board.

How exactly is it flickering? can you record the issue and upload to e.g. imgur.com or similar

some good explanations with symptoms:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT4rUkN7Xn0
 

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