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rahulahl
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Location: Australia

Monitor issue or something else?

Wed Aug 31, 2016 11:23 am

Hi,
A while ago I posed about an issue with my GPU in another thread. I never really made its own post thinking it was a straightforward issue.
Unfortunately its been a while now, and I am no closer to actually finding out what computer part I need to RMA.
Basically I used to have a GTX 980 and an Asus Rog Swift pg278q. I had no issues back then. Then I went and bought an MSI GTX 1080 Founders Edition from Amazon.
Soon after I got it, I got these annoying flickering on my screen. Not just while playing games, but when just browsing the internet. I tried a few things, and I finally figured that the GPU was faulty. 
So I sent it back to Amazon saying it was faulty and MSI would not honor the warranty in Australia. I then bought the same GTX 1080 EVGA this time since they offer worldwide warranty, and ran into the same issue again. Then I decided it was my motherboard, since it did have other weird issues. But changing my whole PC incl the ram, cpu, motherboard, SSD, PSU I still had the same issues.
I tried turning off Gsync, and reducing the Hz to 60 and still had the same issue, though perhaps at a reduced frequency. Its very random, so its hard to be sure either way. I even removed nvidia drivers and went with the default microsoft ones without avail.
Finally I tried adding a second monitor, and since then I stopped getting these flicker issues. I can turn the second monitor off, and its gonna stay flicker free. But as soon as I set my display to single monitor flickering comes back. 

Considering I have changed everything else, I really cant imagine it being anything else except the cable or the monitor. But it just makes no sense for this flickering to go away when attaching a second monitor. It sounds more like a software issue. And the fact that it only started on the first day after installing the new GTX 1080, makes me reluctant to try and RMA the monitor. I have a feeling if I were to try and RMA it, I would have issues with Asus accepting it. They dragged their feet a lot the last time I had to RMA it. 

I don't even have a spare video card, or I would just see if changing the card fixes the issue. If that were the case, I would just sell this on ebay and get a different model if I have to. Can monitors even be incompatible with a GPU? And if yes, is it the GPU at fault or the monitor? Can I even use this as a valid reason to RMA it? The monitor turned 2 years old today. I cant even seem to find how much warranty this monitor has. I am hoping it is 3 years.

 Can anyone here help me out with this? I am really not sure which direction to head towards fixing this issue.

Video of flickering : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF5wjwNwDYs
Intel i7 4790K
MAXIMUS VII RANGER motherboard
EVGA GTX 1080
16GB Ram
550Watt Seasonic PSU
Asus Rog Swift PG278Q
Windows 10
 
The Egg
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Re: Monitor issue or something else?

Wed Aug 31, 2016 12:25 pm

Seems like the sort of thing that would be driver-related, but it could be a minor change on the 1080 which doesn't play nice with slightly older G-Sync modules, or maybe even just the PG278Q specifically.  Have you tried contacting Asus or NVidia Driver Feedback?

Does the flickering only occur during screen transitions, or would it also occur sitting idle at the desktop?  What version of Windows are you running?  Asus has a monitor driver for the PG278Q on Win7, but not 8 or 10.  Do you have any other monitors to test (G-Sync or otherwise)?
 
rahulahl
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Location: Australia

Re: Monitor issue or something else?

Thu Sep 01, 2016 12:16 am

I managed to find a thread where people had similar issues with a combo of gsync monitor and GTX 1080.  https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/939358/geforce-1000-series/gtx-1080-flickering-issue/1/

Seems like lowering the refresh rate to 120 should fix this. I did try 60 before and still got the flickering, but apparently Im supposed to restart the PC after lowering it.
So right now, Im just trying this to see if it works. If it still flickers, I will move onto the 60Hz monitor, which I really dislike using just for the purpose of testing.

I did find out that the GPU isnt clocking down at idle all the way at 144Hz. At 120Hz it does. So it might be something related to that perhaps.

Edit: Windows 10 btw. Flickering occurs on desktop with no windows open. And in game, and pretty much anywhere.
Intel i7 4790K
MAXIMUS VII RANGER motherboard
EVGA GTX 1080
16GB Ram
550Watt Seasonic PSU
Asus Rog Swift PG278Q
Windows 10
 
morphine
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Location: Portugal (that's next to Spain)

Re: Monitor issue or something else?

Sun Sep 04, 2016 8:40 pm

My money's all on the DisplayPort cable. I've seen that be the source of problems multiple times now.

Also, make sure you have the latest NV drivers anyway.
There is a fixed amount of intelligence on the planet, and the population keeps growing :(
 
coolflame57
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Re: Monitor issue or something else?

Sun Sep 04, 2016 8:49 pm

Is there any remote possibility that it could be something with power delivery from the wall?

Disclaimer: I have no experience with this at all, just throwing an idea out there.
 
meerkt
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Re: Monitor issue or something else?

Sun Sep 04, 2016 9:15 pm

I'd also try checking with another OS, like Ubuntu.
 
Voldenuit
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Re: Monitor issue or something else?

Sun Sep 04, 2016 11:21 pm

Super weird. I have the exact same monitor, running it on a Gigi 1070, and had no problems with it at 120 or 144 Hz, although I also run a secondary 60 Hz display, which may have saved me from seeing the problems you encountered. Afk for the week, but will try running solo when I get back home.
Wind, Sand and Stars.
 
Kougar
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Re: Monitor issue or something else?

Sun Sep 04, 2016 11:45 pm

What morphine posted, I'd suggest getting a brand new cable and swapping it out. Cables are cheap! 

If that doesn't fix it then I like meerkit's idea of booting to a different OS, as that's always a great way to rule out  the software side of things.
 
seankay
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Re: Monitor issue or something else?

Tue Sep 06, 2016 3:07 am

meerkt wrote:
I'd also try checking with another OS, like Ubuntu.

Anything about this?
 
Voldenuit
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Re: Monitor issue or something else?

Sun Sep 11, 2016 3:52 pm

Voldenuit wrote:
Super weird. I have the exact same monitor, running it on a Gigi 1070, and had no problems with it at 120 or 144 Hz, although I also run a secondary 60 Hz display, which may have saved me from seeing the problems you encountered. Afk for the week, but will try running solo when I get back home.

Tested out my Gigi 1070 w just the Asus PG278Q monitor at 144 Hz, had no issues. Maybe try swapping around the DP cables to see if you have a faulty cable, as Kougar suggested?
Wind, Sand and Stars.
 
rahulahl
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Location: Australia

Re: Monitor issue or something else?

Tue Sep 13, 2016 11:22 am

Unfortunately I dont have a spare cable lying around.
I might get one next time I go out though. 
But based on the thread I posted a link to earlier, a lot of people are having this issue, and it seems tied down to GTX 1080 and not the monitor or the cable.
I would imagine its a driver issue, and thus wont occur in Linux. I think I will just wait for a few days and hope Nvidia fix the issue in their next driver update. For now, I am just using 120Hz instead of 144, and that seems to keep the issue at bay. Hopefully I will be able to return to 144Hz sometime in the near future.
Intel i7 4790K
MAXIMUS VII RANGER motherboard
EVGA GTX 1080
16GB Ram
550Watt Seasonic PSU
Asus Rog Swift PG278Q
Windows 10
 
Voldenuit
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Re: Monitor issue or something else?

Tue Sep 13, 2016 12:01 pm

rahulahl wrote:
Unfortunately I dont have a spare cable lying around.
I might get one next time I go out though. 
But based on the thread I posted a link to earlier, a lot of people are having this issue, and it seems tied down to GTX 1080 and not the monitor or the cable.
I would imagine its a driver issue, and thus wont occur in Linux. I think I will just wait for a few days and hope Nvidia fix the issue in their next driver update. For now, I am just using 120Hz instead of 144, and that seems to keep the issue at bay. Hopefully I will be able to return to 144Hz sometime in the near future.

Yeah, sounds like a driver issue.
I do run at 120 Hz on the desktop, as it divides evenly into 24 fps, 30 fps and 60 fps video content. In gaming, I don't notice mush difference between 120 and 144 Hz, but YMMV.
Wind, Sand and Stars.
 
rahulahl
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Topic Author
Posts: 256
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2012 8:57 am
Location: Australia

Re: Monitor issue or something else?

Sun Sep 18, 2016 3:49 am

After the latest update, I changed my refresh rate back to 144Hz, and so far I havent had any issues. So maybe the issue is solved in this driver update after all.
Intel i7 4790K
MAXIMUS VII RANGER motherboard
EVGA GTX 1080
16GB Ram
550Watt Seasonic PSU
Asus Rog Swift PG278Q
Windows 10

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