Support NeoGAF

[JohnnyFootball]

Out of nowhere on my 4090/7800X3D I have started to get regular and frequent black screens on my 4K 240Hz Alienware QD-OLED. I used to get them once in a blue moon and now I am getting them when doing tasks such as web surfing. I am assuming that display stream compression (DSC) is the culprit. I use a Club 3D full bandwidth DP 2.1 cable so I am not inclined to believe that is the issue, but I’ll double check. Anyone else having this issue? It just cropped up out of nowhere. I reinstalled the drivers using DDU.
I also updated to the latest motherboard BIOS and removed all undervolting and it didn’t change much.

So it’s been well documented that nvidia GPUs and DSC don’t always play nice. The biggest complaint is that whenever DSC is being utilized using Alt-Tab in exclusive fullscreen games will result in a black screen of a few seconds before windows shows up. For a while that was the only time I’d ever have that issue and I could live with it. But it’s been happening pretty regularly. This is why I normally use Borderless Windowed mode for most games. However HDR doesn’t always play nice in this mode and sometimes I have to use exclusive fullscreen…Elden Ring being a perfect example.

If a quick fix isn’t available I will probably reinstall windows with the full 24H2 update.

 

[joeygreco1985]

I have the same monitor and GPU you have and I have not experienced the issues you are. If you wanted to test to see if its a DSC problem you could try running a lower resolution/refresh rate combo that won't trigger DSC and see if you have the same issues.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

I have the same monitor and GPU you have and I have not experienced the issues you are. If you wanted to test to see if its a DSC problem you could try running a lower resolution/refresh rate combo that won't trigger DSC and see if you have the same issues.

My computer has always had weird quirky behavior that I can’t explain. I had a weird issue with Steam where I couldn’t get it to connect to the internet unless I restarted it.

Yes, I tried dropping it down to 60Hz but it was still there.

Like I said I will probably do a fresh windows install this weekend using the new 24H2 and see what that does.

 

[joeygreco1985]

Try an HDMI 2.1 cable instead of DP while youre at it, couldnt hurt

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Try an HDMI 2.1 cable instead of DP while youre at it, couldnt hurt

Yeah, I have solid HDMI 2.1 cables. Good idea. Will I still be able to use 240Hz? I know HDMI has DSC as well.

 

[DeaconOfTheDank]

I think I have this issue, and can confirm it happens with Elden Ring (HDR enabled). Specifically when changing in-game resolutions or engaging exclusive full screen.

I'm using a HDMI 2.1 cable with an RTX 3090 and running on Windows 11 24H2. Although, it's worth mentioning that this was an issue even with prior versions of Windows 11, my old RTX 2080Ti, and with a DP cable.

 

[Bernoulli]

I had this many times using hdmi at 4k 120
The only solution was lowering the res or frame rates

 

[JohnnyFootball]

I think I have this issue, and can confirm it happens with Elden Ring (HDR enabled). Specifically when changing in-game resolutions or engaging exclusive full screen.

I'm using a HDMI 2.1 cable with an RTX 3090 and running on Windows 11 24H2. Although, it's worth mentioning that this was an issue even with prior versions of Windows 11, my old RTX 2080Ti, and with a DP cable.

I could deal with it Elden Ring. It usually happened only when I was entering the game and exiting the game. No big deal. It’s happened a few times when playing (which is REALLY annoying), but yesterday it just started happening on the desktop when doing things like surfing the web. It happened most often when viewing sites with videos such as Tik Tok or instagram.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

I had this many times using hdmi at 4k 120
The only solution was lowering the res or frame rates

With my monitor?

 

[Tarin02543]

I confirm to be having issues as well, I run a 3060 to my 1440p 360hz QD OLED. I've recently discovered that the dp cable I was using was total garbage and have switched to a solid hdmi 2.1 cable instead and run a pure non DSC signal which means I do max out at 240 hz. Sometimes when changing resolutions ingame I get a solid red, then green and finally blue screen.

if you will go non dsc on your 4K Alienware I suspect your max refresh will be 120 if you intend to stick to 4K.

 

[hinch7]

Might be G-Sync and or DSC causing issues. My monitor uses the same panel - Samsung G80SD and was getting intermittent blackouts as well. A few firmware updates later on the monitor and its nearly a non issue.

I'd see if there are any recent firmware on the Alienware and update to the latest version.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Might be G-Sync and or DSC causing issues. My monitor uses the same panel - Samsung G80SD and was getting intermittent blackouts as well. A few firmware updates later on the monitor and its nearly a non issue.

I'd see if there are any recent firmware on the Alienware and update to the latest version.

I have the most recent firmware. I’ll try HDMI when I get home. It should at least tell me if my cable has gone bad.

Samsung monitors have always sucked for me, which is why I refuse to buy theirs.

 

[Thebonehead]

Same GPU and monitor in presuming is the aw3225qf

No issues here. Have updated my monitor to the latest firmware though.

 

[Bernoulli]

With my monitor?

no on tv

 

[hinch7]

I have the most recent firmware. I’ll try HDMI when I get home. It should at least tell me if my cable has gone bad.

Samsung monitors have always sucked for me, which is why I refuse to buy theirs.

Hmm strange yeah maybe try another cable. Else you can always try Dells CS and try for a replacement.

Yeah usually some issues with Samsung's QC. Not had that many issues personally mind. And the current OLED's panels are just amazing.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Hmm strange yeah maybe try another cable. Else you can always try Dells CS and try for a replacement.

Yeah usually some issues with Samsung's QC. Not had that many issues personally mind. And the current OLED's panels are just amazing.

I did buy an extended warranty on it for a reason. If I still have issues I will ask for a replacement.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

no on tv

Strange. TVs don’t use DSC for 4K/120.

 

[Hoddi]

DSC stopped working altogether on my previous 4k160 monitor. It worked fine for the first year but then it degraded to the point where I couldn't run the monitor at over 95hz with full RGB color range. It similarly started out with infrequent black screens but by the end it developed visible black lines across the screen in DSC mode.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

DSC stopped working altogether on my previous 4k160 monitor. It worked fine for the first year but then it degraded to the point where I couldn't run the monitor at over 95hz with full RGB color range. It similarly started out with infrequent black screens but by the end it developed visible black lines across the screen in DSC mode.

Did you try running it at 4K/120 on hdmi 2.1…assuming it had it.

 

[Hoddi]

Did you try running it at 4K/120 on hdmi 2.1…assuming it had it.

It was only HDMI 2.0 so I couldn't check for that. 1440p120 worked fine over HDMI though.

I'll also mention that I tried two separate nvidia GPUs and both behaved the same way so it was definitely caused by the monitor.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

I know I am commenting a bit too soon, but Windows update, out of nowhere had a Dell Monitor update and that seems to have fixed it.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Well, I am not getting the black screens, but I am getting these horrible cases of micro freezes that last for a split second.

Seriously, what in the goddamn fuck is going?

Stuff like the screen will pause for a brief second while my mouse is moving. I was getting micro pauses as I was typing this.

I have no idea if it's GPU related or not.



I have this, but I dont have the option to fix Thunderbolt as was suggested in the Asus forum.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Well goddamn fuck everything. The black screens are back...

 

[hinch7]

Well goddamn fuck everything. The black screens are back...

Might be a firmware/software related issue. I was getting this on both DP and HDMI.

Granted my monitor is another brand the AW is using the same Samsung QD-OLED Gen 3 panel. 1004 fixed my blackouts, 1005 (current) is even more stable.

Someone commented on that video, and brings up ASUS pg32ucdm users having this issue too.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Might be a firmware/software related issue. I was getting this on both DP and HDMI.

Granted my monitor is another brand the AW is using the same Samsung QD-OLED Gen 3 panel. 1004 fixed my blackouts, 1005 (current) is even more stable.

Someone commented on that video, and brings up ASUS pg32ucdm users having this issue too.

What I don’t understand is how it just appeared out of nowhere. Prior to yesterday everything was working fine.

Like I said, I am going to do a fresh windows install this weekend with 24H2.

Prior to today I was a huge fan of display stream compression. Today I fucking hate it.

 

[hinch7]

Yeah there's something up with DSC with these displays. I also have a sneaking suspicion its also a VRR issue/bug. Try OS level VRR and see if anything changed. Under settings - System>Display>Graphics. https://www.elevenforum.com/t/enable-or-disable-variable-refresh-rate-for-games-in-windows-11.12052/

Also try with G-Sync off and see if that helps. And if you have any consoles connected test with no VRR and see if it still does it.

 

[Imtjnotu]

First start with the cable... Try any mono price cheap one and see

 

[darrylgorn]

My computer has always had weird quirky behavior that I can’t explain.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

First start with the cable... Try any mono price cheap one and see

I have a Club3D DP 2.1 cable. It’s the most expensive one available.

 

[Hoddi]

What I don’t understand is how it just appeared out of nowhere. Prior to yesterday everything was working fine.

Like I said, I am going to do a fresh windows install this weekend with 24H2.

Prior to today I was a huge fan of display stream compression. Today I fucking hate it.

That's how it happened on mine as well. DSC worked fine to begin with but then these issues developed over time until it finally became unusable. It's like it simply degraded over the years.

You mentioned that you have extended warranty and I think there's good reason to take advantage of that. Your next monitor might also develop the same issue so you'll want to keep that covered by the warranty as well. I don't know if it's just bad luck (which it possibly is) but these issues have made me fairly skeptical of DSC as a feature.

 

[Imtjnotu]

I have a Club3D DP 2.1 cable. It’s the most expensive one available.

Bro... Just because it's the most expensive doesn't mean it can't break...

Look at every high end European sports car brand

Now stop being difficult and try another cheap dp cable

 

[JohnnyFootball]

That's how it happened on mine as well. DSC worked fine to begin with but then these issues developed over time until it finally became unusable. It's like it simply degraded over the years.

You mentioned that you have extended warranty and I think there's good reason to take advantage of that. Your next monitor might also develop the same issue so you'll want to keep that covered by the warranty as well. I don't know if it's just bad luck (which it possibly is) but these issues have made me fairly skeptical of DSC as a feature.

HDMI 2.1 seems like my next option. Some reports say it works well.. others say it doesn’t. Only one way to find out.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Bro... Just because it's the most expensive doesn't mean it can't break...

Look at every high end European sports car brand

Now stop being difficult and try another cheap dp cable

Trying HDMI 2.1 right now. GSync and everything seems to work. Time will tell.

EDIT: HDMI 2.1 seems to be working in terms of stability.


However... I am stuck at 60 fps in everything. Yes, the refresh rate is set to 240 Hz.

I'll have to investigate.

 

[nemiroff]

Someone commented on that video, and brings up ASUS pg32ucdm users having this issue too.

Yes, same, it might have started when I updated the firmware, I'm not sure.. but it came out of the blue. I haven't started to dig into it yet, was thinking to wait for another firmware update.

 

[Kenpachii]

Always try to replace the cable no matter how expensive the one is u got atm. I had a few cables break on me that would create all kinds of problems.

 

[azertydu91]

Trying HDMI 2.1 right now. GSync and everything seems to work. Time will tell.

EDIT: HDMI 2.1 seems to be working in terms of stability.


However... I am stuck at 60 fps in everything. Yes, the refresh rate is set to 240 Hz.

I'll have to investigate.

I have the same problem, I am locked at 60 fps with a 4070 ti super....I tried 3 different hdmi2.1 cables...If you find a fix I'd gladly try it.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Bro... Just because it's the most expensive doesn't mean it can't break...

Look at every high end European sports car brand

Now stop being difficult and try another cheap dp cable

Always try to replace the cable no matter how expensive the one is u got atm. I had a few cables break on me that would create all kinds of problems.

The cable I replaced it with has me locked to 120 Hz! Supposedly it's a 1.4 DP cable. Guess not..

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Update: Right now I have been running the monitor at 120Hz and everything is 100% stable for the moment. No black screens. No nothing. The option to choose 240 Hz is gone and I find that a bit odd.

I will probably do a fresh Windows install and see what happens.

But it does indeed seem that DSC and nvidia GPUs just simply don't play as nice as they should.

I can deal with the momentary signal loss when switching between using exclusive fullscreen and Alt-tab. That isn't and has been an issue I can't deal with. What I can't deal with are the frequent drops during normal desktop usage and while gaming.

Nvidia (I shouldn't say Alienware is blameless here) absolutely needs to make fixing this a priority. They are the market leader.
My understanding is that AMD Gpus have been fairly rock solid with DSC.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

I have the same problem, I am locked at 60 fps with a 4070 ti super....I tried 3 different hdmi2.1 cables...If you find a fix I'd gladly try it.

It appears to be fixed now.

What I did was switch the display over to HDMI 2.1

Did a complete DDU wipeout of the drivers.

Reinstalled.

The display then worked and I didn't get any noticeable dropouts. I could run it at 4K/240 over HDMI 2.1. Had VRR enabled and everything. However, games like Doom Eternal was locked to 120 fps and Elden Ring was locked to 60, and I couldn't figure out why. Even games that did run normally had a weird stutter to them. I've heard some say that it was like VRR wasn't actually enabled, despite Nvidia Control Panel saying it was. That was how it seemed to me.

So I switched it back to DP with another cable and it worked....however, my refresh rate was locked to 120 Hz. I kept it like that for a few hours and it was rock solid stable. No issues, but I paid for 240 Hz and I want to use it (contrary to popular belief I can run Plenty of games beyond 120 fps at 4K with DLSS)

So I went into nvidia Control and reinstalled the latest driver with a complete clean install (DDU wasn't necessary since I was using the same drive) and once I restarted, the 240 Hz option returned and so far, the black screens are largely gone.

Here is what I am guessing happened:
1. That over time and multiple driver installs caused the handshake between the monitor and the GPU to become corrupted.
2. I had 3 monitors connected to my GPU through DP. It is possible that is too many. I read reports that could cause problems, but prior to that I hadn't noticed it. At the moment, I removed my 1080p from DP and put it on HDMI. I don't need any advanced features from that monitor, so that was fine.

I have no idea if that will help you, but its what I did. Right now everything is good. The random black screens have stopped. One other change I made was that I am now running Elden Ring in Borderless WIndow mode. It technically disables HDR in the Elden Ring menu, but I can't really tell any difference between HDR off in Borderless mode and HDR on in Fullscreen mode, so I am just leaving it that way. Over the last year, I run pretty much every game in Borderless mode and the performance is largely the same and it basically eliminates any delay in exiting out of game due to black screens.

 

[azertydu91]

It appears to be fixed now.

What I did was switch the display over to HDMI 2.1

Did a complete DDU wipeout of the drivers.

Reinstalled.

The display then worked and I didn't get any noticeable dropouts. I could run it at 4K/240 over HDMI 2.1. Had VRR enabled and everything. However, games like Doom Eternal was locked to 120 fps and Elden Ring was locked to 60, and I couldn't figure out why. Even games that did run normally had a weird stutter to them. I've heard some say that it was like VRR wasn't actually enabled, despite Nvidia Control Panel saying it was. That was how it seemed to me.

So I switched it back to DP with another cable and it worked....however, my refresh rate was locked to 120 Hz. I kept it like that for a few hours and it was rock solid stable. No issues, but I paid for 240 Hz and I want to use it (contrary to popular belief I can run Plenty of games beyond 120 fps at 4K with DLSS)

So I went into nvidia Control and reinstalled the latest driver with a complete clean install (DDU wasn't necessary since I was using the same drive) and once I restarted, the 240 Hz option returned and so far, the black screens are largely gone.

Here is what I am guessing happened:
1. That over time and multiple driver installs caused the handshake between the monitor and the GPU to become corrupted.
2. I had 3 monitors connected to my GPU through DP. It is possible that is too many. I read reports that could cause problems, but prior to that I hadn't noticed it. At the moment, I removed my 1080p from DP and put it on HDMI. I don't need any advanced features from that monitor, so that was fine.

I have no idea if that will help you, but its what I did. Right now everything is good. The random black screens have stopped. One other change I made was that I am now running Elden Ring in Borderless WIndow mode. It technically disables HDR in the Elden Ring menu, but I can't really tell any difference between HDR off in Borderless mode and HDR on in Fullscreen mode, so I am just leaving it that way. Over the last year, I run pretty much every game in Borderless mode and the performance is largely the same and it basically eliminates any delay in exiting out of game due to black screens.

Shit I already tried with DDU several times .... I will check my cables since my ps5 can send 4k 120 hdr through the same switch .... Maybe plugging it directly might work.Congrats to you for fixing it.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Shit I already tried with DDU several times .... I will check my cables since my ps5 can send 4k 120 hdr through the same switch .... Maybe plugging it directly might work.Congrats to you for fixing it.

A switch? What kind of switch? I can get 4K/120 and VRR through my Onkyo receiver. Yours may not play well with GSync.

Hard to say.

 

[azertydu91]

A switch? What kind of switch? I can get 4K/120 and VRR through my Onkyo receiver. Yours may not play well with GSync.

Hard to say.

Interesting I'll try to plug it directly to see if that's the problem , I can't remember which switch but I know it is HDMI 2.1 compatible so it should work and it does for my PS5 .Maybe it is due to my dual screen setup too.
Anyway I will try some cable change in the upcoming days if I have the time, if I ever find the solution I'll post it here in case someone has the same problem one day.