XB321HK Weird Artifact

Judge_Dredd_3D

Hi there guys,

Has anyone experienced a weird artifact on the entire left side of the screen that pops up every 45min to an hour?

First I thought the video card was faulty so I switched it, then the display port cable, then different games and it happened every time, the only other source of info was few reviewers on Amazon describing the same issue...

Have any one seen this on their monitor?

 

Thank you guys!

 

PS. The artifact only last less than a second at a time and might seem like insignificant issue but with a $1400 you would expect near perfection.

Manny-Acer_Retired

Hi all,

We would like to apologize again to all users who are experiencing the reported issue with their monitor. Unfortunately, the LCD panel would need to be replaced at a local Acer service center to resolve this issue. If you are experiencing the reported issue, we encourage you to contact your local Acer support team for assistance getting your monitor setup for repair.  We will be closing this thread with this post listed as the official solution. If you are still experiencing the issue after having your LCD panel replaced, we encourage you to send us a private message or create a new topic in the community so we can look into it further.

If you need intimidate technical assistance please go to https://www.acer.com/worldwide/ and select the country of your location, under the support tab you can find the available service centers and technical support phone numbers.

Best Regards,

Acer-Manny

Jcasey35

I'm having the same issue, also happens directly following short periods of inactivity. Would really love to know what is causing this issue.

RidingTheFlow

It happens to me sometimes, albeit very rarely (once-twice a day?). It also completely unpredictable - by now I was not able to pinpoint what causes it to appear more/less often. Mainly because its pretty rare and random.

Things I've tried:

- changing DP cable

- changing DP port

- disabling DP audio (and completely removing NVidia HD audio)

- disabling FPS indicator

- disabling display scaling (settting display to 1:1 and NVidia CPL to always GPU scale)

- not using USB 3.0 hub

- not using GSync

- not having a mobile phone anywhere near the monitor

- switching NVIdia power management settings

 

It does not seem to be related to inactivity. I've seen it happening in games sometimes. Its just that in gaming screen tend to change lot more and its harder to notice it than on static desktop.

 

From what I know some people tried to make Acer do something about it, and, predictably Acer "service" just sent monitor back with "we switched it on, ran our tests and everything worked for us ok, no fault".

I guess only thing closer to proving it to Acer would be recording a video - but then you will have to pretty much set up 24/7 recording hoping issue will eventually be caught - and even then Acer probably still will say "it does not happen for us, this some interference/compatibility issue on your side, etc, etc".

 

Btw it only happens on half of screen because this panel used 2 separate eDP controllers for each part - and looks like one of them loses sync for just one frame (1/60 of second), briefly displaying artefact. So issue is probably in internal circutry/GSync module.

 

Which GPU do you have BTW? I have GTX 980M

Jcasey35

I concure with pretty much everything you are saying. To answer your question I am running this off of my EVGA 1080. I also tried it straight to my motherboard with the same results.

 

I spoke with Acer support last night and they are willing to "repair" the monitor as you say, but I feel like they will most likely send it back after finding nothing wrong with it. Not sure what I should do.

 

Thanks for the replies!

xb321user

i just stumbled on this place, i have the same problem constantly happening, half of the screen (either left or right) would display corruption and then returns to normal. i thought it was maybe my video card, but i just recently upgraded and it's happening now even more frequent, this is obviously the problem of the monitor, i purchased my monitor in may, it is a February build, is my manufactured model by date defective? or whats going on, i can not ignore this any more, i need a fix for this. btw what is acers dead pixel policy on the xb321hk, because i've been getting dead pixels poping up as well, thanks for reading

 

 

RidingTheFlow

If it happens constantly and often enough to be easily noticed, just repair under warranty? Just make sure it really reproducible, otherwise Acer most likely will say "didn't happen for us"

 

Here is Acers dead pixel policy - http://www.acer.com/ac/en/IN/content/dead-pixel

 

xb321user

that's my concern, that they would barely even test it, but it keeps happening and its annoying, what is it, can it be fixed with firmware or what? it happens sometimes constantly 2 -3 times within an hour, then other times it'll be 3 or 4 times a day, but i will definitely see it at least once a day, but the even bigger problem is what if something is specifically triggering it, i'm not the only one has this problem, so i'm guessing it's my build, anybody got more info on this?

 

btw that dead pixel policy you linked doesn't show my resolution 3840x2160 :X

xb321user

according to there math, 5 dead pixels per 1 million pixels, my res is 8294400 pixels, that means i would need over 42 dead pixels? is this true? that just sounds ridiculous, can i get some customer support here, i don't really want to pay $80 dollars to ship my lcd for nothing like some have done so

RidingTheFlow

Personally the way you describe (several hours to once a day) I wouldn't bother about it. Acer service unlikely will do anything, considering they are "not seeing" even more severe problems like in the threads below with firmware bug causing image splitting.

 

Yes, Acer dead pixel policy is as unhelpful as it sounds, but actually its pretty similar to lots of other manufacturers (save special warranties like on Dell Ultrasharps). 

 

But I recommend talking to your local Acer support on the phone and hear what they will say. This forum is just for community support/owners to talk together, you unlikely to get proper response from Acer here.

 

xb321user

other people got support from acer staff on these forums, and your telling me not to bother, it bothers me that i was one of the very early people to buy a very expensive monitor just to get stiffed with a bug like this, so now i definitely want acer support team to get in touch with me, let me know what is causing this, i'll gladly take a firmware patch through the net, but i want to be certain the problem will be fixed. this is no way to treat one of the first customers with faulty merchandise

 

so basically your telling me "your expensive monitor is defective, o well live with it, don't bother acer with your problems" i think not, and i assure you other people don't as well, you don't have to reply to this, you don't work for acer anyways

xb321user

it's obvious at this point, that the XB271HK & XB321HK all suffer from this (every manufactured build date model as far as i know), there's not alot of complaints because there's not alot of owners out of there who own these models, and doing nothing about it isn't a solution to the problem.

 

the problem sounds like something that a firmware patch could correct, but first we need to bring it to attention, i strongly advise we make a sticky about this and have every user who browses this forum as a guest in regards to similar problems, sign up and please describe what manufacture date & model you own and if you suffer from the same problem.

because at this point i'm betting every monitor has this defect, and until acer admits that it exists we will get no support for it, and they'll do nothing about it, who's the say in the future they wont pull the same kinda thing again. so if anybody has this problem (or not), kindly tell us your model and manufacture build date located on the back, this is the only way we will ever get a fix for this, but if you have no problem spending your hard earned money and enjoy that disgusting corruption almost every day, all the while knowing the company knows about it and wants to do nothing to solve it, by all means carry on

 

 

i own a XB321HK - feburary 2016 build date

 

i get the half screen corruption on desktop and during gaming, sometimes it switches sides, so it's not always on the left

 

 

i advise members in here to start posting info as well about there models, and i'm also curious about people with newer builds, maybe the issue was corrected?

 

when enough people make posts about the problem, acer will no longer be able to deny it and be forced to correct the matter, if your reading this then you obviously know whats going on and here's your chance to take it to new heights, otherwise nothing will be done.

 

 

i am bumping this up, my problem is not going away, infact it's becoming more and more frequent, are you going to provide support for this issue acer.

 

 

Jose-Acer

Hello everyone,

 

I have forwarded the information you have provided to HQ and I can assure you that we're looking into this.  Can you please send me a PM with the Serial Number of your monitor and what kind of setup do you have (single/dual monitor, type of connection, video card)?  I know that the issue is random but if you could get a picture or video, it would help.

xb321user

When i came home yesterday and read your reply, the glitch appeared again on my monitor, almost at the exact same time i was done reading your reply. I took my cheap phone and taped it to a piece of cardboard and put it infront of my monitor(kinda like a camera with a tripod), i then recorded my monitor for 6 hours to attempt to capture it, my phone is cheap so i had to record for 40 minutes then delete what i recorded (because i have no storage to save) then restart the recording process again, this was not fun or easy to do, but it had to be done so i can once and for all prove and confirm as a fact what myself and other people are experiencing.

i've taken a screenshot of the glitch and also i have uploaded the video as shown here

Screenshot:

 

 

 

 

 

video link: i uploaded the full 18 minutes of the recording, the glitch is shown in the last 60 seconds, 0:24

vid.me/tNaO


i caught it on camera, then instantly stopped recording about 30 seconds later, cause i was tired. The real funny part was, 15 minutes after i stopped recording it happened again on the right side (like it shows on the video recording) and then 2 minutes later it happened on the left side, as if the monitor was making fun of me for waiting all day infront of it.


Bottom line, this glitch happens every day at least 4-5 times a day, and it is extremely random, the only thing i knew for a fact was that it would happen each day, so i sat down and started recording. i don't know if there's a particular sequence of colored pixels that is triggering the defect in the monitor, but i do know that i experience this in my desktop (as shown in the video) and in 3d applications, also sometimes the experience shows corrupted color of pink or green, it's extremely different in many cases, but it would always be either half of the monitor left or right that experiences it and it always happens.


i would also like to set something else straight, i don't know who started this speculation about 1/60th of a second glitch due to syncing, that's a load of BS, nobody measured how long this thing lasts, and some people could be running it at 30hz via hdmi, the only fact is that it occurs and alot of users are getting exactly what i'm showing, so if your one of these people, i recommend you take 1 day out of your time and use your cheap phone to record it (mine recorded at 20 frames), it will happen atleast once a day, or you can be lazy and do nothing, your call


thank you for replying to my post acer-jose, i appreciate it, so my question to you is this, what is going to be done about it, because if i'm going to send in my unit, they either A) will replace the monitor with the latest manufactured build of the assembly line, or fix it themselves, assuming they even know what exactly is causing this. You see my concern, but i do not want to send it wasting $80 for nothing, and as you can see, i have the proof to back it up. i would also appreciate it if any members who owns a XB321HK can confirm that this is exactly what there seeing as well, i wonder if the new manufactured models have this error or not...

specs: single monitor, displayport that came with monitor, gtx 980 graphics card

thanks for reading

 

[edited to comply with guidelines]

RidingTheFlow

This does indeed look what I have observed on two XB321HKs (one February build, other April build).

 

But for me it flickers a lot faster than that, and I definitely estimate it about single frame (1/60 sec with 60Hz refresh). Several months ago when this was first reported, I've tried to record with my phone (supposed to be 60hz camera), but it only recorded very slight "darkening" - no way visible as the actual thing.

 

Maybe with 30Hz refresh it will flicker for longer - but I can't stomach working with 30Hz for long to actually test it. Also for me recently it happens quite rare for whatever reason.

 

Btw I am currently testing with HDMI @ 1080p 60Hz and flicker happened once yesterday.

Since it happens on HDMI (and also even on BenQ BL3201PT which does have entirely different non-gsync scaler, but the same panel), I estimated it to be more of eDP interface problem (which M320QAN01 panel uses). It also strongly hinted to problem with panel input because this "half screen split" happens on panel level - this panel actually has separate lanes and separate TCONs for each half. While monitor itself is single stream.

 

 

Jcasey35

That's almost what I am seeing, I think that mine happens a bit quicker and doesn't affect every pixel on either wise but it is very distinguished that it only happens on one half or the other. Crazy annoying...

 

XB321HK

Feb 2016

 

Operating at 60Hz through DP cable with G-Sync enabled on an EVGA GTX 1080. Lets see if we can get this resolved. If another video would be useful I will see what I can setup.

xb321user

maybe i got lucky on recording it, but from when i seen the flicker, to me it did not appear to be 1/60th of a second, and also the corruption sometimes wasn't the entire half screen, it would be kinda partial of the half screen with different colors, but we all agree that were seeing something like this, maybe my monitor is in a much further state of degradation, btw i though hdmi only did 30hz.

yea i've read about the benq model as well having this problem, you state that it hints to potentially being some kind of syncing, but your just witnessing the defect showing up at a particular region on the display, it doesn't necessarily mean its anything to do with the syncing at all, it's more then likely a flaw desgin in the processing, every piece of hardware has it's own internal processing, somewhere along the line it's throwing off some kind of excess triggering this defect, or maybe it could even potentially be some piece of hardware, point is we dont know, we can only guess, but this smells like firmware issue(if i were to guess), is it possible to fix it?, the technicians at acer will not be able to identify this, so we'd have to go all the way back to the manufacturing by AUO, but that all being said and done, my problem is today and now, so either they replace me (and anybody else who suffers from this and feels its become to much of a issue) with a new build date (hopefully the new model defect wont be so frequent) or i dont know what to say....

good to have more people validate the issue, my advise on recording this error is, set it up somewhere where you can instantly delete and start a fresh record(unless you got lots of space), then go about using your monitor, i was basically watching tv for 6 hours, wasting time...

i would have given up on this matter, but when i start seeing it explode on me 3-4 times in a row, that's when i get mad and feel like i'm running a defective monitor, which is exactly what i'm doing. we await your reply acer, more videos welcome, just sit there and watch :X good luck

RidingTheFlow

This monitor HDMI supports 60hz in 1080p mode - obviously resolution is not as sharp as 4K but the fact that glitch still happens is strong hint that it somewhere "deep inside" and not external like cable, GPU, etc. In this HDMI mode operation is very different, because input signal is very low res, G-sync is completely inactive and monitor is rescaling it to panel's resolution - but still, glitch happened exactly the same.

 

I obviosly didn't go as far as fieldstrip the monitor under warranty, but I know DP/eDP is very sensitive to interference at high bandwidth esp., and glitches happened with many other monitor in similar fashion - and 4K@60Hz is pushing DP bandwidth to the limits. Wierd that in this case it happens inside the monitor, not on external cable as it usually is. Maybe some bad internal shielding?

 

I was able to obtain datasheet/electrical schematic for the panel, that's how I know it uses "split" input and two separate TCON chips inside the panel - this definitely explains why flash happens on half. AFAIK TCON is just an ASIC without any "firmware" to speak of, but who know, maybe its FPGA in this case.

It would also explain why XB271HK is affected - same manufacturer, and it will make sense for them to use same TCON chips for same resolution - its basically only different glass size.

 

 

Btw, AUO and Acer is the same corporation.

 

xb321user

we can agree that we don't know exactly what the problem is and have our own suspicions as to the cause, but one thing i know is that there is a stressor triggering it, what is that stressor? unknown at the moment, it's either hardware or software handling hardware, and without taking the thing apart we'll never know, i don't plan to ruin my warranty either to do so, so now the company has to come a resolute

 

 

just to throw things out there, wonder if any amd owners have this problem, wonder if setting the monitor to extreme could cause this, wonder how this defect looks like if the display menu was open when it occurs, lot of directions to proceed, but i'm just the consumer here, this isn't my job to handle the matter, i'm just pointing it out

 

 

edit: another intresting note, i wonder if operating system has any effect on this, i use windows 7 x64

 

edit 2: as i was editing this it happened again on the left side, distorted band of colors red, green blue, like if the signal was being lost or something.

RidingTheFlow

Bingo! I had to use iPad Air, and it did record it without trouble unlike my "60hz" phone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFDtw8jh-Cw

 

It looks like it vertically stretching pixel rows at certain intervals - thats why how it looks depends on what actually was on screen. This certainly looks some kind of vertical clock/scan issue to me.

 

This was shot on HDMI 1080p 60Hz, so nothing to do with (external DP) or gSync at all.

 

I use Windows 10. I doubt it has anything to do with OS...

 

xb321user

i can confirm that i received corruption like that as well, with the video you posted. so now we got even more proof...

 

try to edit your post with a screenshot capture of it, if you can, so people can gasp in disgust at first sight

Jose-Acer

First I would like to thank you for providing videos of the issue as this will be of great help in trying to isolate what might be causing it.  I have forwarded them to HQ so they can look into this.  At the moment I do not have a reply from them but once I get more information I'll update you in this thread.