Is the left half of my Acer XB270HU dying?

kevinsmouts

Hello there

I'm wondering if anyone is encountering the same issue.

I have bought my Acer XB270HU bprz 28in (G-Sync) in 2015, and have been pretty happy with it until this summer. In the past couple of months, randomly out of nowhere, the left half of the screen starts to flicker. It stays for a random amount of time, sometime 5sec sometimes almost a minute. Turning off the monitor doesn't change anything (even the left half of the acer logo at startup flickers), but I have better success by unplugging and replugging the input (70% of the time it works).

Here is a video of this in action: https://imgur.com/a/lrElFxt

I've switched cables, and tested on another graphic card, I isolated it to the screen. The fact that even the "acer boot screen" of the monitor flickers, seems to go in the same direction.

Has anyone encountered the same thing?

Thanks
Kevin

billsey

Yes, doesn't look good... If you were still in warranty I'd say send it in for repairs, but with a 2015 purchase date I'm going to assume you are out of warranty. Something is glitching the internal memory buffer. It could be a faulty power supply or the motherboard. Either is not going to be easy to repair.

kevinsmouts

billsey said:

Yes, doesn't look good... If you were still in warranty I'd say send it in for repairs, but with a 2015 purchase date I'm going to assume you are out of warranty. Something is glitching the internal memory buffer. It could be a faulty power supply or the motherboard. Either is not going to be easy to repair.

I sent it under warranty in December when some of the first glitches started to appear. Acer support "did not find anything". A couple months later it starts doing this and the warranty expired...

I'd hope a 600USD monitor would last more than 3 years..

billsey

When you sent it in was it for this specific problem, or was there something else going on?

kevinsmouts

billsey said:

When you sent it in was it for this specific problem, or was there something else going on?

Thanks for keeping this thread alive

It was flickering the same way and turning off. I thought it was a faulty display port input. They "didn't find anything" yet it restarted acting weird a couple months later. I'm wondering which tests they actually ran

billsey

The problem seems to be divided on memory boundaries, like one bank of memory is getting glitched and presenting as random colors on that side of the screen. Typically that's a drive issue or hardware issue on the GPU card side but it can also be the frame buffer in the monitor itself. The easiest way to pin down which is which is to connect a different monitor that's running at the same resolution and refresh rate. If the glitches stay it's the video card or drivers, if they go away completely it's the monitor. If it's the monitor I would think Acer would still fix it under warranty since the problem was reported while still under warranty, so it was obviously failing during the warranty period. Note however that I'm not an Acer employee, so can't speak for them.

kevinsmouts

billsey said:

The problem seems to be divided on memory boundaries, like one bank of memory is getting glitched and presenting as random colors on that side of the screen. Typically that's a drive issue or hardware issue on the GPU card side but it can also be the frame buffer in the monitor itself. The easiest way to pin down which is which is to connect a different monitor that's running at the same resolution and refresh rate. If the glitches stay it's the video card or drivers, if they go away completely it's the monitor. If it's the monitor I would think Acer would still fix it under warranty since the problem was reported while still under warranty, so it was obviously failing during the warranty period. Note however that I'm not an Acer employee, so can't speak for them.

I've isolated it to the monitor, this happens even when the monitor is disconnected from the graphic card on the Acer logo screen when you turn on the monitor.

The problem with Acer warranty system is that there is no place to make a claim outside of your period of warranty since they ask you for the serial number when placing a request. Do you know any other way to contact them that would be out of this system?

Manny-Acer_Retired

Hi kevinsmouts,

I am very sorry to hear this, can you please send me a private message with the serial number of your monitor to better assist you?

Thanks in advance,
Acer-Manny

kevinsmouts

Acer-Manny said:

Hi kevinsmouts,

I am very sorry to hear this, can you please send me a private message with the serial number of your monitor to better assist you?

Thanks in advance,
Acer-Manny

Really appreciated, will do this right away.

kevinsmouts

Final update from Acer: they will not take this under extension of warranty as the issue was not reported as seen today during the period of warranty.

Since Acer is apparently selling high-end monitors that have a lifespan of 3 years only, I'll be putting my money elsewhere when replacing my monitor.