X34 Display Port Dying?

KDK24z
KDK24z Member Posts: 5

Tinkerer

edited October 2020 in Predator Monitors
Hello. I've searched and read all the various postings about the Acer Predator X34 Display Port issues, and I've tried different suggestions, but none helped. I'm wondering if my Display Port in the monitor is dying?

I purchased this monitor new and it has worked perfectly for the past 3 years and 6 months. About 2 months ago I started having a problem where the screen would flicker, sometimes multi-colored lines would appear across the screen, and then it would go black. Infrequently it would come back after 5-15 minutes, but usually the only way I could get it back was to restart my PC. This would happen no matter what I was doing on my PC.

When the screen would go blank, I would switch over to the HDMI setting and my secondary PC would show up fine. Primary PC is connected via Display Port, secondary PC connected via HDMI. I'm currently using my primary PC connected via HDMI because it's just too frustrating to use DP because it might go a day without the problem, or it might be only five minutes.

I have tried checking to make sure the DP connection is tight on both the PC and the monitor, tried using a brand new and different DP cable, updated to current video drivers and even rolled back to a driver I knew was working before this started, all to no avail. I have two video cards and swapped the video cards in case the DP port on the first card was going bad, problem persisted. I made sure all settings in the X34's menu were fine. I was using a refresh rate at the O.C. of 100 and tried dropping it down to various lower rates, problem persisted. One day when the screen started going crazy it went black but then came back looking like the image below. I don't recall what the resolution went to, but the only refresh rate available was 50. I was not able to change any settings at this point. After doing a restart of the PC, it was back to normal full resolution and refresh rate of 100 again.


The monitor is past warranty. I know there have been many people with this monitor having similar problems and from what I've read, the only solution is to send it back to Acer, but I don't have that option as it's past warranty. One post I read mentioned replacing the board inside that the DP is connected to. Has anyone had success doing this, and if so, how do I find the part that I'd need to order and from whom?

I'm really sad about this because I have dual Gigabyte GeForce® GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming WATERFORCE 8G cards set up in SLI. That only works if I'm using a DP connection, and the over-clocking is only possible with a DP connection as well.

Can anyone give me some recommendations, please? I realize my monitor is one of the early releases (2016), and that there were plenty of problems, but my problems only started a couple of months ago after 3.5 years. I'd sure like to get more than 3.5 years use out of this $1,000+ monitor if I can.

Thank you in advance for your time and recommendations.

Answers

  • KDK24z
    KDK24z Member Posts: 5

    Tinkerer

    Does anyone have anything to suggest? Please.
  • KDK24z
    KDK24z Member Posts: 5

    Tinkerer

    It appears nobody has anything to say or any suggestions, and now today it's starting to go wonky with the HDMI connection, so I guess it's just a $1,000+ piece of junk.
  • fst2011
    fst2011 Member Posts: 15 Troubleshooter
    I don't know about you but I will NEVER buy another product from them again. I own the X34 and dont have any issues as of yet but recently had to install drivers for this model. Not only did the files not come with any instructions but good luck trying to get help. Either the tech was hard to understand, sorry just being honest or I they would try to push paid tech support. I spent over 1K for this monitor and it should not be this difficult to get help.

    Here you have an acctual pronlem and you cant even get a mod to help...sorry but I'm done buying Acer products and my 500K subs will know where I stand too!!!


    Just my 2 cents worth and hope you figure out your monitor problem
  • KDK24z
    KDK24z Member Posts: 5

    Tinkerer

    Yes, I continue to have this problem and nobody has ever offered any suggestions or recommendations. I contacted ACER Support and they said I could pay something like $500 to have them look at it, and that doesn't include the postage to send it to them.

    Hopefully the link I'm including will work to show a video clip of what happens. https://1drv.ms/v/s!An_tM-SxKV1zgql1eyjSDvhIUwkpcw?e=bUAyrg

    It's unacceptable to spend well over a THOUSAND dollars on a monitor and have it malfunctioning like this and getting no help from ACER other than spend a lot of money to send it to us and spend even more money to have us just look at it. A quick online search and you can see that MANY people are having the same problem, and there are no solutions. I hate to say it, but save your money and buy a similar monitor from a different company that supports their products. This is a well-known issue with ACER on this model of monitor, but they have your money so they don't care.
  • MechFish
    MechFish Member Posts: 3 New User
    This has been driving me nuts I just started experiencing this problem last week.

    I tried everything to troubleshoot what might be causing the black screen/flicker and I narrowed it down to the monitor.

    Right now I've got it connected via HDMI to see if that stabilises it. Other than that I noticed the problem occurs if you turn the monitor on or interact with the PC after long breaks so I've tried disabling deep sleep in the settings as well.

    I'd really prefer to be using displayport connection but I cannot tolerate that horrendous screen glitching.
  • MechFish
    MechFish Member Posts: 3 New User
    edited January 2022
    https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidemasterrace/comments/hv56jg/had_this_monitor_4_years_acer_x34_and_its_started/

    I also found this Reddit post of the exact issue and they weren't able to rectify it either. It seems like it might be a sign that the unit is about to completely fail.


    Needless to say I am thoroughly unimpressed and will never buy an Acer product again.

  • KDK24z
    KDK24z Member Posts: 5

    Tinkerer

    I'm sorry, I thought I had posted my "fix" to this problem, but obviously I didn't. I did find an email I saved where I described to a friend what I did, and that was back in September, and to this day my monitor is still working great.

    So this is what my monitor was doing: WP_20210908_00_48_48_Pro | Monitor Freaking Out | sir472996 | Flickr


    On Sunday I decided to take my computer apart and used a soft-bristled brush and canned air to blow all the dust-bunnies and ***** out, and after I was done doing that I thought, “Oh, what the heck. The monitor is already whacked, it’s not like I can make it any worse.” So I found a couple of YouTube videos that weren’t my model, but close enough to figure out how to take it apart. It took at least an HOUR to get the back off because rather than making it easy and having four screws to take out, there are MANY plastic clips around all four edges that were a B to pry apart.


    After I got the back off I disconnected all the various cable connections, and removed the main circuit board, the secondary circuit board, and removed the NVIDIA G-Sync module. It wasn’t dusty inside anywhere, and I didn’t see anything obvious that stood out like a swollen and/or leaking capacitor, or any burn marks, so I just used the canned air to give everything a quick dust-off and reconnected all the connections making sure to press firmly for good contact.


    Since the WORST part of the process was taking the back off, I decided to connect it back to the computer and again use the DisplayPort connection just to see if it would even work. It DID!


    I put the back on and reconnected the stand and hooked it back up to the computer and it has been working GREAT ever since! J Since I’m again using the DP connection, I’m also able to over-clock the refresh rate back up to 100 Hz, and there hasn’t been a flicker, flash, or ANY kind of reaction since. I’m guessing one of the numerous connections inside the case had come slightly loose over time, and it was making “just” enough contact that it would work a little bit but then loose contact and hence the video linked above.


    YAY! No need to purchase a new monitor and add this to the ever-growing amount of e-waste!


    I followed the procedure described in this thread: Predator X34 Random Green/Purple Lines — Acer Community


    I didn't have that cleaner described, so I used 99% rubbing alcohol and some Q-tips.

  • MechFish
    MechFish Member Posts: 3 New User
    Well currently I'm stable with a HDMI input so I'm not keen enough to pull it apart but if I do see any more performance issues I will attempt to do this as I had seen another poster have success reseating all their cables.

    Glad you were able to find a solution to this issue! All the best.