KA242Y black flicker

kt2020

My new monitor was working fine for about two-three weeks, and then developed an intermittent problem where the display flickers to black for several seconds. I've tried to download its driver from the Acer site, but my Windows 10 laptop keeps reverting back to the Generic PnP Monitor driver. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling through the Device Manager dialogues, and I've also tried in Safe Mode. It seemed to work in Safe Mode, but the next time I booted in normal operations it reverted to Generic PnP as if it does not recognize the KA242Y driver as a display device.

Oddly enough, it was able to recognize the driver as an audio device, so I'm pretty sure this is one of the models that has speakers (that don't seem to produce sound, go figure...) I don't care about the speakers. I just care about fixing the blackout. Can anyone advise if I've missed a step somewhere? I'm working from advice at the following sites:

https://thegeekpage.com/fix-generic-pnp-monitor-problem-on-windows-10-solved/
https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-us/sln306359/how-to-boot-to-safe-mode-in-windows-10?lang=en
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4481332/windows-10-troubleshoot-external-monitor-connections

I've spent the past two days checking that Windows updates are installed, Dell updates are installed, and even Intel updates are installed, and then I went back to try choosing the Acer driver zip package from my downloads folder.
Laptop info:
Windows 10 64-bit, latest update to version 2004 installed Sept. 29th. along with various September 2020 updates for Windows drivers and Intel HD Graphics 620 display adapter

Dell Inspiron 15 5578 2-in-1

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billsey

Try a power reset on the monitor just to make sure you are not seeing some weird issue with static or grounding. Disconnect all cable from the monitor then press and hold the power button for 30 seconds or so. Wait a while (likely 15-30 minutes is plenty) and plug everything back in and retry. If the issue is pretty much gone you have a workaround when it happens again, although it would be worthwhile to try plugging it directly into the wall socket instead of to a surge arrester, or plugging it into a surge arrester instead of directly into the wall socket.

kt2020

billsey said:

Try a power reset on the monitor just to make sure you are not seeing some weird issue with static or grounding. Disconnect all cable from the monitor then press and hold the power button for 30 seconds or so. Wait a while (likely 15-30 minutes is plenty) and plug everything back in and retry. If the issue is pretty much gone you have a workaround when it happens again, although it would be worthwhile to try plugging it directly into the wall socket instead of to a surge arrester, or plugging it into a surge arrester instead of directly into the wall socket.

@billsey, thanks for the tip but unfortunately it hasn't worked. I discharged any power it might've been holding, let the monitor sit unplugged for about 2hrs while doing other stuff, and it's resumed the irregular flicker cycle once again. I'll be returning/exchanging it to the store for something else because there's nothing else I can do if Windows 10 won't recognize its driver and there's nothing else wrong with my hardware.