Samsung 204B Monitor Flashing

SunGun

n00b
Joined
Sep 19, 2006
Messages
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I have just recently built a new PC with the following specs:

ASUS P5B P965 mobo
Zogis 7900GT 512MB
Core 2 Duo E6600
2Gig Corsair DDR2 675 RAM

Processor is running at around 39-40 deg Celsius idle

Whenever I run my monitor at max resolution, which is 1600x1200 (20'' monitor), the monitor will randomly and sporatically flash on/off. Sometimes, it will not do this at all, and sometimes, it starts and never stops.

Also, at any resolution lower than 1600xAnything, like 1280x1024, the flashing never occurred and I used it all day... seems to only flash as soon as I hit 1600 and up.

It has also began the random flashing sequence even at the BIOS screen.

I have installed nVidia's 9.1.4.7 driver from 8/11/2006 and installed the mobo drivers that came with this asus board.

I have no idea what's causing this, but I have tried other monitors with this tower, and this tower with other monitors and it seems to work fine.

I did NOT over clock the card, everything is at factory settings with presumably the newest up-to-date drivers...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
based on what you said, it's not the card or the driver, it's your LCD. This is what happened when we all out source to India or China. Time for an RMA.

the 204B are cheap LCd anyway, don't expect much. It's 6 bit panel vs. 8 bit panel.
 
Lol I don't see why it matters if it's 8-bit or 6 bit. Lots of expensive LCDs are defective too. It sounds like your monitor is losing signal, try it out on another DVI port or video card. If you still have problems return it
 
Thanks for the help... I hooked up a new monitor to this tower and ran EQ2 on Very High Performance and started getting artifacts, so the card may have been getting too hot or already fried, I have no idea. I closed out EverQuest2 after the artifacts had occurred... and lo and behold, my LCD started flashing.. This LCD is fine I've been using it for about 4 years so I think it's gotta be the video card... I'm using a different cord this time, connections are secure, and I'm using DVI->VGA adapter.

Time to RMA my Zogis and get a BFG tech, if newegg would get any 512's in, and get cooling unit to put into a slot to keep it healthy I suppose.
 
Join the crowd my friend....
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=1932037&STARTPAGE=1

That makes 3 of us.... seems to me 7900 is not compatible with this monitor...

bought 2 204B monitors... one for me and one for my brother.

I have my 204B on my 7800GT WITH OUT ANY ISSUES. I have used both of my 204B monitors on my 7800GT with no issues what so ever. Left screens on for 5+ hours playing movies... no issues.

As soon as i move one of the 204B screens to my brothers computer with a 7900GT... it flickers with DVI but never flickers with VGA connection...

My gut feeling tells me that something is up with the 7900GT.... or maybe nvidia themselves...
 
So how much am I sacrificing by using VGA instead of the DVI connector... and do you think this issue can be fixed with drivers?

Also, who is your cards manufacturer. I was going to grab a BFG Tech but all of a sudden, the BFG Tech 512MB's weren't listed on newegg anymore whenever I was ready to order it :(
 
can someone show or explain the differance in realestate with a 20'' Samsung 204B compared to a 22'' Samsung 225BW? A big concern of mine is the .255 dot pich on the 20.1'' @ 1600x 1200 vs. the .282 dot pitch on the 22'' @ 1680x1050'. Will the picture look sharper on the 20.1''? thanks.
 
My 205BW started flashing on and off yesterday when I changed from full screen to windowed mode in Media Player, I had to restart PC to fix it.

It had flashed off and on then off and on again before returning to normal on a few occasions over the last month or so - kinda like it was changing resolution even though it wasn't. Only would happen when resizing a video window in Media Player Classic and once when quitting a game. Yesterday was the first time it didn't recover by itself.

Am using a X1900XT 512mb, had not had any problems in games so don't think heat did it. Maybe some kind of driver or windows glitch? Think if it was the screen it would occur under more varied circumstances.

Coming to think of it, the problem seemed almost identical to the old ATI VPU recover bug from about 2-4 years back in the 9000 series when launching certain games. Do Nvidia have some kind of GPU reset function you could tinker with in drivers?
 
Mangonz said:
My 205BW started flashing on and off yesterday when I changed from full screen to windowed mode in Media Player, I had to restart PC to fix it.

It had flashed off and on then off and on again before returning to normal on a few occasions over the last month or so - kinda like it was changing resolution even though it wasn't. Only would happen when resizing a video window in Media Player Classic and once when quitting a game. Yesterday was the first time it didn't recover by itself.

Am using a X1900XT 512mb, had not had any problems in games so don't think heat did it. Maybe some kind of driver or windows glitch? Think if it was the screen it would occur under more varied circumstances.

Coming to think of it, the problem seemed almost identical to the old ATI VPU recover bug from about 2-4 years back in the 9000 series when launching certain games. Do Nvidia have some kind of GPU reset function you could tinker with in drivers?

Are you running DVI... i am assuming that you are.

How long have you been running that monitor?
It's most likely the monitor and not your video card, or drivers and stuff....
I sure do hope samsung takes care of this problem with Flickering monitors.

All the reviews on newegg look so good because ibet majority is not even running it DVI...
 
Yup, my card doesn't have any analogue ports. In my case it isn't really an issue - only had to restart once since I bought it in July.

Jaakum mentioned in the 205BW thread that turning the screen off and back on fixed it when the same happened to him, something I didn't try. Guess that means it is a screen issue however.
 
Hi guys do a search - I just posted the fix for this a few days ago when I had the same problem.

It is not the monitor, it is the ATI Drivers running at too high a frequency for the 204b and other 60hz hi-res monitors.

I just about almost sent my second Samsung 204b back (the first had two lines of dead pixels), because when using the DVI connector, I would lose picture once in a while, and it got worse the longer the monitor was on. It would get to a point where it would just flash, you could see it drawing part of the top of the screen and then going black. I didn't have the problem with analog, so I was sure the monitor was faulty.

For some reason with Catalyst 6.6, the first I installed on this new build, I didn't have this problem. But with 6.7 and 6.8 I do.

Found the solution - go to Digital Panel Properties/Attributes in the Catalyst Control Panel. Make sure "Reduce DVI Frequencey on high-frequency displays is checked" and while you're at it go into monitor properties in Catalyst and make sure your "max refresh rate" is being read correctly. Mine was not.

I'm not sure which tweak fixed it, but my screen is finally staying on!
 
sluzbenik said:
Hi guys do a search - I just posted the fix for this a few days ago when I had the same problem.

It is not the monitor, it is the ATI Drivers running at too high a frequency for the 204b and other 60hz hi-res monitors.

I just about almost sent my second Samsung 204b back (the first had two lines of dead pixels), because when using the DVI connector, I would lose picture once in a while, and it got worse the longer the monitor was on. It would get to a point where it would just flash, you could see it drawing part of the top of the screen and then going black. I didn't have the problem with analog, so I was sure the monitor was faulty.

For some reason with Catalyst 6.6, the first I installed on this new build, I didn't have this problem. But with 6.7 and 6.8 I do.

Found the solution - go to Digital Panel Properties/Attributes in the Catalyst Control Panel. Make sure "Reduce DVI Frequencey on high-frequency displays is checked" and while you're at it go into monitor properties in Catalyst and make sure your "max refresh rate" is being read correctly. Mine was not.

I'm not sure which tweak fixed it, but my screen is finally staying on!

Please explain the solution for 7900Gt and 7600GS.
As those are the cards that I own.
 
I don't have an Nvidia card, so I don't know, but look at around in the Nvidia control panel, I'm sure there's something regarding frequency or refresh rates that you can mess with.
 
UPDATE FOR THOSE WHO CARE:

It turned out to be defective monitors. Not one but BOTH of the ones i got in the begining were bad.
Samsung was nice enough to send me two more to see if they work.

Here is a video comparing the ones i got today and the old one.
Both are actually made in china mode 204b [R] s.
Appears there is batch that was overloooked and is defective.

Here is the vid.
http://members.cox.net/picchost/flicker.wmv
 
Yet another user that has been affected by this problem with the SyncMaster 204B. Problem manifests when connected to DVI on most higher-end cards regardless of manufacturer - personally I have verified it on a Matrox P650 and an Nvidia 7600GS, but go check out some of the posts at the nvnews.net forums to see others having the same problem. I spent a lot of time troubleshooting this and it is dissapointing that Samsung has done nothing to directly address this issue.

The phone number is (800) 726 7864 and the options are 4-5-2, but be prepared for a long delay, both on the phone and in getting your warranty claim processed.

See also:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1102591&highlight=204b+blanking
 
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