Finally a video I can point people too! This has been an issue thats plagued my career in PC repair, people tend to understand poor quality cables exist but seem to just ignore the cable when it comes to troubleshooting.
It's 2021.. monitors have fantastic OSD's and computing capability.. surely if the signal drops out of spec they could pop up a 'hey dude the signal just dropped! it's probably your cable!' warning rather than black screening?
That would make things more complicated, you basically want a smart monitor like a "smart tv" that has cpu in it, which cause more problem, I hate smart tv because the "cpu" is so weak, but that's not the main concern, if that cpu died, those screens practically unusable, and good luck finding replacement/spare parts for that because it's non existent.
Creating that feature would cost money and likely isn't marketable. Then imagine if you were using a marginal cable, it seems to work, but an OSD warning pop up occurs mid-game. Most people will see the pop up as the problem and might RMA the monitor
@@keylock32 They already have a processor in it, not like smart TVs which have a whole arse application processor in there, but the scaler is usually a chip made by MStar, and to my knowledge they haven't ever specified what sort of processor they use in it, but it's something tiny and unimpressive, like maybe 8051-compatible MCU, with a GIANT peripheral set on it that does the actual video inputs, routing, outputs and scaling. The MCU controls the configuration of the gargantuan peripheral over the internal registers, it can do encryption key handling, it reads the usual 5-button keypad or control nub, it lights the LED(s) if any, it renders the message texts such as "No Signal" and the OSD menu, usually at 16 freely chosen colours. It also has calibration mode and stuff, so they are stored in the MCU firmware and the MCU will write colour correction tables into the scaler registers. There's a whole 'engineering mode menu' on all displays to diagnose and adjust... stuff, it's invoked using some sort of magic gadget and super proprietary software running on Windows XP, never got my hands on that sort of stuff, but they do have it at display factories, anyway if you find the service manual to the display, the tooling and engineering mode is usually described there. They won't tell you what the hardware is, whether it's maybe just an FTDI cable or something like that, but they do usually show some of the menu capabilities. Anyway that same unit, if agreement between display manufacturer and whoever holds the firmware source, possibly MStar or some scaler manufacturer, came to be, could take over displaying new helpful messages without adding any extra hardware to the monitor, without adding to the unit cost. It's just the people who make these sort of decisions... don't know or care? Or it wouldn't attract customers well enough to spend engineering time?... If your scaler chip with its processor dies, either it has external SPI firmware, in which case you're in luck, if the 25c-series firmware chip is alive or you had the foresight to back it up before it died; or it doesn't, in which case you need an identical board from salvage, from that same monitor, with that same firmware. Luckily i have NEVER seen one die, they seem reasonably robust.
What I meant for CPU is the extra modules that comes with it. Regular monitor mostly only contain 2 modules, Power supply and logic board, some monitor that use DC Adapter only use 1 module (not including control button module) . It's easier to fix because it's simpler. Take this Smart TV for example ua-cam.com/video/DBlil4sd0VE/v-deo.html There is CPU module, that's what I'm referering too, in this case there are even 4 modules including the wifi module. There are too many breaking points, even when only wifi modules going bad the tv won't boot because the bootloader need to recognize all the modules in order for that tv to be functional.
Remember back in the day when we switched from dodgy analog composite and RGB video cabling to a digital cable so we didn't have to deal with weird interference issues? Yeah, those were the days...
Thank you so much for this video. I never paid attention to the cables I used and thought they were all created equally. After watching this video I invested in a Club3d Displayport 1.4 to HDMI 2.0b cable. And just like that, the monitor that I was about to replace became unbroken. Lesson learned! New sub here, binge-watching everything you have.
I've known for a while that Display Port carries audio but have no idea what platforms actually utilize it. Maybe PC monitors with speakers? Also that being true why don't modern TV's have just 1 DP port?
Yes! I was surprised by that as past commentators have suggested Display Port stagnated. I suspect HDMI's wider deployment for TVs and such, means the software stack is better tested. Also I think my monitor came with an HDMI cable, using that should mean that cablt is within specs for the refresh rate & resolution.
@@bothellkenmore Why put a port on a tv that wouldn't be used by quiet literally anybody? Everything that you would typically hook up to a tv already has hdmi, including every modern graphics card, making displayport a completely unnecessary added cost. And as it stands, hdmi 2.1 does everything dp1.4 does. 2.0 will change that, but there aren't any 8k120hz tvs, so you still won't see a tv with displayport, as every major manufacturer will wait until hdmi2.2 is out.
@@RobBCactive Unfortunately this is a bad assumption; manufactures began throwing cables in the box as a way of minimizing returns due to buyer's remorse. They found that products that made it to a customer's home without a way to immediately hook it up and use it were exponentally more like to return it once they had time to consider the money they spent. Scared of their product being even slightly more money than a competitor's, they (nearly) always use the lowest cost option they can possibly spec.
This video was released at the perfect time after noticing a strange flick on my screen. I could not figure out why it just randomly started doing this. Never thought it would be interference from another device. I just upgraded to a full wireless mouse keyboard and headset from Logitech. Order a cable3d cable to see if it goes away.
A proper HDMI 2.1 certified cable is essential for 4k120, once I finally found one the random "audio stopping" issue and random "no video randomly until power cycle" issues disappeared. This was for between my 6900 XT and LG C1.
This is pretty interesting, something I've not thought about. I have 2 1440p 144hz monitors that have always worked well and recently ive added a 144hz 1440p ultrawide with HDR support and I've noticed sometimes i get the black screen flicker and never thought my cable wasn't up to the task. Are there any go to brands to look at when buying DisplayPort cables that you have had good luck with.
@@MajorHardware Did you see the chromax A12 x 25 went for sale today along with the u12 a chromax. I tried to buy the A12 25 chromax on amazon but it was unavailable I think it never actually was available for sale. I did see the chromax u12a on sale though. 120 bucks though. Wish they would of dropped the u12a to 100 and the chromax 110 bucks cuz 120 for any air cooler is getting crazy when u can get a 280 artic LF 2 sometimes for less than that price.
I have had one hell of a time during the pandemic with cables. Since moving to a cheaper place, more than half my packages get stolen, and the remaining have been crap quality, this has happened so much that I've given up.
Glad to see the tech people covering cables. I only buy from certain suppliers for all my HDMI and DP cables for all of these specific reasons. Once you learn about certain pins in the HDMI you can remove CEC and still retain ARC :)
Recently, a computer with a Ryzen 2400G stopped working in Windows. It would boot up to the BIOS just fine. Booting from a Linux image showed no issues. But as soon as the display driver loaded on a Windows boot, it would promptly crash. Not just the display, mind you. It could not be pinged at all. I figured the CPU went bad, so bought a 5600G to replace it. Actually, for reasons I won't get into, the 5600G was going into _another_ 2400G system, and that working 2400G would go into the problem system. After doing the 5600G swap (massive performance uplift going from a 2400G to a 5600G, FYI), I pulled the problem computer out of its nook to start disconnecting wires, and noticed the DVI-to-HDMI adapter was bent (monitor is DVI, motherboard HDMI). Yes, a bad adapter allowed the computer to boot normally in text mode, but caused it to crash when the display driver was loaded. Switched to an HDMI cable with a HDMI-to-DVI adapter on the monitor side, and everything worked. So, yeah, the connection between the computer and monitor is important, and can do more than just make the display glitch out a bit.
Unrelated, but even crazier: My router just quit outputting internet. I was able to get the wan IP working with nvram cleared, radios worked and everything, but no internet. I wasted HOURS updating f/w and troubleshooting, b/c everything was operating besides internet connection! Turns out, the beefy power adapter was bad. Internet worked instantly after swapping it and has been fine for a week. Crazy shit.
This was fantasic! I appreciate how you explained everything, even the technical details, in relatively simple easy to understand language. I've been fighting with this blackout issue on my Radeon 6700XT for months now, and finally have some hope that I can fix it without replacing the whole unit. :) THANK YOU!!
Hey! I am getting the same problem from about a month now. Can you please tell me what exactly did you do? I Have the same card, a MAG X570S TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI motherboard and a Dell AW2721D monitor.
Great video. I have been experiencing random few second black screen with my new LG 27GP950. Countless reports on this monitor from both amd and Nvidia users over at OCUk forums and reddit. Myself I am using RX 6800xt with a good certified cable 3m I have noticed that if I use the displayport 1.4 with DSC enabled I get black screen at 144Hz and 160hz and it does not matter the frame rate for example dark souls at 144Hz or 160hz at 60fps still random black screen flash. However if I run displayport 1.4 without DSC I haven't had a single black screen for almost 3 weeks now longest I have gone without a black screen.
2015 Dell monitor (1080p60), provided DP cable also rarely does this drop out (blackscreen) thing on an nvidia card. Cable was branded Amphenol, I'll have to give that Club3D a shot, going from DP1.1 to 1.4. edit, rewatching the whole thing and noticed my monitor made an appearance at 12:40 p2414h
Oh god, I wish I'd watched this video a few months ago. Had a fancy cable that was causing black-screens during visually intense games (didn't matter if the game was 1 year or 20 years old). Replaced it with a generic one and it works beautifully.
update : I used a ferrite bead that I kept from an old TV and this far only 1 black screen bug in 3 days (from 10x a day) and it was at idle when I wasn't looking or doing anything, it definitely helped my situation where I use a signal converter/adapter between DP and DVI-D (ferrite bead between the gpu DP output and the input of the active adapter) thanks for the tip
Great video, thanks, I have a RX 6900 XT that has been working flawlessly since March this year with the Samsung Oddyssey G9 @ 240Hz. After updating to the 21.10.x driver, blackouts started to happen randomly during regular dekstop work. Swapping back to 21.9.x removes the problem, swapped back and forth between these drivers and its very obvious that the later driver adds the problem. Since I want to ”keep with the flow” of AMD updates I lowered the refresh to 120hz and that also removes the problem.
OMG Dude, this video is life saver! I just ordered a Club DP1.4 cable, and the difference is incredible...for like $15. Had all kinds of black out / screen refresh issues on my AMD system. Totally fixed now. Thank you Mr Lvl1 Tech.
Interesting. I have a single Gsync monitor and almost 100% the time after being turned off games will cause the screen to repeatedly blank out until I physically unplug the display port cable and reinsert it.
This video, and LTT's, is perfect timing because I have had this issue for couple years now when I had to replace my last pair of DVI based monitors for newer HDMI based ones. I'm also on an AMD RX 580X.
Didn't have many problems with black screens after I got my 5700 a year and a half ago - just the occasional one. It also seemed to get better with driver updates. I recently upgraded to a high refresh rate 1440p monitor and noticed that its been happening a lot lately. I'll have to try out the "secret menu" settings and double check that I'm using one of my good DP cables rather than what came in the monitor box.
I've had a few DP 1.4 cables from Kabledirekt off Amazon, 2 and 3 meters and they've been solid. Thick Ass cables, port Locks etc. Driver doesn't like the panel (pixio 1440p 95hz cheapo based) so wants to run max memory clock, reduced blanking with everything else standard in the custom res fixed that.
Nvidia 7xx to 10xx has known DP 1.3/1.4 "black screen" issues which are fixed by Nvidia Firmware Update Tool for DisplayPort. Doesn't affect anything newer and "newer" production 10xx cards has this pre-applied but if you have an old card and upgrade your screen or buy an old card second hand you can run into this. Also, DP pin 20 (DP_PWR) - this MUST NOT be connected from connector to connector (it's "power from device" to drive dongles so both ends provide it) but some cable manufacturer STILL gets this wrong, especially on 3/5m DP cables. Cables with this can make machines not POWER ON and hot plugging one of these can do anything from fine, via "oh, sparks when plugging in" to "dead GPU" - fortunately 500mA@3.3V is low enough power that it's unlikely to cause fires!. It's not that common these days but anyone who has used a lot of DP cables will have run into it - the cheap DP cable tester I have (~$20) has a dedicated LED for this specific miswiring.
most of the time its a bad cable not able to handle the refresh rate of the monitor so just setting it to 60 hz or lower if its really bad sometimes setting color format matters like setting from ycbcr to rgb also cable length matters as well shorter is usually better
It’s amazing that this video solved all the issues I was having with a new card. Bought new 1.4 vesa certified cables and also separated them from all of my other cables to reduce noise. No more random flickering, lock ups, or black screens. Absolutely insane something so simple can cause so many problems.
I have a bar of distortion across bottom of my screen, recently started, I've changed cables used both dp/and HDMI ports, Rx 6650xt, ,MSI 27 g272 18:33
Thanks for the video! I was getting flickering from my displayport monitor, however, I found out the displayport cable was not the issue! It was the HDMI cable plugged into the other monitor that was causing the issue, even though the HDMI monitor was working totally fine. Once I swapped the HDMI cable out for a thicker one, everything worked fine. Thanks for the great and helpful video.
I'm having flickering on one of my dual monitors that are DP 1.2. my graphics card is DP 1.4. My thought was that I need to switch the signal from DP 1.4 to 1.2 that's going into my DP monitor. Weird thing is I get no flickering whatsoever when I have the same monitors and same cables connected to my work laptop.
Do you have a part number or a link for the fiber optic DisplayPort cable? I just got a new monitor that relies on display stream compression for the 4K at 144 Hertz and has only one DisplayPort.
Because multiple monitors require multiple power supplies, ground loops or ground faults can be formed and cause issues with detection and video data corruption. By connecting cables from the PC, the grounds of these cables connects the grounds of the monitors power supplies together creating an invisible circuit that can at worst smoke your equipment or at minimum screw up the signals through them. Some rules to follow when connecting multiple powered devices would include: Plugging all devices into the same AC outlet and Making sure all the devices have a 3 prong AC connection. If the monitors have 2 prong AC plugs than you have to run a separate wire to earth ground from each one. I use the VGA screw to connect a wire, but not all monitors have one so a connection to the chassis would be required.
Hey Level1Techs, love your content and especially your Linux stuff. During the Pandemonium... I started reading a text book on Linux and started using Linux on multiple machines and built a home media server. I have run into some problems here and there and fell like I've gotten more comfortable with the CLI but there are times where I feel like I don't know what to do or how to logically go about solving the problem without just googling a solution. I was wondering what a new/ moderate user should do to logically figure out how to diagnose an issue and solve it? Your channel is the best.
Dude! I thought of that too, now my rx 7900 xtx is in repair for second time, i bought new dp cables and it already works smoother on my old gtx 1060. Hoping it fixes the issue when my gpu returns!!!
I'm using dual Dell S2421HS displays, one connected DP and one with HDMI to my RTX 3060 which uses DP 1.4a. The monitors are DP 1.2. I got constant flickering on the display connected with DP cable. No flickering when the displays were connected to my work laptop though. This led me to narrow it down to either the my GPU, GPU port, or software issue related to 1.4a signal not working on 1.2 cable and 1.2 monitor. Changing the cable to a 1.4 certified cable actually made it go away completely.
woo, nice to get a nice video shot of the backside of my KVM I used StarTech cables kept to the minimum length rated for DP 1.4, haven't had any issues but I haven't used a monitor that pushes close to the limit yet
this video saved me, i have an AMD RX 570 connected to two monitors, one with freesync, and when i switched my DVI to HDMI for a thin DP to HDMI cable, i started seeing those blackouts with the windows sound for a plugged or unplugged device, i tried adding one ferrite core and just like that the black screens are gone... i knew the problem was with the cables, i just didnt wanted to roll the dice to try to buy another brand just to end up with the same issue, although is worth noticing that the problem only appeared if i had installed the radeon software and have enabled the freesync function, so its a hardware/software problem in the end.
I appear to be having this problem, I thought it was basically a lose connection - if so, I wasn't completely wrong. I might try unbundling those cables first. Thanks for the video.
I got black screen / no signal problems since i bought the rx 6600xt with radeon 21.8.1 drivers up to the very recent 21.10.1 ... switched to manjaro AAAAND it fixed everything.
@@moetazammar964 I have the 6600xt pulse from sapphire. Seems like the AMD drivers for windows are ass. the linux kernel has absolutely no issues recognizing the video card properly. I am really happy with manjaro kde so far. give it a try maybe
I've noticed on my 165hz 1440p monitor, if I have freesync enabled(it's an NVIDIA gpu btw) as well as HDR, I sometimes I get brightness fluctuations where it looks like low grade flickering. Anyone know if this is a NVIDIA freesync issue or a cable issue? Also, it's freesync premium pro so it does support this refresh rate with HDR.
It can, unfortunately, also be because your monitor is banging against it's thermal threshold because the HDR flashes are just on the upper end of what it can sustain. If you lower the base brightness and it goes away consistently this could be the case. Tim from Hardware Unboxed addressed this in a Q&A at one point, but I can't remember which.
@@andersjjensen Much obliged. Time to test a different cable. And I'd say it's fortunate, not unfortunate. Good to know it's not a limitation or "feature" of free sync
Been using them for over a decade and just got some braided 1.4 DP cables from them. I don't consider them budget though. Typically, they have kept cost down by cutting out the middle man.
I've got a Radeon RX 480 that I've gamed on for some time on both Windows and Linux and I've noticed that either the physical HDMI ports, or more likely, my cables, are questionable. In Linux I don't have any problems during normal use, but if I touch the connector while it's plugged in I'll get a momentary black screen. On Windows however, if I'm gaming I'll get a random screen full of static that will sometimes resolve itself after a second, and sometimes I've got to physically remove the cable from my graphics card and plug it back in. I think it's the cable though because when it happens, I can also fix it by removing the cable from the television and plugging it back in. I'm using a longer, but really thick and braided HDMI cable at the moment, but it's entirely possible that my cable is questionable, especially since I don't seem to have the same problems, at least to the same extent, on Linux.
You explain things perfectly in a way any person could understand! This has given me some more ammo to throw at my troubleshooting intermittent black screen while gaming, thank you!
Thanks! This video is old now but still helpful. I just bought a new monitor and was experiencing a lot of flickering with my 7900xtx. I was using the same cord that was connected to my previous monitor so didn't bother using the cord that came with the monitor. After I switched cords, the flickering stopped.
Great video. I don't want to think about how many iffy cables I've dealt with over the years. For DP & HDMI I've settled on Tripp-Lite, as they've been very consistent. There's a bit of a price premium, but they work straight out of the (resealable) bag.
Thank you! my 6800 had some weird flickering sometimes in bios, had flickering with VRAM OC in steam. Started going after the issue. Well.. main DP cable was bent at the connector. Changed - problem went away!
Reasons why shorter and fatter cables are better? First, cable capacitance. Skinnier cables have more capacitance per foot and length of cable means higher total capacitance. Cable capacitance combined with source resistance forms a low pass filter that rolls off high frequency signals. The way to make cables have lower capacitance lower is to space the conductors further apart (use thicker jackets on the wires) or you can use different (more expensive) jacket material that lowers the capacitance per foot. Thicker is usually cheaper than special jacket material. The second reason for cable problems is signal reflections that happen every time the signal passes through an impedance change. The impedance changes every time you pass through a connector or run into the end of a cable (a huge impedance change). These reflected signals destructively interfere signals in the cable. That is why termination resistors are added to the last node of all differential signals. Without that termination resistor you can't run the network speed anywhere as fast as with. Reflections is the reason why there is a hard limit on how long any cable for any signal switching speed, no matter how low the cable capacitance is. The limit is inversely proportional to the signal speed. Faster signaling means shorter and slower signaling means longer. An example (from RS-485), at 1 mBaud, max cable length is about 100 meters, at 56kBaud you can go 1000 meters. Buffering the signal in a switch breaks helps both capacitance and reflection for each cable (both the goes into and the comes out of cable). Shorter is definitely your friend.
i have an msi rx 470 and i have experienced these flickering BSOD issues everytime there was a windows update or the adrenaline software update. i troubleshooted it multiple ways and the best way to not crash my pc/ black screen the display or crash the driver was to turn off everything in "record & stream " tab and use OBS for my recordings etc. the pc and the driver has crashed only 2 or 3 times in the 3 months i did this. it used to crash every 5 -10 minutes when i had the recording options toggled active , through the adrenaline and use the virtual super resolution(VSR) option. i haven't tried with just the VSR turned on. but i was happy my pc and the drivers weren't crashing anymore ,did not want to touch the settings after that . but after watching these video i am interested in seeing if a better cable might help fix those issues and give me my "instant save replay" back, because i keep forgetting to start up "obs replay buffer " before i join a game session😅
a topic ive been having issues with but never addressed? an in depth teaching lesson from Wendell's personal adventures in cable land? a levelonetech video? yes please ill try these things and say which fix it if anything
i'm running amd 6950 XT and 240 Hz msi monitor and have screen tearing. i have tried everything and it didn't fix it. any advice before i return the pc?
My 5700XT I got at launch had this issue. AMD had me turn off EnhancedSync according to their patch notes, after using DDU and even reinstalling Windows. I still can't use EnhancedSync after however many years, a feature I paid for. I'll never get an AMD GPU again, outside of old used ones.
I can reliably fix the blinking problem by using CRU to extend the freesync range down by 5Hz. Usually fixes issues with marginal cables and cheap monitors, especially when using gsync with a free sync monitor.
it remembers me when i got the vega 64 and 144hz monitor. i rma'ed monitor, because a hdmi had no problems, in the end i looked up the vesa table for certified products, only club3d was certified then. and mine has integrated ferrit cores. after some months ive looked up the table again, and some more cables were certified.
I was having these exact issues with my RX6800XT and was wondering what it was. Thanks for this. I just ordered 2 new cables that reviews tell me are good quality. I can't say for sure they'll be good, as you said it is kind of a crap shoot, but I have had good experiences with Cable Matters products, so that's what I ordered.
@@NorBdelta yeah, no. Dell doesn't provide decent cables. I've gone around on that a couple times. I love their monitors, as I have 5, but their cables aren't good for higher end stuff. They're good for my work laptop setup, at 1440p 60Hz, but not for WQHD 100Hz.
@@dangingerich2559 ooo, that is disappointing to hear. LG supplied good cables with my ultra gear monitors. But it sounds like the industry is infested with bad cables
can confirm gettin good HDMI / DP cable is hard... had some cables which worked fine, but started giving me artefacts or black screens after a while.... i may have more crap cables than good ones at this point
The "Black Screen Issue" that is reported on so much was in my case caused by an incompatible/older Power Supply. And I'm talking about a Corsair HX750i that doesn't like my VEGA64 Card. A Bitfenix Whisper M (850W) works fine.
PSUs can weaken with age, so I can believe that. Vega sucks power, so it probably was outputting dirtier power than the card likes and caused instability. I believe that was another major problem for initial vega users and AMD got blamed for it. And of course there's no way to test ripple without an O scope. Also, V droop may have caused all around instability (once again not AMD's fault).
@@TheGuruStud well, the "Fun Fact" is that an older be quiet Straight Power E8 with 500W strangely worked. Though that PSU had some MASSIVE 4700µF Caps on 12V...
I am getting a new 165hz, 1440p monitor and after seeing your video I went on and got the Club 2D display port cable. This is just in case the cable provided with the monitor is not up to specks and to avoid future potential issues.
@@Level1Techs/videos What? You don't fancy ordering an FPGA dev board, FMC ADC+DAC, then writing all the signal integrity verification + other testing HDL and firmware yourself? That sounds like a quick and easy multiyear project! Perfect for devember /s.
I've been having an issue with my Radeon RX 6700 XT MECH 2X 12G and each of it's subsequent RMA replacements. The displayport itself (to the right of the HDMI) seems to completely shut off after maybe 2 months of use and I cant get it to operate again. After the initial card was "repaired", the issue came back in the time in took me to reinstall the drivers for this GPU, and shortly thereafter while I was fighting with MSI to RMA it again, the second displayport I moved the second monitor cable over to also shut down permanently. I don't seem to have any issue with the HDMI or the displayport the VR headset is plugged into. After the repaired card was RMA'd for a replacement, about 2 months later (about the same usage period as the initial card) the displayport in the same position has died again. And when I say dead, nothing displays on this port, even when booting the PC back up. Ive tried everything I can find but cant find a way to reactivate the ports. Wiping and reinstalling the drivers with DDU doesnt fix it. Im pretty sure its a hardware issue. Is it possible for a displayport cable itself to kill a displayport on the GPU?
Would this be the black screen that trips my Vega64 into sending the Asrock X470 taichi into a 00 code? 00 means a cpu problem, but a power button cycle brings it right back up until the intermittent issue hits again and the proces repeats.
i actually have that said club 3d display port cable i bought local at my pc store so more likely to be non fake this way, though my screen is not 1.4 but the extra room and quality is nice have. its a freesync screen but before the display port cable i was using it would black screen and crash with gsync mode on with the nvidia gpu. but when i bought that cable above i never had a single problem ever since.
I've found most of the HDMI hdmi 2.1 cables (used for ps5 xbox series x and Radeon 6000 and above) do not work, going for cables sold in Europe rated 8k 120Hz 48Gbps work. Symptoms are you attempt to output 120hz and it can not, and monitor-TV turning loosing signal for a second like some sort of pulse is interfering with it. I think the cheaper ones lack shielding or earths because it took me a long time to work out a properly rated cable solved the "interference" issue.
Where do I find the settings in Adrenaline, Pre-emphasis and the voltage swing? These "hidden menus" that you speak of. There's no mention of version or where to click to see them. I'm on the to date latest drivers 2020.1011.1706.2043 on XFX 7600 xt card.
@Level1Techs I have a AMD 6900XT and an LG C9. I have the latest LG C9 firmware installed. I have both the Moshou & Vention HDMI 2.1 Fibre optic cable in 3, 5 and 20m lengths, and although the colours are more vibrant, I cannot get 4K120 4:4:4 10bit or any 4K120. Have you tried these cables? Only cable I have managed to get 4K120 10bit 4:4:4 is the Zeskit HDMI 2.1 cable.
just had, maybe still have(hope not) this issue where i launch a game and it just blinks black and back to game. turned off something under the display settins in the amd toolbar program(amd pro thing) and it worked. ill buy a new wire and turn that setting back on and check it out i guess. Thanks for the vid
I used to have problems with my RX 570 and a pair of (older) 1920x1080 120hz displays, went away with my Vega 56 (same monitors) but have returned with vengeance with my RX 6700 XT (still the same monitors, one day will upgrade to 1440P displays). It oddly happens when my computer is mining... I think I'll look into my cables again however (Startech 1.4 locking cables).
Probably not the place to be asking this but I’ve been searching for 2 days now for a solution to a very annoying problem. I got a used amd 6670 5ggddr5 and put it in my current rig that ran just fine and had a 5450 in it (I’m broke don’t judge me) it worked great until I turned my system off and back on. Then it worked fine still, until about an hour in when the whole screen shifted a bit to the left or right and then the part of the screen that you couldent see anymore because it shifted it off the screen of my tv was mirrored to the other side of my screen but with many lines in it, so basically I had a normal 3/4 of my screen and then on the opposite side it was so posed to be on the other 1/4 full of lines horizontally to be exact. After that it happens 1m times and I tried everything I knew about, different pcie drivers settings resetting windows and some of these would fix it until depending on how much my pc hates me either 1-4 hours into gaming on very light games it does it more. I tried both my cables that work just fine with my ps4 and my 5450 but not for this. So my cables might be ok, the only thing I can think of is that I use a dvi to hdmi adapter and that’s the only thing I haven’t switched out. I know the gpu isn’t thermal throttling because 1 the fan hella loud and I’d be able to hear it go supersonic and 2 the temps stay around 30-39c 90ish Fahrenheit the adapter worked for the 5450 but I used a even older port that I don’t remember the name of to a dvi adapter that I used the dvi to hdmi and it worked fine but now I’m going straight dvi to hdmi the card has a vga and one of the display port ports on it but I have neither and if I had them I would have to get display to hdmi or vga to hdmi as I don’t have a monitor that has a display or vga but I have one with a dvi. The issue still persists and can someone please help me with this issue
Wendell: And this is what could possibly be wrong with DP cables. Also Wendell: But don't get me started on serious troubleshooting and issues. Glorious ending.
Thank you very much for this video! I was pulling my hair out, and sure enough my mini DP to DP adapter had “gone bad” from bend wear and started to artifact. All the “cables are all the same, 1’s and 0’s” crowd can shove it!
the problem im having is a flicker, but not of the image, but of the back light. but not all the time, only in certain games like stardew valley. i have an rx 5700 and have a gigabyte G27Q monitor running 1440p @ 144hz. no idea why. was happening a bit on the desktop(running wallpaper engine), in folders some times. using display port with the supplied dp cable from gigabyte.
very good Wendel i do have the flickering on my pc lately im using Ryzen 37x with a 750 ti i know its old but i like it my Amd one a Rx550 the fans keep stopping just after boot up are the fans suppose to do that ? my 750ti fans dont turn off why the Amd video card turn off this has only happen lately and i have good htmi leads to the monitor
the recent color pixel squares have been appearing on two of my 4 monitor setup, both are DP cable connection and it was happening in a game today one of them started doing it while I had AMD software open, only on the amd window too, lol, so weird. setup is 4 27" 165hz monitors, 3 as one for gaming and the other for chat etc. SAPPHIRE 6700XT gpu 3 gaming monitors are all DP while the forth is HDMI. started having issues with the HDMI, did the switch and carried onto the monitor I switched the cables with. now everything is working BUT the two outside monitors, where I get the glitching. any suggestions would be appreciated. I am putting in an order for another set of DP cables... from amazon hahaha not the cheap ones either.
I have an RTX 2060 on an MSI A320M Pro Max mobo and I have an issue using HDMI. The screen blanks for a second using some applications when I exit the app or when I hover over certain areas of the screen.
Yeah I was thinking of everything else but the cable. Cause the screen flickers black whenever it's in full screen on any application but never in windowed mode. Honestly it could be freesync, I heard many people had freesync that causes flickering issues. But I'll buy a new cable.
I'm getting random white flashes/flickering, not black. I did what you said in the comments and put my screens refresh rate to 60Hz. Still getting white flashes. I'm wondering if it's AMD GPU drivers that are causing it.
These dodgy cable issues are exactly why I use the cables provided by the manufacturer of my monitor usually. I would like to think they have made sure the cables they bundle with their kit are up to spec otherwise the returns would be high
I was seeing issues with my Strix 6800xt + Dell S2721DGF screen and flickering issues especially in games like PUBG with Freesync Pro + Enhanced sync enabled. I tried DDU and windows 10 reloads yet my problem still existed (had to disable enhanced sync). Since installing windows 11 and turning those features on my issues have gone away but now I'm thinking that I'm on borrowed time and I have ordered a Club3d cable just in case. Thanks for the windows tip to reset the driver, i had no idea that was a thing.
Your timing of this plus LTTs video about their new focus on cable testing is fun
I was just about to post a similar comment. Impeccable timing from L1T & LTT... 😋😋😋
ordered one just now, for kvm testing, video soon
Was just going to say, that I'm now here right after the today's LTT cable tester video.
Holy cow I cannot wait for cable suggestions! Im in need of good reviews!
yeah it was, glad Wendel is getting one of those testers. Would be fun to see what he does with it.
Finally a video I can point people too! This has been an issue thats plagued my career in PC repair, people tend to understand poor quality cables exist but seem to just ignore the cable when it comes to troubleshooting.
It's 2021.. monitors have fantastic OSD's and computing capability.. surely if the signal drops out of spec they could pop up a 'hey dude the signal just dropped! it's probably your cable!' warning rather than black screening?
That would make things more complicated, you basically want a smart monitor like a "smart tv" that has cpu in it, which cause more problem, I hate smart tv because the "cpu" is so weak, but that's not the main concern, if that cpu died, those screens practically unusable, and good luck finding replacement/spare parts for that because it's non existent.
Creating that feature would cost money and likely isn't marketable. Then imagine if you were using a marginal cable, it seems to work, but an OSD warning pop up occurs mid-game. Most people will see the pop up as the problem and might RMA the monitor
@@keylock32 that ship sailed long ago, micro-controllers and management software is what makes modern electronic devices possible.
@@keylock32 They already have a processor in it, not like smart TVs which have a whole arse application processor in there, but the scaler is usually a chip made by MStar, and to my knowledge they haven't ever specified what sort of processor they use in it, but it's something tiny and unimpressive, like maybe 8051-compatible MCU, with a GIANT peripheral set on it that does the actual video inputs, routing, outputs and scaling. The MCU controls the configuration of the gargantuan peripheral over the internal registers, it can do encryption key handling, it reads the usual 5-button keypad or control nub, it lights the LED(s) if any, it renders the message texts such as "No Signal" and the OSD menu, usually at 16 freely chosen colours. It also has calibration mode and stuff, so they are stored in the MCU firmware and the MCU will write colour correction tables into the scaler registers. There's a whole 'engineering mode menu' on all displays to diagnose and adjust... stuff, it's invoked using some sort of magic gadget and super proprietary software running on Windows XP, never got my hands on that sort of stuff, but they do have it at display factories, anyway if you find the service manual to the display, the tooling and engineering mode is usually described there. They won't tell you what the hardware is, whether it's maybe just an FTDI cable or something like that, but they do usually show some of the menu capabilities.
Anyway that same unit, if agreement between display manufacturer and whoever holds the firmware source, possibly MStar or some scaler manufacturer, came to be, could take over displaying new helpful messages without adding any extra hardware to the monitor, without adding to the unit cost. It's just the people who make these sort of decisions... don't know or care? Or it wouldn't attract customers well enough to spend engineering time?...
If your scaler chip with its processor dies, either it has external SPI firmware, in which case you're in luck, if the 25c-series firmware chip is alive or you had the foresight to back it up before it died; or it doesn't, in which case you need an identical board from salvage, from that same monitor, with that same firmware. Luckily i have NEVER seen one die, they seem reasonably robust.
What I meant for CPU is the extra modules that comes with it.
Regular monitor mostly only contain 2 modules, Power supply and logic board, some monitor that use DC Adapter only use 1 module (not including control button module) . It's easier to fix because it's simpler.
Take this Smart TV for example
ua-cam.com/video/DBlil4sd0VE/v-deo.html
There is CPU module, that's what I'm referering too, in this case there are even 4 modules including the wifi module.
There are too many breaking points, even when only wifi modules going bad the tv won't boot because the bootloader need to recognize all the modules in order for that tv to be functional.
Remember back in the day when we switched from dodgy analog composite and RGB video cabling to a digital cable so we didn't have to deal with weird interference issues?
Yeah, those were the days...
Thank you so much for this video. I never paid attention to the cables I used and thought they were all created equally. After watching this video I invested in a Club3d Displayport 1.4 to HDMI 2.0b cable. And just like that, the monitor that I was about to replace became unbroken. Lesson learned! New sub here, binge-watching everything you have.
You alluded to HDMI vs. DisplayPort tech differences. Please consider a brief video covering this in some detail. /r
I've known for a while that Display Port carries audio but have no idea what platforms actually utilize it. Maybe PC monitors with speakers? Also that being true why don't modern TV's have just 1 DP port?
Yes! I was surprised by that as past commentators have suggested Display Port stagnated.
I suspect HDMI's wider deployment for TVs and such, means the software stack is better tested. Also I think my monitor came with an HDMI cable, using that should mean that cablt is within specs for the refresh rate & resolution.
@@bothellkenmore Why put a port on a tv that wouldn't be used by quiet literally anybody? Everything that you would typically hook up to a tv already has hdmi, including every modern graphics card, making displayport a completely unnecessary added cost. And as it stands, hdmi 2.1 does everything dp1.4 does. 2.0 will change that, but there aren't any 8k120hz tvs, so you still won't see a tv with displayport, as every major manufacturer will wait until hdmi2.2 is out.
@@tag206 I know you're correct and DP on a TV isn't practical. Only a PC person want's DP on a TV.
@@RobBCactive Unfortunately this is a bad assumption; manufactures began throwing cables in the box as a way of minimizing returns due to buyer's remorse. They found that products that made it to a customer's home without a way to immediately hook it up and use it were exponentally more like to return it once they had time to consider the money they spent. Scared of their product being even slightly more money than a competitor's, they (nearly) always use the lowest cost option they can possibly spec.
Your comment at 18:33 about seeing it all reminded me of Roy Batty's monologue from Blade Runner "I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe..."
This video was released at the perfect time after noticing a strange flick on my screen. I could not figure out why it just randomly started doing this. Never thought it would be interference from another device. I just upgraded to a full wireless mouse keyboard and headset from Logitech. Order a cable3d cable to see if it goes away.
Same situation. Just got me a cable3d too
@@wolffactor56 might be anecdotal, but lowering my clock speed slightly fixed my 5700xt
@@guywithjeep cool I'll try that. Thanks for that tip
A proper HDMI 2.1 certified cable is essential for 4k120, once I finally found one the random "audio stopping" issue and random "no video randomly until power cycle" issues disappeared. This was for between my 6900 XT and LG C1.
This is pretty interesting, something I've not thought about. I have 2 1440p 144hz monitors that have always worked well and recently ive added a 144hz 1440p ultrawide with HDR support and I've noticed sometimes i get the black screen flicker and never thought my cable wasn't up to the task. Are there any go to brands to look at when buying DisplayPort cables that you have had good luck with.
club3d? generally
@@Level1Techs thanks ill have a look and see if it fixes my struggle much appreciated.
@@MajorHardware can't wait for the next fan showdown, keep up the great work.
@@Dan-Simms Thanks man, keeping an eye out for the new Noctua GPU 😃
@@MajorHardware Did you see the chromax A12 x 25 went for sale today along with the u12 a chromax. I tried to buy the A12 25 chromax on amazon but it was unavailable I think it never actually was available for sale. I did see the chromax u12a on sale though. 120 bucks though. Wish they would of dropped the u12a to 100 and the chromax 110 bucks cuz 120 for any air cooler is getting crazy when u can get a 280 artic LF 2 sometimes for less than that price.
I have had one hell of a time during the pandemic with cables. Since moving to a cheaper place, more than half my packages get stolen, and the remaining have been crap quality, this has happened so much that I've given up.
Glad to see the tech people covering cables. I only buy from certain suppliers for all my HDMI and DP cables for all of these specific reasons. Once you learn about certain pins in the HDMI you can remove CEC and still retain ARC :)
sounds like everyone needs a cable tester.
Honestly, if I could go to a place that has one of those cable testers and can use it for a fee for an hour or two. It'd totally do that!
I am so glad you made this video, really thought I was alone and crazy
I also have a grumpy radeon vii, and decided I needed new cables when my computer stopped booting until I wiggled my display port.
Recently, a computer with a Ryzen 2400G stopped working in Windows. It would boot up to the BIOS just fine. Booting from a Linux image showed no issues. But as soon as the display driver loaded on a Windows boot, it would promptly crash. Not just the display, mind you. It could not be pinged at all.
I figured the CPU went bad, so bought a 5600G to replace it. Actually, for reasons I won't get into, the 5600G was going into _another_ 2400G system, and that working 2400G would go into the problem system. After doing the 5600G swap (massive performance uplift going from a 2400G to a 5600G, FYI), I pulled the problem computer out of its nook to start disconnecting wires, and noticed the DVI-to-HDMI adapter was bent (monitor is DVI, motherboard HDMI). Yes, a bad adapter allowed the computer to boot normally in text mode, but caused it to crash when the display driver was loaded. Switched to an HDMI cable with a HDMI-to-DVI adapter on the monitor side, and everything worked.
So, yeah, the connection between the computer and monitor is important, and can do more than just make the display glitch out a bit.
Unrelated, but even crazier: My router just quit outputting internet. I was able to get the wan IP working with nvram cleared, radios worked and everything, but no internet. I wasted HOURS updating f/w and troubleshooting, b/c everything was operating besides internet connection! Turns out, the beefy power adapter was bad. Internet worked instantly after swapping it and has been fine for a week. Crazy shit.
This was fantasic! I appreciate how you explained everything, even the technical details, in relatively simple easy to understand language. I've been fighting with this blackout issue on my Radeon 6700XT for months now, and finally have some hope that I can fix it without replacing the whole unit. :) THANK YOU!!
Hey! I am getting the same problem from about a month now. Can you please tell me what exactly did you do? I Have the same card, a MAG X570S TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI motherboard and a Dell AW2721D monitor.
Great video. I have been experiencing random few second black screen with my new LG 27GP950.
Countless reports on this monitor from both amd and Nvidia users over at OCUk forums and reddit.
Myself I am using RX 6800xt with a good certified cable 3m
I have noticed that if I use the displayport 1.4 with DSC enabled I get black screen at 144Hz and 160hz and it does not matter the frame rate for example dark souls at 144Hz or 160hz at 60fps still random black screen flash.
However if I run displayport 1.4 without DSC I haven't had a single black screen for almost 3 weeks now longest I have gone without a black screen.
so nvidia has some dsc problems in their driver too, compounding things. it's a mess
2015 Dell monitor (1080p60), provided DP cable also rarely does this drop out (blackscreen) thing on an nvidia card. Cable was branded Amphenol, I'll have to give that Club3D a shot, going from DP1.1 to 1.4.
edit, rewatching the whole thing and noticed my monitor made an appearance at 12:40 p2414h
Oh god, I wish I'd watched this video a few months ago. Had a fancy cable that was causing black-screens during visually intense games (didn't matter if the game was 1 year or 20 years old). Replaced it with a generic one and it works beautifully.
update : I used a ferrite bead that I kept from an old TV and this far only 1 black screen bug in 3 days (from 10x a day) and it was at idle when I wasn't looking or doing anything, it definitely helped my situation where I use a signal converter/adapter between DP and DVI-D (ferrite bead between the gpu DP output and the input of the active adapter) thanks for the tip
Yeah, I had the black screens on my 5500XT for a long time... Thanks for this Wendell!
Great video, thanks, I have a RX 6900 XT that has been working flawlessly since March this year with the Samsung Oddyssey G9 @ 240Hz. After updating to the 21.10.x driver, blackouts started to happen randomly during regular dekstop work. Swapping back to 21.9.x removes the problem, swapped back and forth between these drivers and its very obvious that the later driver adds the problem. Since I want to ”keep with the flow” of AMD updates I lowered the refresh to 120hz and that also removes the problem.
OMG Dude, this video is life saver! I just ordered a Club DP1.4 cable, and the difference is incredible...for like $15. Had all kinds of black out / screen refresh issues on my AMD system. Totally fixed now. Thank you Mr Lvl1 Tech.
Interesting. I have a single Gsync monitor and almost 100% the time after being turned off games will cause the screen to repeatedly blank out until I physically unplug the display port cable and reinsert it.
Time Stamp: 6:00 That process is done with cable on a larger scale out at the street or Pole..
This video, and LTT's, is perfect timing because I have had this issue for couple years now when I had to replace my last pair of DVI based monitors for newer HDMI based ones. I'm also on an AMD RX 580X.
Didn't have many problems with black screens after I got my 5700 a year and a half ago - just the occasional one. It also seemed to get better with driver updates. I recently upgraded to a high refresh rate 1440p monitor and noticed that its been happening a lot lately. I'll have to try out the "secret menu" settings and double check that I'm using one of my good DP cables rather than what came in the monitor box.
I've had a few DP 1.4 cables from Kabledirekt off Amazon, 2 and 3 meters and they've been solid. Thick Ass cables, port Locks etc.
Driver doesn't like the panel (pixio 1440p 95hz cheapo based) so wants to run max memory clock, reduced blanking with everything else standard in the custom res fixed that.
Nvidia 7xx to 10xx has known DP 1.3/1.4 "black screen" issues which are fixed by Nvidia Firmware Update Tool for DisplayPort. Doesn't affect anything newer and "newer" production 10xx cards has this pre-applied but if you have an old card and upgrade your screen or buy an old card second hand you can run into this.
Also, DP pin 20 (DP_PWR) - this MUST NOT be connected from connector to connector (it's "power from device" to drive dongles so both ends provide it) but some cable manufacturer STILL gets this wrong, especially on 3/5m DP cables. Cables with this can make machines not POWER ON and hot plugging one of these can do anything from fine, via "oh, sparks when plugging in" to "dead GPU" - fortunately 500mA@3.3V is low enough power that it's unlikely to cause fires!.
It's not that common these days but anyone who has used a lot of DP cables will have run into it - the cheap DP cable tester I have (~$20) has a dedicated LED for this specific miswiring.
lmao at that framed picture of Jensen on the desk
most of the time its a bad cable not able to handle the refresh rate of the monitor so just setting it to 60 hz or lower if its really bad sometimes setting color format matters like setting from ycbcr to rgb also cable length matters as well shorter is usually better
It’s amazing that this video solved all the issues I was having with a new card. Bought new 1.4 vesa certified cables and also separated them from all of my other cables to reduce noise. No more random flickering, lock ups, or black screens. Absolutely insane something so simple can cause so many problems.
I have a bar of distortion across bottom of my screen, recently started, I've changed cables used both dp/and HDMI ports, Rx 6650xt, ,MSI 27 g272 18:33
Thanks for the video! I was getting flickering from my displayport monitor, however, I found out the displayport cable was not the issue! It was the HDMI cable plugged into the other monitor that was causing the issue, even though the HDMI monitor was working totally fine.
Once I swapped the HDMI cable out for a thicker one, everything worked fine. Thanks for the great and helpful video.
I'm having flickering on one of my dual monitors that are DP 1.2. my graphics card is DP 1.4. My thought was that I need to switch the signal from DP 1.4 to 1.2 that's going into my DP monitor. Weird thing is I get no flickering whatsoever when I have the same monitors and same cables connected to my work laptop.
Do you have a part number or a link for the fiber optic DisplayPort cable? I just got a new monitor that relies on display stream compression for the 4K at 144 Hertz and has only one DisplayPort.
Because multiple monitors require multiple power supplies, ground loops or ground faults can be formed and cause issues with detection and video data corruption.
By connecting cables from the PC, the grounds of these cables connects the grounds of the monitors power supplies together creating an invisible circuit that can at worst smoke your equipment or at minimum screw up the signals through them.
Some rules to follow when connecting multiple powered devices would include: Plugging all devices into the same AC outlet and Making sure all the devices have a 3 prong AC connection.
If the monitors have 2 prong AC plugs than you have to run a separate wire to earth ground from each one.
I use the VGA screw to connect a wire, but not all monitors have one so a connection to the chassis would be required.
Linus just made a great video about HDMI cable testing...
$15,000 cable tester. Cool, but holy crap that shows how much economy of scale matters for price…
Hey Level1Techs, love your content and especially your Linux stuff. During the Pandemonium... I started reading a text book on Linux and started using Linux on multiple machines and built a home media server. I have run into some problems here and there and fell like I've gotten more comfortable with the CLI but there are times where I feel like I don't know what to do or how to logically go about solving the problem without just googling a solution. I was wondering what a new/ moderate user should do to logically figure out how to diagnose an issue and solve it?
Your channel is the best.
Dude! I thought of that too, now my rx 7900 xtx is in repair for second time, i bought new dp cables and it already works smoother on my old gtx 1060. Hoping it fixes the issue when my gpu returns!!!
I'm using dual Dell S2421HS displays, one connected DP and one with HDMI to my RTX 3060 which uses DP 1.4a. The monitors are DP 1.2. I got constant flickering on the display connected with DP cable. No flickering when the displays were connected to my work laptop though. This led me to narrow it down to either the my GPU, GPU port, or software issue related to 1.4a signal not working on 1.2 cable and 1.2 monitor. Changing the cable to a 1.4 certified cable actually made it go away completely.
woo, nice to get a nice video shot of the backside of my KVM
I used StarTech cables kept to the minimum length rated for DP 1.4, haven't had any issues but I haven't used a monitor that pushes close to the limit yet
this video saved me, i have an AMD RX 570 connected to two monitors, one with freesync, and when i switched my DVI to HDMI for a thin DP to HDMI cable, i started seeing those blackouts with the windows sound for a plugged or unplugged device, i tried adding one ferrite core and just like that the black screens are gone... i knew the problem was with the cables, i just didnt wanted to roll the dice to try to buy another brand just to end up with the same issue, although is worth noticing that the problem only appeared if i had installed the radeon software and have enabled the freesync function, so its a hardware/software problem in the end.
Thanks Wendell. I have been pretty happy with the L1T KVM
I appear to be having this problem, I thought it was basically a lose connection - if so, I wasn't completely wrong.
I might try unbundling those cables first. Thanks for the video.
I got black screen / no signal problems since i bought the rx 6600xt with radeon 21.8.1 drivers up to the very recent 21.10.1 ... switched to manjaro AAAAND it fixed everything.
What how did you fix it? Also what's the 6600 xt I have a sapphire
@@moetazammar964 I have the 6600xt pulse from sapphire. Seems like the AMD drivers for windows are ass. the linux kernel has absolutely no issues recognizing the video card properly. I am really happy with manjaro kde so far. give it a try maybe
nvm its still fucked
18:30 "I've seen literally everything" yeah if anybody said that, i'd say they're pulling my leg. But for some reason, i believe this Wendell dude.
The really esoteric stuff informs informed decisions. Always welcome, Wendel.
I've noticed on my 165hz 1440p monitor, if I have freesync enabled(it's an NVIDIA gpu btw) as well as HDR, I sometimes I get brightness fluctuations where it looks like low grade flickering. Anyone know if this is a NVIDIA freesync issue or a cable issue? Also, it's freesync premium pro so it does support this refresh rate with HDR.
It can, unfortunately, also be because your monitor is banging against it's thermal threshold because the HDR flashes are just on the upper end of what it can sustain. If you lower the base brightness and it goes away consistently this could be the case. Tim from Hardware Unboxed addressed this in a Q&A at one point, but I can't remember which.
@@andersjjensen Much obliged. Time to test a different cable. And I'd say it's fortunate, not unfortunate. Good to know it's not a limitation or "feature" of free sync
How is monoprice for quality ? They are my go-to for budget cables.
Been using them for over a decade and just got some braided 1.4 DP cables from them. I don't consider them budget though. Typically, they have kept cost down by cutting out the middle man.
So when can we expect the Level1 Store to start selling cables?
I've got a Radeon RX 480 that I've gamed on for some time on both Windows and Linux and I've noticed that either the physical HDMI ports, or more likely, my cables, are questionable. In Linux I don't have any problems during normal use, but if I touch the connector while it's plugged in I'll get a momentary black screen. On Windows however, if I'm gaming I'll get a random screen full of static that will sometimes resolve itself after a second, and sometimes I've got to physically remove the cable from my graphics card and plug it back in. I think it's the cable though because when it happens, I can also fix it by removing the cable from the television and plugging it back in. I'm using a longer, but really thick and braided HDMI cable at the moment, but it's entirely possible that my cable is questionable, especially since I don't seem to have the same problems, at least to the same extent, on Linux.
You explain things perfectly in a way any person could understand! This has given me some more ammo to throw at my troubleshooting intermittent black screen while gaming, thank you!
Thanks! This video is old now but still helpful. I just bought a new monitor and was experiencing a lot of flickering with my 7900xtx. I was using the same cord that was connected to my previous monitor so didn't bother using the cord that came with the monitor. After I switched cords, the flickering stopped.
Same card, same issue right now with my LG 27GS95QE. Could you provide info about the cable you purchased that fixed the issue. Thanks
Great video. I don't want to think about how many iffy cables I've dealt with over the years. For DP & HDMI I've settled on Tripp-Lite, as they've been very consistent. There's a bit of a price premium, but they work straight out of the (resealable) bag.
Thank you! my 6800 had some weird flickering sometimes in bios, had flickering with VRAM OC in steam. Started going after the issue. Well.. main DP cable was bent at the connector. Changed - problem went away!
Reasons why shorter and fatter cables are better?
First, cable capacitance. Skinnier cables have more capacitance per foot and length of cable means higher total capacitance. Cable capacitance combined with source resistance forms a low pass filter that rolls off high frequency signals. The way to make cables have lower capacitance lower is to space the conductors further apart (use thicker jackets on the wires) or you can use different (more expensive) jacket material that lowers the capacitance per foot. Thicker is usually cheaper than special jacket material.
The second reason for cable problems is signal reflections that happen every time the signal passes through an impedance change. The impedance changes every time you pass through a connector or run into the end of a cable (a huge impedance change). These reflected signals destructively interfere signals in the cable. That is why termination resistors are added to the last node of all differential signals. Without that termination resistor you can't run the network speed anywhere as fast as with.
Reflections is the reason why there is a hard limit on how long any cable for any signal switching speed, no matter how low the cable capacitance is. The limit is inversely proportional to the signal speed. Faster signaling means shorter and slower signaling means longer. An example (from RS-485), at 1 mBaud, max cable length is about 100 meters, at 56kBaud you can go 1000 meters.
Buffering the signal in a switch breaks helps both capacitance and reflection for each cable (both the goes into and the comes out of cable). Shorter is definitely your friend.
How coincidental how Linus debuts a piece of hardware for cable testing the same day you talk about the importance of cables.
Or planned together to kick some ass!
i have an msi rx 470 and i have experienced these flickering BSOD issues everytime there was a windows update or the adrenaline software update. i troubleshooted it multiple ways and the best way to not crash my pc/ black screen the display or crash the driver was to turn off everything in "record & stream " tab and use OBS for my recordings etc. the pc and the driver has crashed only 2 or 3 times in the 3 months i did this. it used to crash every 5 -10 minutes when i had the recording options toggled active , through the adrenaline and use the virtual super resolution(VSR) option. i haven't tried with just the VSR turned on. but i was happy my pc and the drivers weren't crashing anymore ,did not want to touch the settings after that . but after watching these video i am interested in seeing if a better cable might help fix those issues and give me my "instant save replay" back, because i keep forgetting to start up "obs replay buffer " before i join a game session😅
a topic ive been having issues with but never addressed? an in depth teaching lesson from Wendell's personal adventures in cable land? a levelonetech video? yes please
ill try these things and say which fix it if anything
i'm running amd 6950 XT and 240 Hz msi monitor and have screen tearing. i have tried everything and it didn't fix it. any advice before i return the pc?
My 5700XT I got at launch had this issue. AMD had me turn off EnhancedSync according to their patch notes, after using DDU and even reinstalling Windows. I still can't use EnhancedSync after however many years, a feature I paid for. I'll never get an AMD GPU again, outside of old used ones.
I can reliably fix the blinking problem by using CRU to extend the freesync range down by 5Hz. Usually fixes issues with marginal cables and cheap monitors, especially when using gsync with a free sync monitor.
On a side note, as an auto tech, there is a difference, when it comes to cheap quality wiring, ie., resistance to voltage issues.
it remembers me when i got the vega 64 and 144hz monitor. i rma'ed monitor, because a hdmi had no problems, in the end i looked up the vesa table for certified products, only club3d was certified then. and mine has integrated ferrit cores. after some months ive looked up the table again, and some more cables were certified.
I was having these exact issues with my RX6800XT and was wondering what it was. Thanks for this. I just ordered 2 new cables that reviews tell me are good quality. I can't say for sure they'll be good, as you said it is kind of a crap shoot, but I have had good experiences with Cable Matters products, so that's what I ordered.
try one of the cables your monitor manufacturer provided, they tend to be good quality
@@NorBdelta yeah, no. Dell doesn't provide decent cables. I've gone around on that a couple times. I love their monitors, as I have 5, but their cables aren't good for higher end stuff. They're good for my work laptop setup, at 1440p 60Hz, but not for WQHD 100Hz.
@@dangingerich2559 ooo, that is disappointing to hear. LG supplied good cables with my ultra gear monitors. But it sounds like the industry is infested with bad cables
can confirm gettin good HDMI / DP cable is hard... had some cables which worked fine, but started giving me artefacts or black screens after a while.... i may have more crap cables than good ones at this point
The "Black Screen Issue" that is reported on so much was in my case caused by an incompatible/older Power Supply.
And I'm talking about a Corsair HX750i that doesn't like my VEGA64 Card. A Bitfenix Whisper M (850W) works fine.
PSUs can weaken with age, so I can believe that. Vega sucks power, so it probably was outputting dirtier power than the card likes and caused instability. I believe that was another major problem for initial vega users and AMD got blamed for it. And of course there's no way to test ripple without an O scope. Also, V droop may have caused all around instability (once again not AMD's fault).
@@TheGuruStud well, the "Fun Fact" is that an older be quiet Straight Power E8 with 500W strangely worked. Though that PSU had some MASSIVE 4700µF Caps on 12V...
I am getting a new 165hz, 1440p monitor and after seeing your video I went on and got the Club 2D display port cable. This is just in case the cable provided with the monitor is not up to specks and to avoid future potential issues.
Relevant given today's LTT video hahahah
Actually ordering one of those things. I've been doing testing manually had no idea there was an option that wasn't $100k
@@Level1Techs/videos What? You don't fancy ordering an FPGA dev board, FMC ADC+DAC, then writing all the signal integrity verification + other testing HDL and firmware yourself? That sounds like a quick and easy multiyear project! Perfect for devember /s.
@@Level1Techs Oh yes. OH YES. Rambly video about testing displayport cables incoming
His display port cable rants were the first thing I was thinking of when I saw the LTT video.
@@Level1Techs something in the water I suppose.
I've been having an issue with my Radeon RX 6700 XT MECH 2X 12G and each of it's subsequent RMA replacements. The displayport itself (to the right of the HDMI) seems to completely shut off after maybe 2 months of use and I cant get it to operate again. After the initial card was "repaired", the issue came back in the time in took me to reinstall the drivers for this GPU, and shortly thereafter while I was fighting with MSI to RMA it again, the second displayport I moved the second monitor cable over to also shut down permanently. I don't seem to have any issue with the HDMI or the displayport the VR headset is plugged into. After the repaired card was RMA'd for a replacement, about 2 months later (about the same usage period as the initial card) the displayport in the same position has died again.
And when I say dead, nothing displays on this port, even when booting the PC back up. Ive tried everything I can find but cant find a way to reactivate the ports. Wiping and reinstalling the drivers with DDU doesnt fix it. Im pretty sure its a hardware issue. Is it possible for a displayport cable itself to kill a displayport on the GPU?
Would this be the black screen that trips my Vega64 into sending the Asrock X470 taichi into a 00 code?
00 means a cpu problem, but a power button cycle brings it right back up until the intermittent issue hits again and the proces repeats.
finding the best DP cable for high refresh rate would be awesome with that cable tester coming in
I'm partial to Monoprice cables, I use a 10 FT DP 1.4 from them and no issues.
I'm using a 10FT MonoPrice HDMI 2.1 that costs $10. Works just fine but watching this video and LTT made me do test pattern checks lol.
I just switched to Mint-Cinnamon 20.2 (from win 10). How do I use Ryzen Master or even Adrenalin?
i actually have that said club 3d display port cable i bought local at my pc store so more likely to be non fake this way, though my screen is not 1.4 but the extra room and quality is nice have. its a freesync screen but before the display port cable i was using it would black screen and crash with gsync mode on with the nvidia gpu. but when i bought that cable above i never had a single problem ever since.
I've found most of the HDMI hdmi 2.1 cables (used for ps5 xbox series x and Radeon 6000 and above) do not work, going for cables sold in Europe rated 8k 120Hz 48Gbps work.
Symptoms are you attempt to output 120hz and it can not, and monitor-TV turning loosing signal for a second like some sort of pulse is interfering with it. I think the cheaper ones lack shielding or earths because it took me a long time to work out a properly rated cable solved the "interference" issue.
Where do I find the settings in Adrenaline, Pre-emphasis and the voltage swing? These "hidden menus" that you speak of. There's no mention of version or where to click to see them. I'm on the to date latest drivers 2020.1011.1706.2043 on XFX 7600 xt card.
Really helped me out with this not too long ago, really struggled to find a DP 1.4 cable that worked
Agreed on display cables being a main cause of those errors but other popular ones are unstable oc or uv GPU settings or RAM settings.
@Level1Techs I have a AMD 6900XT and an LG C9. I have the latest LG C9 firmware installed.
I have both the Moshou & Vention HDMI 2.1 Fibre optic cable in 3, 5 and 20m lengths, and although the colours are more vibrant, I cannot get 4K120 4:4:4 10bit or any 4K120. Have you tried these cables? Only cable I have managed to get 4K120 10bit 4:4:4 is the Zeskit HDMI 2.1 cable.
Great information about all this, thank you! Stay awesome!
This feels a bit surreal. Today I just happened to notice, that i have occasional black screens on my LGC9 and then this video drops lol
Was having issues OCing my ASUS VG27AQL1A but with 3D Club cables it all works fantastic I get the full 170Hz now
just had, maybe still have(hope not) this issue where i launch a game and it just blinks black and back to game. turned off something under the display settins in the amd toolbar program(amd pro thing) and it worked. ill buy a new wire and turn that setting back on and check it out i guess. Thanks for the vid
It's definitely cables, AMD cards have a weird issue where they derp out so hard with bad cables or bad cable connection whether it be HDMI or DP.
I used to have problems with my RX 570 and a pair of (older) 1920x1080 120hz displays, went away with my Vega 56 (same monitors) but have returned with vengeance with my RX 6700 XT (still the same monitors, one day will upgrade to 1440P displays). It oddly happens when my computer is mining... I think I'll look into my cables again however (Startech 1.4 locking cables).
Okay, so I finally replaced my Startech Display port 1.4 cables with Club3D ones, and all problems are gone. Go figure. 😕 Anyways, thanks!!! 😀
Probably not the place to be asking this but I’ve been searching for 2 days now for a solution to a very annoying problem. I got a used amd 6670 5ggddr5 and put it in my current rig that ran just fine and had a 5450 in it (I’m broke don’t judge me) it worked great until I turned my system off and back on. Then it worked fine still, until about an hour in when the whole screen shifted a bit to the left or right and then the part of the screen that you couldent see anymore because it shifted it off the screen of my tv was mirrored to the other side of my screen but with many lines in it, so basically I had a normal 3/4 of my screen and then on the opposite side it was so posed to be on the other 1/4 full of lines horizontally to be exact. After that it happens 1m times and I tried everything I knew about, different pcie drivers settings resetting windows and some of these would fix it until depending on how much my pc hates me either 1-4 hours into gaming on very light games it does it more. I tried both my cables that work just fine with my ps4 and my 5450 but not for this. So my cables might be ok, the only thing I can think of is that I use a dvi to hdmi adapter and that’s the only thing I haven’t switched out. I know the gpu isn’t thermal throttling because 1 the fan hella loud and I’d be able to hear it go supersonic and 2 the temps stay around 30-39c 90ish Fahrenheit the adapter worked for the 5450 but I used a even older port that I don’t remember the name of to a dvi adapter that I used the dvi to hdmi and it worked fine but now I’m going straight dvi to hdmi the card has a vga and one of the display port ports on it but I have neither and if I had them I would have to get display to hdmi or vga to hdmi as I don’t have a monitor that has a display or vga but I have one with a dvi. The issue still persists and can someone please help me with this issue
Had someone return a GPU for this very reason. Almost worth shipping out a decent cable with each sale at this point.
Wendell: And this is what could possibly be wrong with DP cables.
Also Wendell: But don't get me started on serious troubleshooting and issues.
Glorious ending.
Thank you very much for this video! I was pulling my hair out, and sure enough my mini DP to DP adapter had “gone bad” from bend wear and started to artifact. All the “cables are all the same, 1’s and 0’s” crowd can shove it!
the problem im having is a flicker, but not of the image, but of the back light. but not all the time, only in certain games like stardew valley. i have an rx 5700 and have a gigabyte G27Q monitor running 1440p @ 144hz. no idea why. was happening a bit on the desktop(running wallpaper engine), in folders some times. using display port with the supplied dp cable from gigabyte.
very good Wendel i do have the flickering on my pc lately im using Ryzen 37x with a 750 ti i know its old but i like it my Amd one a Rx550 the fans keep stopping just after boot up are the fans suppose to do that ? my 750ti fans dont turn off why the Amd video card turn off this has only happen lately and i have good htmi leads to the monitor
the recent color pixel squares have been appearing on two of my 4 monitor setup, both are DP cable connection and it was happening in a game today one of them started doing it while I had AMD software open, only on the amd window too, lol, so weird.
setup is 4 27" 165hz monitors, 3 as one for gaming and the other for chat etc.
SAPPHIRE 6700XT gpu
3 gaming monitors are all DP while the forth is HDMI.
started having issues with the HDMI, did the switch and carried onto the monitor I switched the cables with. now everything is working BUT the two outside monitors, where I get the glitching.
any suggestions would be appreciated. I am putting in an order for another set of DP cables... from amazon hahaha not the cheap ones either.
I have an RTX 2060 on an MSI A320M Pro Max mobo and I have an issue using HDMI. The screen blanks for a second using some applications when I exit the app or when I hover over certain areas of the screen.
Yeah I was thinking of everything else but the cable. Cause the screen flickers black whenever it's in full screen on any application but never in windowed mode. Honestly it could be freesync, I heard many people had freesync that causes flickering issues. But I'll buy a new cable.
It was in fact, free sync.
THANK YOU! I just saved myself alot of money by getting a new HMDI instead of getting a whole new monitor!!! youre the best :)
I'm getting random white flashes/flickering, not black. I did what you said in the comments and put my screens refresh rate to 60Hz. Still getting white flashes. I'm wondering if it's AMD GPU drivers that are causing it.
These dodgy cable issues are exactly why I use the cables provided by the manufacturer of my monitor usually. I would like to think they have made sure the cables they bundle with their kit are up to spec otherwise the returns would be high
I was seeing issues with my Strix 6800xt + Dell S2721DGF screen and flickering issues especially in games like PUBG with Freesync Pro + Enhanced sync enabled. I tried DDU and windows 10 reloads yet my problem still existed (had to disable enhanced sync). Since installing windows 11 and turning those features on my issues have gone away but now I'm thinking that I'm on borrowed time and I have ordered a Club3d cable just in case. Thanks for the windows tip to reset the driver, i had no idea that was a thing.