Random black screen on and off/flickering when using G-Sync?

[Driftkel]

I just noticed this problem happening last night. Every time I either open something like my browser for example, my monitor's screen goes black for 2 seconds and then it goes back to normal. It would keep flickering for at least roughly 3-4 times on average.

I've found that turning it off completely fixes the problem, but I want to be able to fix the problem when actually using G-sync. I tried finding some solutions and they didn't work for me. Any tips?

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

I had this happen when I setup screen 4, but this was happening 3 years ago when I set up screen 2. Now, I don't know the absolute fix, but it stopped happening when I was doing some PC maintenance.

Now, I am not sure if it was the infamous SFC Scan Tool (it surely was not DISM as this always comes back clean), but both occasions I had run the SFC and it did find corruptions and those issues seemed to go away; although, on rare occasions the screens 2 and 4 will black out for 1 second and turn back on, but not every single time as before, maybe once every 6 months or so.

I also did a Nvidia clean installation both times so that might also be a fix. My monitors do not take any software to run they are P&P. If I think of anything else I will revise the post.

You also might want to post this in the other technical forum: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/11

One more thing, my monitors are free-sync and do not run with g-sync. Thinking back, there may be a post with a fix if it is in fact the g-sync causing the issue.

[Driftkel]

I tried doing the SFC scan tool and it didn't detect any problems on my end.

Might try to reinstall nvidia drivers if that could be one of the culprits. It's weird that the past few days everything was normal, until last night was when I discovered that my screen would go black on and off. Thought it was a program or a process that was causing this, but it was neither sadly.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

Originally posted by Devastinator:

I tried doing the SFC scan tool and it didn't detect any problems on my end.

Might try to reinstall nvidia drivers if that could be one of the culprits. It's weird that the past few days everything was normal, until last night was when I discovered that my screen would go black on and off. Thought it was a program or a process that was causing this, but it was neither sadly.

When doing Nvidia, try the Clean Installation. It would be a good shot at a fix.

And maybe, now this is weird, you can attempt to unplug the monitor (when the monitor is off) and then after you unplug it, press and hold the power button for about 5 seconds. This has helped me last week when my screens were stuck.

This issue was caused by me falling asleep and the PC going to sleep while a certain game was running which blacked out 3 screens. And unplugging (while PC was on) was the fix.

I am leaning on the clean installation more, but this unplugging fix is so weird that it does work for some issues.

[ReBoot]

Disable HW acceleration in your browser.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Disable HW acceleration in your browser.

Yes, OP. Try this above fix by ReBoot first as it did help with another black screen issue another user had.

[Driftkel]

Originally posted by Wynters:

Originally posted by Devastinator:

I tried doing the SFC scan tool and it didn't detect any problems on my end.

Might try to reinstall nvidia drivers if that could be one of the culprits. It's weird that the past few days everything was normal, until last night was when I discovered that my screen would go black on and off. Thought it was a program or a process that was causing this, but it was neither sadly.

When doing Nvidia, try the Clean Installation. It would be a good shot at a fix.

And maybe, now this is weird, you can attempt to unplug the monitor (when the monitor is off) and then after you unplug it, press and hold the power button for about 5 seconds. This has helped me last week when my screens were stuck.

This issue was caused by me falling asleep and the PC going to sleep while a certain game was running which blacked out 3 screens. And unplugging (while PC was on) was the fix.

I am leaning on the clean installation more, but this unplugging fix is so weird that it does work for some issues.

Unfortunately the clean installation did not work for me. However, the next solution you provided somehow worked for me! At first, just unplugging my monitor for a few seconds didn't work, but after unplugging and then holding the power button for about 5 seconds, I somehow don't see any black screen flickering on my end as it seems.

[Driftkel]

Originally posted by Wynters:

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Disable HW acceleration in your browser.

Yes, OP. Try this above fix by ReBoot first as it did help with another black screen issue another user had.

That also fixed it too as I just saw this comment when I was replying to the one above.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

Sometimes it takes a community to solve an issue.

[Driftkel]

I wish you could mark both answers as helpful but sometimes when you try one solution first before trying another, you'll eventually mark the first one you try as helpful at times.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

Originally posted by Devastinator:

I wish you could mark both answers as helpful but sometimes when you try one solution first before trying another, you'll eventually mark the first one you try as helpful at times.

Well, yes. If one fix was to fail, it is always better to have a few more lined up just in case. ReBoot's solution is the better fix, imo.

[Crashed]

Originally posted by Devastinator:

I just noticed this problem happening last night. Every time I either open something like my browser for example, my monitor's screen goes black for 2 seconds and then it goes back to normal. It would keep flickering for at least roughly 3-4 times on average.

I've found that turning it off completely fixes the problem, but I want to be able to fix the problem when actually using G-sync. I tried finding some solutions and they didn't work for me. Any tips?

I was under the impression it was HDR sometimes triggering this.
I did actually roll back an Insider Preview driver not too long ago because it caused that to happen when I was going in and out of a game running in Auto HDR mode, never thought it had to do with G-Sync.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

Be careful with the Insider Preview, that ♥♥♥♥ can mess things up, lol.

[Driftkel]

Originally posted by Crashed:

Originally posted by Devastinator:

I just noticed this problem happening last night. Every time I either open something like my browser for example, my monitor's screen goes black for 2 seconds and then it goes back to normal. It would keep flickering for at least roughly 3-4 times on average.

I've found that turning it off completely fixes the problem, but I want to be able to fix the problem when actually using G-sync. I tried finding some solutions and they didn't work for me. Any tips?

I was under the impression it was HDR sometimes triggering this.
I did actually roll back an Insider Preview driver not too long ago because it caused that to happen when I was going in and out of a game running in Auto HDR mode, never thought it had to do with G-Sync.

Strange because last night I was just in my Windows Display settings and noticed that I had HDR turned off. I was "foolishly" curious and decided to turn it on, until I should have noticed that it was one of the signs of the random black screen flickering. Even if I tried to turn it off quickly, it was already too late.

[Driftkel]

Originally posted by Wynters:

Originally posted by Devastinator:

I wish you could mark both answers as helpful but sometimes when you try one solution first before trying another, you'll eventually mark the first one you try as helpful at times.

Well, yes. If one fix was to fail, it is always better to have a few more lined up just in case. ReBoot's solution is the better fix, imo.

No disagreements there. I will give credit where they're due out of respect if they fixed my problem.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

The main thing is to get the issue resolved and a good fix pinned to help other users in the future with the issue at hand.