Monitor blinking on and off--WTF is happening?

I know it sounds crazy, but after trying different troubleshooting, deleting & re-installing drivers, etc. I decided to try swapping out my HDMI cable, and WALLA, it worked! The cable I was using was new but apparently my system didn’t like the cable I had, and a replacement (used) was the ticket! no more flickering! Yay!

I’ve had a few bad HDMI cables, mostly the ones that you get when you buy 5 for like $15 bundles.

I’ve switched over to more reliable stuff now that I am running 4k, and have had no issues since.

Welcome to the forums @rentonguy

Maybe he’s a viral marketeer for Fry’s.

This has been happening to me with a 1070 and a newish monitor.

I think it’s probably the video card /cable as the flickering only seems to happen while in 3d games.

Thanks for the ideas.

well here i am, having a brand new monitor flash black then back on randomly, only while in game. Sometimes 4 seconds apart, sometimes 10 minutes apart or more. Everything is updated, all drivers updated. My old monitor didnt do this.

Did you drill the requisite holes in the monitor yet?

Heh, make sure your audience understands that that’s a jokey allusion to a bizarre thread of yesteryear! With a smiley at least… :-)

As soon as he’s done gnawing on his hand.

Double-check the connections. Unplug and replug the power, HDMI/Displayport, etc. cables. If you have multiple ports, try a different one.

Otherwise, if it’s a brand-new monitor, it may be defective.

What @J_Thomas said, plus try a different signal cable between the graphics card and the monitor.

This is actually a big deal. You figure that the cable is fine, but it just doesn’t work right with a new part.

I prefer to go naked/commando and without smileys.

I fixed my issue by replacing the connecting cable from PC to monitor. I had a DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable. I replaced it with a DisplayPort to HDMI cable that I already had. The HDMI part being plugged into the monitor.

My issue was that the monitor randomly started blinking. It started with the screen going black for about a second or two, intermittently ever 10 seconds or so. Then it became more often and for a second longer at times.

Hope this helps someone.

Was the problem the cable or the port?

The problem I was having a few years ago was the wrong card being detected after a cold boot. Sometimes the motherboard detected the external GPU, sometimes the onboard GPU. But that was over VGA/DVI. I switched to HDMI and a different monitor and I think the problem went away. (Not completely sure since I gifted the PC to someone else since then.)

My sons gaming monitor had the same problem. Turning on and off and flickering while on. Heres how I fixed it. I powered off the monitor. Check the power cord and come to find out he was using his power cord for his LED light on his monitor. I had him find the monitors power cord. Pulled it back in and the issue stopped. If its not the the original power cord you’ll run into this issue. Hope this helps!

I absolutely love that this thread has replies spaced years apart, typically by a new member to QT3, and is always a legitimate answer to a seemingly very similar issue. This must be one of the only threads/top thread out there that comes up in a google search for monitor blinking.

Okay so I have been racking my brains trying to solve a problem with my computer for days. So I got a new monitor for Christmas and the refresh rate absolutely puts the other to shame. My old monitor runs at a 60 hz refresh rate and the other runs at max 240. Now ive finally figured out that thats why my games keep loading blurry and then the graphics tear and then black screen. Now im no tech genius which is why this simple problem is killing me. How can i fix this problem so when i plug my new monitor in the higher refresh rate wont cause my games to tear and black screen.

Are you plugging the two monitors into the same video card? That might be a problem. I plug my two monitors into two different video cards. (Onboard and external.)

That’s a handful of annoying problems;

  • I agree with Yak that disconnecting the slower one might help resolve some issues (most likely the black screen). Also make sure your fast monitor is your primary. Right click on your desktop background and choose Display Settings. You should see an emulation of how your monitors are set up at the top of the window with one of them highlighted. Make sure it’s the new monitor. Under Multiple Displays, make sure you have a check mark by “Make this my main display” and if not then click in the box.
  • Screen tear should be resolved with adaptive sync. If you have an Nvidia graphics card and your super-fast monitor is GSync compatible (I’m assuming it is at that speed), you’d want to get into the Nvidia control panel (usually accessible via a green and black icon on your task bar at the bottom right). Once there, look in the Display section of the “Select a Task” column on the left, and you should see a listing to set up G-Sync. Make sure your fast monitor is selected. If it isn’t, click on another option under Display and select it, as the option to set up G-Sync may not show up without doing so.
  • The blur could be caused by an overdrive setting in your monitor, but that’s hard to tell (you’d want to check the monitor settings with whatever on-screen display it has for you). Try out different settings and see what looks best in a game, but maybe try that after the other fixes so you can isolate on this one setting.

I hope at lease a little of that was helpful. Computer issues can be quite a test of patience.

If you have a gsync monitor, make sure vsync is ON in the nvidia control panel and off in the game you are playing. More info here: https://blurbusters.com/gsync/gsync101-input-lag-tests-and-settings/14/

Not sure of the settings if freesync.