BENQ-BL3200PT Flickering at 1440p

Rosco101

Rosco101

Rosco101

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To start off with this monitor looks amazing to me, I was really happy with it until I started playing The Witcher 3 and ARMA 3. When playing these games on 1440p at times the display starts flickering when you look at certain textures, usually really light coloured textures. It starts flickering where its like you can see the actual scan lines of the panel or something. Below is a link someone else has posted who has been getting the same issue in ARMA 3, The issue in Witcher is very similar and again only happens on 1440p

This link is a guy showing a supposed fix, but it didnt fix anything for me. The reason I post the link is the third comment talks about BENQ stating that they ship their monitors with a Firmware flash that fixes the problem.
<<<<=====

My question to you guys is has anyone ever experienced anything similar with this monitor? Would overclockers be likely to have more modern screens in stock? or perhaps be able to get BENQ to perform the Firmware flash? As you can see from the first video, any screen which performs as such is unusable.
 
Having googled this issue, I just found out that I have it on the screen I bought from OcUK last week. According to HWINFO, mine was manufactured week20/2015 so that's basically the end of May last year. The service menu says the firmware is from November 2014.

edit: BAD LINK REMOVED :p Thanks to DrBombcrater for clearing up some confusion.
 
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Yup I also came across that, when moving the window around with a dark desktop it gave off a weird overlapping effect where the desktop would flicker in relation to the size of window.

I also purchased mine just last week, according to HWINFO, mine was also manufactured week 20/2015 with the same firmware as yours.

Hmm faulty batch it seems.
 
marc2003 said:
It can be reproduced without games just by opening this...

http://www.gdargaud.net/Hack/DeadPixel/GreenMagenta.html
Click to expand...
I think you're confusing two separate issues here. Flickering on light textures in games is a problem with a batch of the 32" AUO panels used in the BenQ (it affected multiple monitors using the same panel) and was fixed toward the end of last year with a factory-only firmware update. Any BL3200 with showing the flickering is old non-updated stock and should be sent back as defective.

The interference generated by the pattern in that link is just a side-effect of the way some LCD panels do their addressing. It's not a fault and has been present in monitors for years without anyone noticing; I have a DGM monitor dating from around 2003 that has it.
 
It's certainly possible I've got things mixed up.

However, when you say last year, do you mean 2014 or 2015? Grandmaster Fap!'s monitor was manufactured week11/2014 so it must have an earlier firmware than me and Rosco because our monitors have firmware dates of November 2014 and manufacture dates of week20/2015. Rosco still has issues with the in-game flickering which I'm not able to test.
 
The first batch of BL3200s (w11/2014) do not suffer from the flickering fault, but many manufactured after that do. I don't recall exactly when it was fixed, it wasn't until the latter half of 2015 - fixed models started showing up for sale in October, if my memory is correct, so I'd expect units with the w20/2015 mfg date are almost certainly affected. The only fix is to return the monitor for replacement, the firmware can't be updated by anyone but BenQ.

Distortion caused by that cross-hatch pattern is a completely different issue. It's a quirk in the addressing method the LCD panel uses, lots of monitors show the same anomaly. Both the monitors on my desk right now, a BL3200PT and a 30" Samsung 305t+, suffer from it. And, as I mentioned, I've seen it present on monitors going back more than a decade. It's a non-issue, tbh, as there's zero effect on display quality under normal use.
 
Thanks for the clarification DrBombcrater, i thought the link that marc posted indicated i had the flickering issue as well. I've never seen any flickering in games (Witcher3, Fallout4, Borderlands2 etc) but i just assumed i wasnt playing 'the' games that showed the issue.
 
In the short of it OC are happy to RMA for a direct replacement, Ive asked if its possible I get sent one from a different batch. The guy said he will mention it on the RMA as I will keep returning them until I get one im satisfied with.

I will update with the Manufacture date and fw version if and when I get a good one.
 
marc2003 said:
So they managed to "fix" something that wasn't broken? Marvellous.. :p
Click to expand...
Yeah, sounds stupid. But almost certainly AUO changed (or broke) something about their panels in a way that the testing used by monitor manufacturers couldn't pick up. And angry buyers complaining was the first they knew about it. That kind of nonsense happens far, far too much in the IT industry.
 
Just an update for those interested in this monitor. It appears it doesn't really matter what firmware or manufacture date your monitor is. I RMA'd the last one and received another today with the exact same FW ver and manufacture date and this one is perfect from what Ive seen, Been playing ARMA 3 all night and no issues. I had a quick look at Witcher and that was also fine.

The link for the green magenta test still produced the obscure overspill outside a window. Just a heads up for those interested.

Im now a happy chappy :_)
 
Glad you got it sorted. I don't have either of those games so I shall remain completely ignorant of whether my monitor is faulty or not. :p
 
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