screen turning off and on intermittently

shaunluther

shaunluther

shaunluther

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Joined
4 Oct 2025
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5
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Somerset
Hi there I wondered if anyone could help with a little issue I have, I currently have two monitors set up with dp cables and every now and then my screen will go black for about 3 seconds then come back on again, I've just upgraded my graphics card and it did the same on the old card so thinking it's probably not that

windows 10 pro
32gb ram
11th gen intel core
Nvidia geforce rtx 5070
64bit
2 x asus vg27aq1a

thanks shaun
 
I had that happen with an old PC that was in my living room, one time by chance I had the door open and heard the fridge/freezer compressor kick in at the same time the screen went blank.

I replaced the HDMI cable with a better quality one and the problem went away.

So there's a chance it could be environmental like my fridge compressor creating EMF in combination with poorly shielded cheap cables so worth keeping in mind before you start buying loads of new parts trying to rule things out.
 
I've just installed two new dp cables and it's just done it again on me, it does it on both screens so don't think it could really be the power cable
 
shaunluther said:
I've just installed two new dp cables and it's just done it again on me, it does it on both screens so don't think it could really be the power cable
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Nick the HDMI cable from your TV etc and try that on one of them instead?

They are standard length cables i.e a couple of meters or so not massive long things running from one side of the room to the other?

Any appliances with big motors switched on, vac, washing machine, fridge? Turn off for a bit to see if it stops doing it, just remember to turn it back on before your xmas turkey melts!

Are you using a multiway extension lead, do you have another you can try?

Boot from a linux USB stick / live cd does it still do it? - Would rule out something weird with Windows.

Do you have an old fashioned filament style bulb, does it ever flicker? - I had a weird fault where when a large vehicle went over a pot hole in the road my lights flickered it eventually got fixed I think a mains cable in the road must have been shorting or badly joined.

You can get fibre optic display port cables.
 
I never quite nailed down what was causing my old work docking station and one of my monitors to have this exact problem, have you got a laptop or another PC to try the monitors and cables on to help eliminate those as potential causes?

(My guess on my old issue is that the docking slider or port had some minor contact damage of some form).

Edit: forgot to say the new laptop doesn't seem to do this but I've had it less than a week.
 
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NetMan said:
Nick the HDMI cable from your TV etc and try that on one of them instead?

They are standard length cables i.e a couple of meters or so not massive long things running from one side of the room to the other?

Any appliances with big motors switched on, vac, washing machine, fridge? Turn off for a bit to see if it stops doing it, just remember to turn it back on before your xmas turkey melts!

Are you using a multiway extension lead, do you have another you can try?

Boot from a linux USB stick / live cd does it still do it? - Would rule out something weird with Windows.

Do you have an old fashioned filament style bulb, does it ever flicker? - I had a weird fault where when a large vehicle went over a pot hole in the road my lights flickered it eventually got fixed I think a mains cable in the road must have been shorting or badly joined.

You can get fibre optic display port cables.
Click to expand...
its interesting that you mention the old style bulb I actually have an old fashioned edison bulb right next to my pc on my wall
 
shaunluther said:
its interesting that you mention the old style bulb I actually have an old fashioned edison bulb right next to my pc on my wall
Click to expand...
Because they have no driver / filter circuit you know if one is flickering there is something off with the mains supply rather than the electronics in an LED lamp which can go bad.
 
shaunluther said:
apologies could you elaborate a bit more please I don't fully understand

thanks shaun
Click to expand...
LED bulbs have a bunch of electronics in them which can fail so they can start flickering or not turn at at all.

Where as a normal filament bulb either works or it doesn't so if it flickers you know its the mains voltage, but a surge lasting milliseconds might be enought to throw the monitor out and not be visible with a bulb.


Theres an old reddit thread about your monitors, with some more suggestions, firmware updates, turning off VRR, lowering the refresh rate etc which might be worth a read if it keeps doing it after you've tried some of the other suggestions:

 
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