BenQ XL2730Z Freesync Owners Thread

[Dicehunter]

Why on earth would their premier gaming monitor with no replacement currently in the pipeline let alone announced/close to production go EOL? It was never a credible thing.

No clue but IainR's conversation with OCUK resulted in them saying the monitor was EOL and the BenQ saying pretty much "No, Very much not EOL"

 

[ninjah]

Just got this monitor delivered an hour ago and holy balls it's awesome !

The updated firmware is on it, No dead or stuck pixels and Freesync at 144Hz is glorious !!!

Even though its a TN panel what the picture quality like? Because I'm in two mind whether to get this or the Asus.

(Picture quality vs responsiveness).

 

[SkankwOn]

A few weeks after the return of my screen for the V002 firmware update I've encountered a strange problem.

Three quarters of my screen has become blurry/blocky when viewing text. The left hand side of the monitor displays text under desktop icons, in browsers, documents etc very poorly. When I drag the same icons or docs over to the far right of the screen (the last quarter) the text appears properly.

This problem is not noticeable in games.

I've found one user on Reddit experiencing the same problem, I posted in response (jaibones). https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/3gre50/bought_the_benq_xl2730z_4_months_ago_just/

Any thoughts on this issue greatly appreciated, I've tried resetting the monitor to factory default settings to no avail (forgot how awful it looks 'out of the box' .. ow). Really hope I don't have to send it back to BenQ ... again!

[edit] I should add that I'm sure it's the screen, after trying to roll back GPU drivers, trying HDMI lead, adjusting clear type, disabling hardware acceleration etc .. I plugged another PC into the BenQ and the problem persisted.

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Another negative for this display.. along almost the entire bottom edge, there appears to be what would appear like backlight bleed. It's like the panel was misaligned by about 3 mm to high.


Left = BenQ XL2730 (27" TN)
Right = HPZR2740 (27" ips)

Ive got a slight blue along the bottom edge, nowhere near as bad as that though , its very slight on mine, don't notice it.

 

[nails666]

A few weeks after the return of my screen for the V002 firmware update I've encountered a strange problem.

Three quarters of my screen has become blurry/blocky when viewing text. The left hand side of the monitor displays text under desktop icons, in browsers, documents etc very poorly. When I drag the same icons or docs over to the far right of the screen (the last quarter) the text appears properly.

This problem is not noticeable in games.

I've found one user on Reddit experiencing the same problem, I posted in response (jaibones). https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/3gre50/bought_the_benq_xl2730z_4_months_ago_just/

Any thoughts on this issue greatly appreciated, I've tried resetting the monitor to factory default settings to no avail (forgot how awful it looks 'out of the box' .. ow). Really hope I don't have to send it back to BenQ ... again!

[edit] I should add that I'm sure it's the screen, after trying to roll back GPU drivers, trying HDMI lead, adjusting clear type, disabling hardware acceleration etc .. I plugged another PC into the BenQ and the problem persisted.

Yup I had exactly the same issue, I think I posted about it earlier in this thread. Mine got worse and started sort of juddering at high refresh rates with it. I had to RMA mine back to BenQ but to be fair to them it was as painless a process as possible. I used their web RMA request (same one as used for the firmware update) on a Thursday night, got it confirmed on Friday morning and then at 8.30 on Monday morning a new monitor was delivered and mine was taken away so I wasn't left without a screen at any point.

Fingers crossed it goes as well for you.

 

[jason-uk]

after seeing this i've just checked mine , and zero black light bleed or any signs of the blue line across the bottom ,,,,,,,,do we know whats causing this ? is it something that developed overtime ? .

 

[gradyhawks]

What is the warrenty on these?

Looking to get mine in the next few weeks!

 

[SkankwOn]

Yup I had exactly the same issue, I think I posted about it earlier in this thread. Mine got worse and started sort of juddering at high refresh rates with it. I had to RMA mine back to BenQ but to be fair to them it was as painless a process as possible. I used their web RMA request (same one as used for the firmware update) on a Thursday night, got it confirrmed on Friday morning and then at 8.30 on Monday morning a new monitor was delivered and mine was taken away so I wasn't left without a screen at any point.

Fingers crossed it goes as well for you.

Thanks for the reply. Much as I was hoping this wouldn't require another RMA, I was also hoping they'd just send a new one out if I did, after reading your post I'm optimistic. I'll get on it now.

[Edit] Just tried to put a game on for my son and the monitor was flickering really badly. RMA sent....

 

[LoadsaMoney]

after seeing this i've just checked mine , and zero black light bleed or any signs of the blue line across the bottom ,,,,,,,,do we know whats causing this ? is it something that developed overtime ? .

Mine didn't develop over time, always had it.

 

[SkankwOn]

Yup I had exactly the same issue ....
Fingers crossed it goes as well for you.

I've had a response from BenQ asking to provide a video of the text and flickering issues. Did they ask you to do this nails666?
I just hope the video shows the text problem sufficiently, I'll go and sort that now ...

 

[Falkentyne]

Thanks for the reply. Much as I was hoping this wouldn't require another RMA, I was also hoping they'd just send a new one out if I did, after reading your post I'm optimistic. I'll get on it now.

[Edit] Just tried to put a game on for my son and the monitor was flickering really badly. RMA sent....

This was a similar problem that happened to people with ROG Swifts.
Suddenly part of the screen or all of it got blurry and strange in this exact manner.

The Rog and the Benq are not identical AU Optronics panels but are very similar (both 8 bit TN) but slightly different models. I can only guess that the failures are similar, but that's just a guess. Some people thought it may be the gsync scaler failing in the ROG Swifts, but the XL2730Z has a realtek hardware scaler, not a Gsync scaler, so who knows

But yes, if a problem like this happens, there is no fix. Just RMA.

 

[@md_guy]

Mine didn't develop over time, always had it.

same, display is less than 2 weeks new..came this way.. prob going back this way too..shame..

 

[Dicehunter]

I've had this monitor for 10 days now and I have to say It's freakin awesome.

I also did have the ROG Swift and this seems to have a slightly better picture quality and a butt ton more features.

As far as Freesync vs G-Sync when I had an Nvidia card, I honestly cannot tell the difference.

 

[SkankwOn]

Okay, getting just a bit annoyed now.

As per previous post, my monitor was sent back to BenQ via Repartech as I've had issues with blurred text and flickering. I supplied videos and images to BenQ (proof was requested) and they exchanged my screen for a "refurbished" one yesterday.

Plugged in the replacement, and it has the exact same issues as the monitor I sent back! Monitor was flickering out of the box, the higher the resolution the worse the flickering. I seem to be able to stop it flickering by using the Blur Reduction mode, which is pointless if I want to use Freesync, which I do. Also the text is still blurred on the left hand three quarters of the screen.

After the firmware update RMA and now this, I'm getting really frustrated with these issues. It's a great monitor, when it works. Now I have to go and retest everything and confirm to BenQ it's the monitor and get back in touch with them. I will demand a new screen this time, not some refurb which has some customers previous RMA number on the box!

nails666 please can you tell me if your replacement was new or refurb?

 

[TonyTurbo78]

thats such a shame, terrible to hear Skank. Seems most of us that got the monitor early and had to do the RMA for the firmware upgrade got the best service. Lets hope it's just a one off huh. It is an incredibly good monitor though, stick with it and be possitive, it'll all be worth it I promise you.

 

[Flanos]

I had the flickering (black/picture/black/picture) and I got it resolved by installing the AMD driver (new one at the time) .. ??? and I re-call windows saying it was finding default monitor etc install at the same time, so it was one or the other that fixed it for me!!! hate to hear about the issues your having SkankwOn

 

[SkankwOn]

thats such a shame, terrible to hear Skank. Seems most of us that got the monitor early and had to do the RMA for the firmware upgrade got the best service. Lets hope it's just a one off huh. It is an incredibly good monitor though, stick with it and be possitive, it'll all be worth it I promise you.

I did get the monitor early mate, had already done RMA for firmware, it was fine until this last week. That's what makes this more frustrating, I know how good it is!

Strangely, I've just turned it on this morning and the text isn't blurred anymore! Although I can detect a little flickering at 144hz, seems better now at 120hz. I've gone through so many troubleshooting steps I'm not even sure what I did last or if it is really fixed. I'm concerned now that somehow this is my end and it's not the screen at fault and BenQ will invoice me. I e-mailed them yesterday asking various questions, awaiting reply.


[edit] Scratch that, didn't even get to end of this posting and the monitor started flickering badly and the text is going blurry again ...

 

[Energy88]

I have just bought one of these monitors and spotted this forum and in particular this thread, if I may be so bold as to ask a question or 2.

I have found out my monitor has the V001 not V002 firmware, I have an NVidia card so am I to presume this new firmware would make no difference to me, if the firmware has other improvements other than the freesync issue I would probably send it to be done but if not there would be no point.

The seller has basically said the upgrade has nothing to do with him so it would cost me to send it in.

Secondly I am lost with all the different settings, has anyone got some good settings for gaming, not really bothered about other things as long as the gaming side looks as good as it can be, I cant seem to get the settings right at the moment.

Would really appreciate any help.

 

[nails666]

I did get the monitor early mate, had already done RMA for firmware, it was fine until this last week. That's what makes this more frustrating, I know how good it is!

Strangely, I've just turned it on this morning and the text isn't blurred anymore! Although I can detect a little flickering at 144hz, seems better now at 120hz. I've gone through so many troubleshooting steps I'm not even sure what I did last or if it is really fixed. I'm concerned now that somehow this is my end and it's not the screen at fault and BenQ will invoice me. I e-mailed them yesterday asking various questions, awaiting reply.


[edit] Scratch that, didn't even get to end of this posting and the monitor started flickering badly and the text is going blurry again ...

Damn, sorry to hear that. I found when mine had that problem that sometimes when I switched it on it would be ok for a few minutes and then get worse and worse. I tested mine on 2 different pc's with different gpus (both AMD) and different drivers but the blurring and flickering was there on all of them so I was pretty confident it was the screen.

When I got my replacement I think it was a refurb as it looked like the box had been opened before but the screen still had the clear plastic protective strips on it and everything was set to factory defaults and it had no marks or anything on it.

Oddly BenQ never asked me any questions about the fault at all. I attached 1 photo to my original RMA request and the only correspondence I got from them was the details of the courier pickup and the RMA number.

 

[SkankwOn]

Hi nails666, thanks for responding. May I ask did the problem happen after any specific crash or issue with PC, or did it just happen randomly after a while?

I received a reply from Sebastian at BenQ stating - It's very unlikely two monitors have the same fault, could I please test it on another computer?

So, I uninstalled the AMD GFX drivers and enabled the integrated GPU via BIOS. Connected via HDMI on the iGPU and the blurred text was still there, flickering was barely visible but present. I've also just taken the monitor to my friends house who has my old PC. It has an NVIDIA card and I can only connect via DVI on the graphics card. The same blurred text was evident and I have plenty of images to support. The blurred text problem is also evident in the OSD menus of the monitor, further proof that it's the screen at fault.

I'm presuming your screen is from Overclockers nails666? My original wasn't. The refurbed screen I just received has a previous RMA number on it and Overclockers tape. I know there's a slim chance it's your old monitor, but could you retrieve your RMA number and let me know it please?


@Energy88 - If you ever get an AMD card you'll regret not getting that firmware updated, as for the settings, I know it's a long thread but some other owners have posted some nice profiles of their settings. I'd tell you mine but I'm having some issues, but let me just say: despite my problems I do know what this monitor is capable of (including Freesync) and it is fantastic!