BenQ XL2730Z Freesync Owners Thread

TonyTurbo78 · 2 Dec 2015 at 00:29

Just a silly idea, but are you running high overclock? If so try lowering your clocks lower and see if it still does it. Displayport can be quite picky with frequencies, mine was doing it when I was pushing 1150mhz on my core, dropped it down to 1100mhz and lowered voltage and it went away. Try it.

Dave2150 · 2 Dec 2015 at 00:45

TonyTurbo78 said:
Just a silly idea, but are you running high overclock? If so try lowering your clocks lower and see if it still does it. Displayport can be quite picky with frequencies, mine was doing it when I was pushing 1150mhz on my core, dropped it down to 1100mhz and lowered voltage and it went away. Try it.

Running my MSI 390X at stock clockspeeds of 1080Mhz on the core.

I used the card for a few months via HDMI with my old monitor, and had no black screen issues.

It's just incredibly frustrating to fix, since this issue only happens every few hours or so. Yesterday it didn't happen at all.....

Someone mentioned to check the DP cable. I'm using the one bundled with my monitor, which is a Amphenol make. Is this regarded as a poor quality cable?

TonyTurbo78 · 2 Dec 2015 at 10:17

That was hdmi though mate, we are talking about DP here, dp can be sensitive to high frequencies. Just a test, lower your clock to a 1000mhz and game, see what happens

GoogalyMoogaly · 2 Dec 2015 at 21:10

SkankwOn said:
They asked me for photos and videos mate! So I took plenty as best as I could showing the fault. This one shows it in the OSD and the older AMD Catalyst CC. The text is blockier on the left getting gradually better until it's normal on the far right.

Sorry, I wouldn't normally post such a large image without resizing but it needs the detail for the benefit of GoogalyMoogaly.

Thanks, yeah, mine seems very similar to that. Did you find it actually didn't look as bad in the pictures?

This is mine:

"Black eQualizer" should be clearer than that right?

adamg64 · 3 Dec 2015 at 10:43

Really tempted to pick up one of these, I may have been drunk but I coulda swore these were £395 yesterday but now £455? was I looking at right thing?

Jayman · 3 Dec 2015 at 12:05

Same here, I thought it was £395 yesterday as well

adamg64 · 3 Dec 2015 at 12:28

Jayman said:
Same here, I thought it was £395 yesterday as well

Wasn't just me then saying goes snooze ya lose will monitor if they drop again then maybe buy

Jayman · 3 Dec 2015 at 13:00

Seems that way, I could probably push to £395 but not for the extra £60.

GoogalyMoogaly · 3 Dec 2015 at 14:11

GoogalyMoogaly said:
Thanks, yeah, mine seems very similar to that. Did you find it actually didn't look as bad in the pictures?

This is mine:

"Black eQualizer" should be clearer than that right?

They are now asking me if I've tried different cables (DVI, DVI-DL, etc.) and tried different refresh rates and resolutions.

I'm unsure how these would affect the issue that is evident (I believe) on the monitor's on-screen display.
Considering this isn't the first time this issue has been reported I'm really surprised and disappointed they're making such hard work of this.

SkankwOn · 3 Dec 2015 at 20:10

GoogalyMoogaly said:
They are now asking me if I've tried different cables (DVI, DVI-DL, etc.) and tried different refresh rates and resolutions.

I'm unsure how these would affect the issue that is evident (I believe) on the monitor's on-screen display.
Considering this isn't the first time this issue has been reported I'm really surprised and disappointed they're making such hard work of this.

I ended up lugging the screen to a friends house to plug into their PC to prove my point, so yes, I know what you mean. Just do all the testing you can to prove it's the panel. I even mentioned this thread (they must know about it) in my final e-mail before they accepted it was an RMA. Seems some don't get questioned quite as hard as you and I by BenQ, although bear in mind this happened to me with two screens.

I feel your pain!

SkankwOn · 3 Dec 2015 at 20:13

DM8104 said:
Has anyone had random flickering issues after installing the latest AMD Crimson drivers?

I've rolled back to 15.7.1 and the flickering is gone.

I have just bought the monitor but I'm a bit concerned if the monitor has a hardware fault or not.

Difficult to get a screenshot, but a inch thick of errored lines flicker on the screen from time to time.

Only during loading screens on some games, notably Frostbite 2 ones = SWBF and BF4

nails666 · 4 Dec 2015 at 13:46

SkankwOn said:
I ended up lugging the screen to a friends house to plug into their PC to prove my point, so yes, I know what you mean. Just do all the testing you can to prove it's the panel. I even mentioned this thread (they must know about it) in my final e-mail before they accepted it was an RMA. Seems some don't get questioned quite as hard as you and I by BenQ, although bear in mind this happened to me with two screens.

I feel your pain!

Yeah I think I must have got lucky when mine did that. I sent the RMA request in on thursday night, got it confirmed without any further questions on friday and on the following monday they picked up my monitor and gave me a replacement at the same time so I wasn't ever left without a screen.

In my case in the initial RMA request though I had already tried DVI, HDMI and 2 DP cables and connected it to 2 different PC's so there probably wasn't much else they could ask me to try.

GoogalyMoogaly · 4 Dec 2015 at 16:33

They have finally raised the RMA for the monitor to be replaced with a refurbished screen. Little disappointed that a 5 month old screen gets replaced with a refurbished model, but better than nothing I guess.
They did tell me I sent the wrong invoice as proof of purchase. I sent the same one again and told them to scroll to the bottom, they were happy then...

Can't see me buying or recommending BenQ for a while after this though.

Nexus18 · 4 Dec 2015 at 17:08

Refurbished replacement for 5 month old display.... ****ing joke imo. Don't know why asus and benq insist on this, for a display a few years old, yeah fine but not less than a year old.

DM8104 · 4 Dec 2015 at 21:21

SkankwOn said:
Only during loading screens on some games, notably Frostbite 2 ones = SWBF and BF4

Thanks. I'm now getting it very occasionally during normal desktop/browser use on pre Crimson drivers.

I guess it could be my 290x Msi gaming which I bought second hand but it ran perfectly on my Dell monitor.

I'm going to have a hard think over the weekend to decide if I'm going to return this monitor or not. Everything else is fine, no dead pixels or any other screen artefacts. Screen looks nice and the 144hz/Freesync combo works very well (as long as it stays above 40fps obviously).

maonayze · 4 Dec 2015 at 21:23

GoogalyMoogaly said:
They have finally raised the RMA for the monitor to be replaced with a refurbished screen. Little disappointed that a 5 month old screen gets replaced with a refurbished model, but better than nothing I guess.
They did tell me I sent the wrong invoice as proof of purchase. I sent the same one again and told them to scroll to the bottom, they were happy then...

Can't see me buying or recommending BenQ for a while after this though.

Ah, that's not too good. I would certainly tell them how you feel after being dragged through that lot to get evidence. At the end of the day we all want a good working monitor for our money and at £499 (What I paid a few months after release - really envious of you £395 owners :eek:

) the service is shocking and the quality control even more so.

If it's under a year old they should send you a brand new monitor NOT a refurb.

I hope you fair better with your replacement.

Dave2150 · 5 Dec 2015 at 19:37

TonyTurbo78 said:
That was hdmi though mate, we are talking about DP here, dp can be sensitive to high frequencies. Just a test, lower your clock to a 1000mhz and game, see what happens

Update - tested the monitor running the 390X down clocked to 1050 (the 390X default reference clock) and the problem remains.

I'm also getting the same problem (random black screens for 1-2 seconds) on the desktop, when no programs running, during that time core clock are set to 2D clocks of 300Mhz etc, so really don't think it's my 390X causing this.

I'm most probably going to have to return this monitor - as I'm not paying £400 for something that glitches every so often. It's a shame as I really love the monitor when it works.

I was a bit suspect when I received the box - it had clearly been opened before and retaped (Feb build date), I'm wondering if I received a refurbished monitor sold as new at ocuk? Or if BenQ still have loads of V1 firmware monitors unsold, so they opened them all up to update to v2 etc. Who knows.

I'm currently testing it using HDMI (limited to 1440P 60HZ), if the random black screen happens once, it's going back Monday.

If HDMI is ok, I'll either buy a new DP cable, or contact BenQ asking for another.

Dave2150 · 5 Dec 2015 at 20:02

I also wondered if any of you without any issues running DP @ 144Hz on this monitor are using the Amphenol DP E326508 2M cable that BenQ included in the box?

Here's the specifications for the cable: http://www.cablesondemand.com/category/DSPPT/product/AV-DPMDPM0002/URvars/Items/Library/InfoManage/.htm

The specs only mention 120Hz support "Supports extended color depth (36-bit) and 120Hz refresh rate".

I'm wondering why BenQ would only include a cable that supports 120Hz with their 144Hz monitor - could this be the cause of the issues others are getting too?

I'm wondering what cable to get, to see if this Amphenol cable is the issue.

Falkentyne · 5 Dec 2015 at 20:28

Dave2150 said:
I also wondered if any of you without any issues running DP @ 144Hz on this monitor are using the Amphenol DP E326508 2M cable that BenQ included in the box?

Here's the specifications for the cable: http://www.cablesondemand.com/category/DSPPT/product/AV-DPMDPM0002/URvars/Items/Library/InfoManage/.htm

The specs only mention 120Hz support "Supports extended color depth (36-bit) and 120Hz refresh rate".

I'm wondering why BenQ would only include a cable that supports 120Hz with their 144Hz monitor - could this be the cause of the issues others are getting too?

I'm wondering what cable to get, to see if this Amphenol cable is the issue.

Get the Accel UltraAV cable.
Accel is VESA certified.
VESA owns displayport; remember that.

http://www.amazon.com/Accell-UltraA...449347193&sr=8-3-fkmr0&keywords=Accel+UltraAV

There should be a place to get it from in UK, too.

Dave2150 · 5 Dec 2015 at 21:53

Falkentyne said:
Get the Accel UltraAV cable.
Accel is VESA certified.
VESA owns displayport; remember that.

There should be a place to get it from in UK, too.

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately the cable you linked is out of stock on the UK version of that website, and it seems to be the only place to buy that specific cable from the UK.

I'm quite keen to get a 1M cable, as I read that the longer the cable, the more likely it is to have issues supporting a 144hz refresh rate reliably.

Is it a known thing that the "Amphenol DP E326508 2M" included with the BenQ monitor is a 'bad' or poor quality cable?

Hopefully I can find somewhere stocking the 1M Accell Ultra AV cable soon, as if my problems continue with the new cable, I'd like to send this monitor back for a refund before my two week window is up.

EDIT - I found a 2 meter version of that cable that's in stock, "Accell B142C-007B". I'm just looking for confirmation that the 2M cable is just as good as the 1M cable for supporting 1440p 144hz? As I did read length can affect these cables etc.