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Thread: possible Syncmaster 204B flicker solution

  1. #1
    woy...collokweee...weeble weeble blaaaat artoodeeto's Avatar
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    Default possible Syncmaster 204B flicker solution

    I've got 2 syncmaster 204B's, made in China (one in Jan. 2007 and the other June 2006), with the now-well-known flickering issue. A workaround that works *most* of the time is the program Powerstrip, which can change the refresh rate in very small increments. However, while it works nearly flawlessly most of the time, it doesn't always work while running a game @ 1600x1200. I just found this site that suggests it's probably bad capacitors causing the issue, and shows (sort of) how to replace them:

    http://pavel.kirkovsky.com/2009/03/s...r-204b-repair/

    Anyone want to take a look and give me a second opinion?

    Specifically, the flicker problem happens only at 1600x1200, and is often accompanied by white "snow" all over the picture. The picture will show for a few seconds, then disappear, then come back sometimes for a few seconds, and sometimes for a fraction of a second before disappearing again. It happens frequently enough that without powerstrip, the computer is unuseable. Oddly, under XP and Vista only the primary screen exhibited the flicker. If I changed the other screen to be primary, then *it* exhibited the flicker. Now under Win7, the secondary does it more often, but they both do it; the primary does it often while gaming. The easy fix is to run games at 1280x1024, but I'd much prefer to run them full res.

    I guess really what I'm after is, does that sound like it could be caused by faulty capacitors? As long as I can get the bad ones out of there, I have no issue putting in new ones...it'd be awesome if I could fix these screens for $10 or so. Especially considering I don't have $$ for new ones, and I love the picture quality on them. Thanks!
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  2. #2
    woy...collokweee...weeble weeble blaaaat artoodeeto's Avatar
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    Default Re: possible Syncmaster 204B flicker solution

    ok...after a lot more research, it seems these screens had 2 potential issues.

    Issue 1, the more common one, was the power inverter that ran the backlight. Samsung used cheap capacitors that would overload, and cause the backlight to blink on and off.

    Issue 2, which is what I'm experiencing, is similar in effect but a totally different cause. My screens blink on and off repeatedly as well, but are also accompanied by white pixel snow. there's no way a faulty backlight power supply is causing that; rather it's caused by the video board not being able to handle the frequency of data coming in through the DVI connection at 1600x1200. It *seems* for the moment that disabling powerstrip (which works except in some games) and creating a custom resolution in the Nvidia control panel, going to Timing and setting it to "CVT reduced blank" fixes it in-game, but while on the normal windows desktop it still might blink....if these screens weren't so pretty they SO wouldn't be worth all the trouble they cause. Heck, if I had $400 to spend on a couple new ones I probably would. Oh well.

    Of course, the other two solutions are reduce the resolution (bleah) or use a DVI to VGA cable. Not sure how much worse VGA would look, but I may try it...
    Quote Originally Posted by ElevateThis View Post
    I'd mod my dog if i could.
    Quote Originally Posted by AmEv View Post
    (Steam me.... that sounds bad >_<)

  3. #3
    woy...collokweee...weeble weeble blaaaat artoodeeto's Avatar
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    Default Re: possible Syncmaster 204B flicker solution

    Thought I'd finish off this post (even though no responses) so just in case there's some other poor soul out there running into the same issues I had with these screens, maybe they'll find this and be helped. I opened the Nvidia control panel, clicked Add Resolution, clicked Create Custom Resolution, clicked Custom Timing, and changed it from "automatic" to CVT Reduced Blank". Don't know what that means, but I did that for each screen and they haven't blinked since, even while gaming at 1600x1200 (powerstrip I think was overridden by games, so the screens still blinked during gaming). I have powerstrip disabled, and the screens appear to finally be operating normally. WOO HOO!!
    Quote Originally Posted by ElevateThis View Post
    I'd mod my dog if i could.
    Quote Originally Posted by AmEv View Post
    (Steam me.... that sounds bad >_<)

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