AW2723DF, random black screen, flickering on 240Hz, Solution

Question

Got myself the monitor Alienware 27 Gaming Monitor AW2723DF and had a problem that after the PC starts up and if my refresh rate is set to 240Hz, the screen is flickering / randomly shutting down and turning on again.

Found out that after the PC loads up if you change the refresh rate of your monitor (in my case in Windows 11 either by right clicking on you desktop -> Display Settings -> Advanced Display -> Choose a refresh rate or by going to Nvidia Control Panel -> Change Resolution and selecting the refresh rate) to a random value 144Hz, 120Hz or 60Hz and back to 240Hz, the flickering and random black screens stop.

Another way how you could stop it was by just unplugging and plugging the display port cable and the problem would stop.

This means that every time you turn on the computer or restart the PC, you would need to repeat the process which is time consuming.

BUT I found the cause of the flickering. The flickering and random black screens happened because in the monitor settings (the ones you need to go by navigating with the monitor's joystick) Smart HDR was turned on to Desktop setting.

Solution

To stop the flickering I had to turn off Smart HDR in monitor settings. The steps to turn off the Smart HDR:

On the monitors joystick press up and up again to go to the Alienware 27 Monitor settings screen;
Navigate to Display;
There you can see Smart HDR which by default was set to Desktop;
Navigate to the Smart HDR option and turn that off

Hope this will help other people that have the same problem.

raph_gauth · Answer

The same thing was happening to me when at 240 hz except for the black screens. My screen was very briefly flashing white. It would happen once every minute or two while playing Hogwarts Legacy and around once an hour when not playing games.

Disabling HDR on Windows 11 and on the monitor reduced the frequency of the flashes/brightness bugs. Reducing the monitor frequency to 144 hz eliminated the problem as far as I know.

sourvis · Answer

the same problem but with HDR OFF no FIX

sourvis · Answer

i have the problem only on 240hz 144 hz no prob 250hz no prob

Bellaredz · Answer

I want to thank you so much, i struggled with this problem for weeks, and the only thing that dell support can say to me was 'change the cable'. THANK YOU!

sourvis · Answer

I had the same problem with AW2723df, i replaced it with a new one and the problem continues to exist, has anyone found a solution for this? Thank you in advance

Empres · Answer

Turning off Smart HDR didn't fix the issue for me.

The Problem:

My screen is physically turning off and on (flashing black), you can't even open the hardware menu.

When it happens:

It only happens when I'm in-game (Apex Legends, haven't tested other games), usually when in the menu and often it'll happen randomly mid game. Last night it had a massive burst of flashing off and on rapidly for almost a whole minute in the menu.

Fix attempts:

I tried (to no avail):

Adjusting the refresh rate,
Changed the response time between fast and extreme
Switched between full screen and full screened windowed
Running my game with and without DX12
G-sync off and on

My Specs:

i7-6700k, EVGA 1080Ti, 16GB DDR4 - Is this GPU powerful enough to run this monitor? I'm also running x1 Acer Predator 1080p and x1 HP 1080p secondary monitors (I've lowered these to 60&85Hz) + a 1080p capture card. I'm not sure if this is all too much for my card to handle but in theory I think it shouldn't have an issue.

I'm not a software engineer, but could this be a driver issue? I noticed with this monitor when you plug it in it automatically downloads some Alienware Command Center service on your computer, not sure if this could also be a cause? I tried to delete it as I don't want additional unnecessary software running on my PC in the background but it keeps reinstalling itself.

Seattlebicycler · Answer

Hi, does turning off the Smart HDR do away with the screen going black randomly?  That is the issue I am having trouble with (no flickering issue here)? Thank you very much!

Seattlebicycler · Answer

Hi, I too have replaced my monitor twice and still have the issue of the monitor going black randomly.  If you had the same problem did you figure out a resolution to this issue?  Thank you very much!

Mastahh · Answer

Thanks, fixed.

After it was turning on and off monitor even when I open Lenovo Vantage.

Now all stable, it was yes HDR issue same way it works on my TV, also turning off and on TV to switch between HDR mode.

stigrobin · Answer

Go into settings on the alienware monitor, go to Display and turn off DSC. It's some lossless compression of some sort (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_Stream_Compression). The HDR wasn't the issue for me, but after turning off DSC it works fine.

I'd love it if Dell looked into this, maybe a firmware update could solve it? This started for me after I Installed windows 11.

Vanadiel · Answer

@stigrobin​ DSC has issues in Nvidia cards. If you are using an Nvidia card, you will have to wait for updated drivers to fix the DCS issue. Note: Not having DSC enabled will cause issues at higher refresh rates as DP 1.4 does not have enough bandwidth available. That is why they use DSC, to get around that issue.

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AW2723DF, random black screen, flickering on 240Hz, Solution

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