ZR30W blinks!

[Nill_Toulme]

My nice new ZR30W blinks.  Worse yet, it's the third unit I've received, and they've all blinked, to a greater or lesser degree.  The first one was bad.  The second was utterly unusable.  The present one is the best of the bunch, but a $1200 monitor that sporadically blinks off and on is more than a little irritating.

I'm not the only user experiencing this problem.  Here is a thread on the topic on this forum:

http://hpeb.lithium.com/t5/Monitors-Experts-Online-Now/ZR30w-blinks-off-overheating/td-p/1160715/hig...

Here's one on another forum:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1036616283

I tend to believe it's a hardware problem because of the fact that my three units have exhibited it to varying degrees, and they tend to get worse as they warm up.  Also because I've tried it on multiple machines, operating systems and resolutions.

Please help!

Thanks & happy new year,

Nill Toulme

Atlanta

[Nill_Toulme]

Experts not interested in this one?

Nill

[brandonc4x4]

I don't have a solution yet, but I'd like to share my experience.  I bought the ZR30W about 3 weeks ago and on the second day I was using it I noticed it blink off a couple of times within a period of about 20 minutes.  Then I quickly discovered in this forum all of the other people having this problem.  What is most striking to me is the fact that I have not found one instance of someone getting a replacement monitor from HP that solves the problem.  The obvious answer when something like that happens is that the problem is not the monitor but something in the user's hardware.  So far, I have approached it from the point of view that something is wrong with my other hardware.

So I tried swapping DVI ports on my video card--which seemed to help at first but then I got another blink a few days later.   Then I ordered a really heavy gauge DVI-D cable from monoprice, on the assumption that the included cable was a cheap POS.  This new cable really seemed to work and I didn't see a blink for about a week and a half.  Then yesterday I saw another blink, just like all the other ones.  I'm contemplating getting a video card with a Displayport, but I'm hesitant to just throw money at this problem.  

So maybe it really is the monitor?  There are people like yourself who have tried the monitor on different hardware and had the same issues.  Also, none of the other 30 inch monitors on the market seem to have reports of problems like this.  

My video card is a nVidia GTX 260.  I'm running WIndows 7 64-bit, latest video drivers, latest monitor drivers.

So, how is your monitor doing now?  Have you found any solutions that work, even partially?

[old_geekster]

Nill and Brandon, welcome to the forum.

Brandon I am with you.  Anytime there is a problem, you should always look for the common denominator.  Though neither of you mentioned the computer that the monitor is connected to, it would be doubtful they are the same.  In this case, it appears to be the monitor.  I suggest beginning with updating the video and monitor driver.  This is always the first thing that I do when I receive a new piece of hardware.  Regardless of how new the computer/hardware is, it can have outdated drivers.

Once you have updated the drivers, let us know if there is any change or not.

[brandonc4x4]

I tried updating both the video and monitor drivers first thing.  When I tried updating the monitor driver, Windows told me the latest driver was already installed (not that surprising, I don't think the driver for the ZR30w on the HP website was that recent anyway).  

Next I downloaded the latest nVidia drivers (version 266.something I think).  I uninstalled the old drivers and did a clean install of the new ones.  Unfortunately the monitor still blinked occasionally afterwards.  As I mentioned previously, the best "fix" I've found so far is the higher quality DVI-D cable.  But as I said, even that failed after a week.

Even though I haven't found a fix yet, I'm still hesitant to jump into the cycle of returning the monitor only to find that the replacement does the same thing.  My gut feeling on this is that the ZR30w is extremely sensitive to signal quality.   At least, more so than other monitors.  Combine that with the fact that 2560x1600 resolution uses twice the bandwidth of a typical 1080P display, and thus requires higher quality components to operate, and we end up with a scenario where the monitor occasionally drops the signal.  Perhaps the reason some people have more trouble than other is that there is also variance in the quality of graphics cards:  some producing a slightly "better" signal than others.  Normally this variance might go unnoticed, but paired with a monitor that is highly sensitive (at least, that's my hypothesis) the result is that some people experience problems.  I don't have the hard evidence to prove this, but it does explain why A) many people on here have repeat problems with replacement monitors (the video card stays the same)  B) obviously not everyone has this problem (some video cards are better than others) and C) why a better DVI-D cable *might* have at least decreased the frequency of blinks (improved signal strength).

I would like comment on what people think of this idea.  If true, the only solution is to get a new video card or switch to a different brand and/or model of monitor.  If I had my druthers, I would like HP to just take my monitor back and refund my money--spending this much time thinking about a monitor is a serious waste of time.  These days, I expect a monitor to just work (as most do).

[stippi]

sorry, this one was posted after a CR (press ENTER)

[stippi]

Hi everybody, at our company there are 26 Lenovo ThinkStation S20 with Nvidia Quadro FX 4800 graphics adaptors, connected to ZR30w via DisplayPort cable on the one hand as well as DVI cable included on the other hand. I updated the latest drivers from Nvidia as well as installed the monitors driver on some of the Windows 7 Professional 64bit-systems here. As far as I can see some of the computers have the 'blinking'-problem, others not. By changing the displayport cable against the DVI cable in some cases the problem occurs less often. BTW: the driver from hp-website is the same version as delivered with the monitor and didn't fix the problem. Information on the hp-website is below any acceptable level. Calling the hotline leaded me to the itrc.hp.com-website which isn't really helpful in this case. This forum is the first place I could see, that the issue does not happens only here. It seems to me, that HP neglect this issue. The mentioned devices are being used as CAD-workstations. Designing under these circumstances is probably hard for one or another user.

P.S.: using the displayport cable slows down the system startup dramatically. All 26 computers have the same features (same CPU, same memory-type and amount, same harddisk-type and same graphics adaptor.

[blargg]

My gut feeling on this is that the ZR30w is extremely sensitive to signal quality. At least, more so than other monitors. Combine that with the fact that 2560x1600 resolution uses twice the bandwidth of a typical 1080P display, and thus requires higher quality components to operate, and we end up with a scenario where the monitor occasionally drops the signal.

Put this hypothesis to the test: try running said monitors at a much lower resolution, and see whether that stops the problem.

[brandonc4x4]

---

@stippi wrote:

Hi everybody, at our company there are 26 Lenovo ThinkStation S20 with Nvidia Quadro FX 4800 graphics adaptors, connected to ZR30w via DisplayPort cable on the one hand as well as DVI cable included on the other hand. I updated the latest drivers from Nvidia as well as installed the monitors driver on some of the Windows 7 Professional 64bit-systems here. As far as I can see some of the computers have the 'blinking'-problem, others not. By changing the displayport cable against the DVI cable in some cases the problem occurs less often. BTW: the driver from hp-website is the same version as delivered with the monitor and didn't fix the problem. Information on the hp-website is below any acceptable level. Calling the hotline leaded me to the itrc.hp.com-website which isn't really helpful in this case. This forum is the first place I could see, that the issue does not happens only here. It seems to me, that HP neglect this issue. The mentioned devices are being used as CAD-workstations. Designing under these circumstances is probably hard for one or another user.

P.S.: using the displayport cable slows down the system startup dramatically. All 26 computers have the same features (same CPU, same memory-type and amount, same harddisk-type and same graphics adaptor.

---

This appears to be the strongest evidence yet that there is a defect in the monitor design.  I'm going to contact HP and present them with what I've learned here on this forum and see what they have to say.

[brandonc4x4]

Well, I returned mine to HP and got a replacement.  Surprise, surprise, on the first day with the new monitor it has already blinked off 3 or 4 times in just the last hour.  That's a little worse than my last one.  

There are really only two possibilities:  the monitor design is flawed or there is something wrong with my video card.  I really don't think anything is wrong with my video card, because I have dual monitors set up (the other is a 20inch samsung) and when the ZR30w blinks off, nothing weird happens on the Samsung.  

I'm disgusted.