Dell Alienware AW3423DW 34″ QD-OLED 175Hz (3440 x 1440)

I am a little annoyed with mine, I do have one stuck pixel, a dark red color, but knowing how long others have taken to get their replacements I am willing to wait a while to go for an RMA, I also get the occasional flash of a black screen, using both the provided DisplayPort cable and an Amazon Basics, no change. The Annoyance I have with it, I use it in the evening when I get home from work, I turn it on at say 7pm. use it till about 10pm, I turn it off and I see it goes in to refresh mode by slowly flashing green on the power button, the next evening I get home from work I turn it on and the on screen says it NEEDS to preform a refresh due to being past time to do so.... WTF was it doing the entire day it was turned off?

I believe it is using the M0B101 firmware everyone else has too, seems there are some bugs in this firmware that needed to be ironed out before release, BUT since Dell refuses to allow updates by the end user... all we can do is RMA it.


Not sure if this will work for oleds works for lcds pixel repair program there is a downloadable one as well.

https://www.jscreenfix.com/
 
New batches manufactured after April are M0B103 firmware. Wonder what they fixed or improved other than the pixel refresh prompt bug and HDR1000 UI bug.
 
New batches manufactured after April are M0B103 firmware. Wonder what they fixed or improved other than the pixel refresh prompt bug and HDR1000 UI bug.
Hoping it'll be about going back to sleep after a pixel refresh instead of turning off.
 
Confirmed on reddit that 103 does not fix this. I'm waiting to see if the MSI version does the same crap.
Too bad! Yup, time to wait and see what the competition has in store.

Do you have a link of the reddit post about it ? I saw people confirming that 102 didn't fix it, but nothing about 103.
 
Too bad! Yup, time to wait and see what the competition has in store.

Do you have a link of the reddit post about it ? I saw people confirming that 102 didn't fix it, but nothing about 103.
Looks like it was 102 and the guy mistakenly thought his was 103.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidem...ienware_aw3423dw_are_now_shipping_with_newer/

There is still hope 103 could fix the standby thing but at this point I'd rather just see how Samsungs own version as well as MSI's turn out.
 
Looks like it was 102 and the guy mistakenly thought his was 103.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidem...ienware_aw3423dw_are_now_shipping_with_newer/

There is still hope 103 could fix the standby thing but at this point I'd rather just see how Samsungs own version as well as MSI's turn out.
Yah, that's the same one I saw. It'll certainly be interesting to have a couple of comparison points and see how much this nonsense comes from QD-OLED itself or just a bad implementation of the tech.
 
I turn it off and I see it goes in to refresh mode by slowly flashing green on the power button, the next evening I get home from work I turn it on and the on screen says it NEEDS to preform a refresh due to being past time to do so.... WTF was it doing the entire day it was turned off?
Did you turn off Eco mode? If so, turn it back on, or better yet, do a factory reset. Best I can tell, the monitor counts standby hours as usage hours when Eco is off.
 
New batches manufactured after April are M0B103 firmware. Wonder what they fixed or improved other than the pixel refresh prompt bug and HDR1000 UI bug.
Interesting. I've got the warning that won't go away on M0B101 but it's not that big a deal. I'm going to wait a bit before requesting my warranty replacement. No sense in rushing, it's a 3 year warranty.
 
Interesting. I've got the warning that won't go away on M0B101 but it's not that big a deal. I'm going to wait a bit before requesting my warranty replacement. No sense in rushing, it's a 3 year warranty.
It depends, if you do a replacement or a complete return in the first month, then you'll get a brand new monitor out of the warranty. If you wait past the first month, you'll end up with a refurbished monitor.
 
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BTW, some peoples on reddit are starting to report that the newer firmware is returning to standby mode after a pixel refresh instead of shutting down the monitor. Hopefully that's true!
 
Hi all, been lurking on this thread for some time while awaiting my new AW. I've got the latest firmware. I keep turning the monitor off after use. I'll stop for the next week or so and see if when I return it has turned off. I posed these thoughts on Reddit but as some of you may not frequent that troll fest I thought i'd share them here too:

I thought I’d share my experiences here as I own:

· LG C7 55”

· Acer X35 (Same panel as Asus PG35VQ)

· AW3423DW

I could sell the AW tomorrow if I wanted for a profit or get a refund. I have no emotional connection to any of the technologies or companies. I want what is most pleasing to my eyes, this is not necessarily the most colour accurate or chasing nits.

I play in a small office with a window to my left, I can control the light in the room via a blind and an LED Luminoodle attached to the back of the monitor (Bias Lighting set to warm white). I tend to play at night when its dark.

I have decided to sell the Acer X35. It has been a truly fantastic monitor. I’ve loved it. HDR is eye searingly bright (in fact I usually tone it down), blooming isn’t really an issue in most content. I didn’t overly notice the poor pixel response times or input lag ether. It has a matt screen so reflections aren’t much of an issue. My friends have an in joke with my about “blacks not being black enough” and never being happy on movie/gaming nights. The local dimming was my first experience of PC gaming without IPS Glow and perfect black at night. The HDR on this monitor really is class leading.

I really enjoy OLED (I owned the Gen 1 1080p LG), for me contrast pop is more enjoyable than being dazzled. My C7 suffered burn in (oddly the TV ticker tape burn in was from a channel we haven’t watched in over a year). I believe its something to do with the smaller red OLED material on the earlier panels. It got replaced by a CX panel within the C7 housing. When we got it back it was noticeably brighter and seemed to have more pop. I’m very happy with the C7, its only used for movie and TV watching with the very odd Nvidia Shield 4K game stream. I have no inclination to purchase a new TV. HDMI 2.1 is of no interest to me as I don’t game on console.

When comparing the C2 to the X35 the X35 had the more impactful HDR but IMO did not have the better picture quality. Cyberpunk for instance was far more pleasing to my eye even in the day on the LG. I also preferred the inky finish of the OLED over the matt finish of the X35. The X35 almost looks grainy in comparison. I believe the 55” C7 should have a worse PPI than the X35 however the C7 looked much sharper, even from a very close beanbag in front of the TV position.

I have been excitedly awaiting the receipt of my AW since ordering at 6:45am on Launch Day in the UK. I had nearly cancelled a number of times due to Reddit chatter regarding sub pixel arrangement/fringing issue, anti reflective coat causing grey blacks in the day and strong ABL in HDR 1000 mode. I stuck with it and through I’d decide with my own eyes. It arrived last Wednesday.

It was a very sunny day in the UK and I could instantly see the grey blacks before powering it on. I lowered the blind by about 3” and the grey transformed to a very dark grey. This makes the coating a none issue to me. I configured the screen in creator mode, brightness 20%, Gamma 2.4 DCI-P3 (I prefer the wider colour gamut). I don’t use HDR in windows and prefer to use the short cut keys in windows 11 prior to booting a game.

The screen looked instantly better than the X35 on the desktop, fringing was a complete none issue and the inky OLED finish (hard to describe) akin to my C7 was present. I was very very happy. I recall one reviewer describing OLED as looking like it was a perceivably higher pixel density than standard RGB. I know there is no science to this, but I understand what he means. I’m reading some reports of people saying the 42” C2 is sharper than the AW I’ve not seen the two to compare. Its certainly as sharp if not sharper than my 55” C7.

I mentioned in the X35 section that the VA panels input lag and pixel response times didn’t bother me. Well they do now. Having used this despite being technically slower in hz it feels faster in every way. Its not just anecdotally ether. I’ve not played Halo Infinite multiplayer in some time. I booted it up last night (expecting to be rusty) and was getting consistently higher kills. Tracking people is much easier. All else being equal the pixel response and input lag improvement of the AW is enough for me to keep the monitor.

HDR – I spent some time testing out the different HDR modes last night. The X35 as with the C7 comparison 100% has the more ‘impactful’ HDR experience. However watching the new Matrix over the weekend was the most ‘impressive’ HDR viewing experience I have had to date. The colours pop, the small specular highlights are more impressive than the X35 in dark scenes due to per pixel dimming vs 512 zone dimming. I then tried Ori Will of the Whisps.. wow just wow if you want something to show this monitor off, this is the game.

HDR400 is brighter than HDR1000 in general use but it significantly blows out highlights. As I play in a darker light controlled room I prefer to use HDR1000 and enjoy the sparkling specular highlights. Perhaps if I was playing Forza Horizon 5 for a significant period of time I’d swap that out to 400 mode. I think it was nice they gave us the option. Why HDR 1000 mode can’t perform the same as 400 mode like for like is beyond me. My gut is it has something to do with the warranty. I see lots of people run the Desktop in HDR mode at 100% brightness for reasons unbeknown to me. I imagine static images like this would be opening up a great risk to burn in warranty claims. Perhaps the MSI will have better APL performance with a shorter warranty.. Who knows?

For my current games FFVii, RDR2, Guardians of the Galaxy, Doom Eternal, THPS1+2 and Halo Infinite HDR 1000 mode looks better and more natural to my eyes. I have not experienced any ABL, I can see the dimmer APL in HDR 1000 mode. I also feel the images look cleaner than its predecessor the X35. I used to use Nvidia DLDSR to clean up the image in Halo, now I play at native rez. I play at 172Hz 8bit and let Nvidia’s ample dithering do its job. I may try 10 bit mode on a film like the Martian tonight to establish if there any banding issues.

On the first night I did get aching eyes however I had not installed the bias lighting behind the monitor and was playing in the dark. The next night I installed the LED strip and set to warm light. Zero eye issues.

The fan (for me) is quiet on the SDR desktop and can kick in at an audible level during HDR. I use headphones when gaming so again a non-issue.

Its certainly not the perfect monitor and I can understand the criticisms that people levy against it (apart from the fringing, seriously it’s a none issue) but to my (very happy) eyes it’s the best we’ve got.

Using Lenovo Project Unity i've now got two OLED screen when WFH. True Black nirvana!
 

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Did you turn off Eco mode? If so, turn it back on, or better yet, do a factory reset. Best I can tell, the monitor counts standby hours as usage hours when Eco is off.
thats intresting, I shall have to try that out when I get home tonight.
 
thats intresting, I shall have to try that out when I get home tonight.
I have ECO mode on and monitor standby set to 10 minutes. When I walk away with less than 4 hours of usage the monitor stays ready in standby mode and doesn't turn off.
 
I have ECO mode on and monitor standby set to 10 minutes. When I walk away with less than 4 hours of usage the monitor stays ready in standby mode and doesn't turn off.
I don't use sleep for my monitors, I have had to many issues with a dog or something tapping the mouse and causing the monitor to wake, so I turn off the monitor, when I do it glows green for refresh, then turns off, and it complains the next night when I turn it on that it needs to refresh, that is what I hope to resolve.
 
Well I was on my PC all day yesterday (Defo more than 4 hours) let it go on standby. Came in this morning and its still on standby. In fact since getting it last Wednesday I had the initial message which I let it complete, i've only seen it one other time. So potentially the new firmware has fixed the issue. I'll report back if things change.
 
Sorry to say. Seems the bug is still there. After work I went to pick my daughter up and when I got back the screen was off.

Tbh, it's really no a big issue for me.
 
Cool. It may be that they changed the frequency of the refresh to something longer than 4 hours.
 
NVIDIA strikes again. Looks like the reason why the firmware cannot be updated is because the G-Sync module doesn't allow it. Dell Community manager had this to say about it:
"For this model, there is no ISP FW upgrade function (which means users cannot upgrade the FW by themselves).

Since the AW3423DW is using an Nvidia G-Sync module which has this limitation, we can only support the FW upgrade via a special tool/jig. So, currently all monitors with Nvidia G-Sync module built-in, FW upgrades can only be done by a dedicated service center.

Due to this limitation, there is no way the FW can be upgraded by customers for G-Sync models."
 
NVIDIA strikes again. Looks like the reason why the firmware cannot be updated is because the G-Sync module doesn't allow it. Dell Community manager had this to say about it:

Another win for TV's like the 42C2.
 
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Yeah I dunno about that. PG27UQ was firmware updatable.

There is probably some engineering time required to get the job done that Dell doesn't want to invest and would rather eat shipping costs for the few (in the grand scheme of things) monitors people have issues with due to firmware.
 
NVIDIA strikes again. Looks like the reason why the firmware cannot be updated is because the G-Sync module doesn't allow it. Dell Community manager had this to say about it:
Odd I updated the firmware on my X35 myself and that has a Gsync ultimate module.
 
Odd I updated the firmware on my X35 myself and that has a Gsync ultimate module.
From my limited understanding, there are multiple version of those modules. It may be that Dell choose a cheaper, feature limited, version.
 
Well enabling eco mode has not adjusted the timer for pixel refresh, it still wants to preform a refresh as soon as I turn on the monitor, regardless of the fact that it did it when I turned off the monitor 18 hours before, I think I will do an RMA one of these days soon.

issues I am having,
Black flashes randomly, changed DP cables around and still get it.
Stuck dark red pixel, even after full panel refresh, its still there.
And the pixel refresh window popping up regardless of actual run time, I have disabled the 4 hour one, so I think this is the 20 hour one.
 
NVIDIA strikes again. Looks like the reason why the firmware cannot be updated is because the G-Sync module doesn't allow it. Dell Community manager had this to say about it:
Good info to know, not ideal either for issues that should be resolved by FW updates. Can Nvidia issue FW updates for their module while working with HP?
 
Good info to know, not ideal either for issues that should be resolved by FW updates. Can Nvidia issue FW updates for their module while working with HP?
You mean while working with "Dell" ? I would think so, and it would be in their best interest to do so. Dell has to be willing to do something about it though.

Either way, Hayden120 on reddit got in touch with Tim at Hardware Unboxed and here's what Tim had to say:

Dell has confirmed to me the monitor does not support firmware updates. They didn't provide a technical explanation but said that they believed the monitor was shipped in a complete state and that user firmware updates are/were not required. This is standard for most of their monitors. (These are not direct quotes) Some of the functionality that's been changed in the revised firmware was originally intended to be that way but was updated for newer units based on feedback. Despite this Dell didn't feel that user updates would ever be necessary and so the monitor can't be updated. I was told that if a user finds an issue like those you listed, the solution is basically an RMA which would maybe see you get a new monitor with new firmware. To me this seems unnecessarily complex when they could have designed the monitor to support firmware updates, but here we are. Disappointing for an expensive monitor and I provided my feedback that it was dumb of them to design it this way.
 
Anybody find the monitor stand included is lopsided/crooked? It lags slightly to the left for me, and when I try to adjust it it doesn't stick. Anybody have a solution?
 
Anybody find the monitor stand included is lopsided/crooked? It lags slightly to the left for me, and when I try to adjust it it doesn't stick. Anybody have a solution?
First victim of the stand sitting in a hot shipping crate for months?

Warped plastic is pretty much unfixable.
 
My order should be shipping on July 15th. I am having 2nd thoughts, 80% of the time I use it for work and 20% of the time I play games and watch movies. I am wondering if I should call Dell to cancel the order and get the LG C2 42” instead. I have a big enough desk and I plan on getting a 4090 when it comes out.
 
My order should be shipping on July 15th. I am having 2nd thoughts, 80% of the time I use it for work and 20% of the time I play games and watch movies. I am wondering if I should call Dell to cancel the order and get the LG C2 42” instead. I have a big enough desk and I plan on getting a 4090 when it comes out.
If you can only have one then choose C2. AW34 is a fun complementary display but C2 is better.
 
Anybody find the monitor stand included is lopsided/crooked? It lags slightly to the left for me, and when I try to adjust it it doesn't stick. Anybody have a solution?
Same thing happened with my replacement unit. It was greatly tilted toward one side but I was able to adjust it. It took a little bit of force like it was stuck but eventually it loosened and I could tilt it back.
 
Same thing happened with my replacement unit. It was greatly tilted toward one side but I was able to adjust it. It took a little bit of force like it was stuck but eventually it loosened and I could tilt it back.
Thanks I'll give that a try. Essential just try to tilt it to the right with enough force that it becomes unstuck?
 
Was anyone able to cancel their preorder? Looks like I can't cancel it. It has been in this status since I first ordered it in May.
Once you submit your order, it immediately enters our order processing system so it is not possible to make any changes. Usually cancelling and re-ordering is the only alternative, however it appears that your order may have entered the production process and it can not be cancelled.
 
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