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Serious Problem with BenQ FP241W

T

TheKing

n00b
Joined
Jun 26, 2007
Messages
16
I've purchased a Benq FP241W montior and it's giving me a lot of problems. Can any FP241W owner confirm if their monitors also have these issues? TIA!

1) The monitor has DVI & HDMI ports, but these 2 ports seem to be physically connected internally which means you can only connect 1 device at a time. Example, when you connect a PC to DVI port and switch the input source to HDMI (HDMI port doesn't connect to anything), the monitor will still show the PC screen and indicating it's current input is HDMI which is not connected. The major problem is if you connect both DVI to a PC, and HDMI to PS3 with 1080P, you won't be able to view the PS3 screen until you physically remove the DVI connection. This makes having the 2 DVI & HDMI ports useless.

2) This monitor is incompatible with all ATI cards under Windows Vista. If you turn off the monitor and turn it back on, you won't get back your PC screen. The monitor just say "No Signal Detected". You can only get back your PC screen via reboot.
 
Have you called BenQ support?

1. No experience. I use my my Monitor as a Monitor and it is and has only ever been plugged into my 8800 DVI.

But not totally shocking. HDMI uses the same signalling as DVI, so intenerally sharing is no surprise in order to reduce unnecessary cost.

Though, I seem to recall when I first got it, hitting input select, if I turned to HDMI mode, the screen would blank out, and NOT display the DVI port video... Will have to test at home for you, or maybe someone else will chime in.

2. That would be shocking, and hard to beleieve. The display should not act in that manor. It doesn't on my 8800...shouldn't be that much different in the way the videocards work from an electrical perspective. ATI and nVidia either meet DVI spec, or they don't...

I'd call BenQ support on item 2 and consider RMA.
 
Menelmarar, thanks a lot for the reply. I've already contacted BenQ and they told me they will contact me again in 2 to 3 days. I will really appreciate if you can help to test item 1 when you're back home just to check if you still see the DVI input even if you switch the input to HDMI.

As for the incompatibility, I've search this forum and found posts about incompatibility between Benq Monitor & ATI cards and that have been resolved in latest ATI Catalyst driver for XP only. However, Vista still doesn't work and I don't know who to blame.
 
Not the case for me. I can use both at the same time and toggle between them.

Using Vista + ATI and PS3 just like you.
 
branana said:
Not the case for me. I can use both at the same time and toggle between them.

Using Vista + ATI and PS3 just like you.
Click to expand...

Do you have the incompatibility issue with BenQ & ATI under Vista (issue 2)? Thanks!
 
branana said:
No. Works fine. X1950 Pro
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info.

BTW, I've fixed issue #1. The problem only occur when the Monitor is connected to my Asus 3650 DVI Port #2 (this card has 2 DVI ports). When I connect it to Port #1, the problem doesn't occur. However, I still don't see how a graphics card DVI Port can affect the HDMI port on the Benq. :confused:
 
Yes it can and it does,

Somehow I stumbled on this month old thread because I'm having a similar issue.

I have a BenQ FP241VW December 2007 built monitor that, when connected to ANY ATI 3XXX series card is displaying similar behavior. I have tried a 3870x2, 3870, and 3850 512MB with the exact same results. Both the 3870 and 3850 are on the newest available BIOS revisions.

My issues:

1) Same as TheKing where the HDMI (with nothing connected) shows me a slightly corrupted DVI screen with little green dots littering the display.
2) If I connect my PS3 at 1080p and have the DVI connected to the ATI card, I will get the PS3 display flash one or two times, and either the screen turns blue, and I have to switch inputs, or the monitor locks and must be re-started. As soon as I disconnect the ATI card through DVI, all works fine. In a few cases I just saw a little bit of white snow when it actually worked (rare)
3) PS3 at 720p/1080i over HDMI will work with ATI card connected (concurrently) to DVI

All these symptoms go away if I disconnect the ATI card or the computer goes into display power saving mode. I don't get the problem in Vista where rebooting the monitor causes sync loss, though.

This problem has occurred on both ATI ports connected to the BenQ. I had it working for a day when I went into CCC and turned off the "Alternate DVI operational mode" but then using a 3D game like Gears of War and trying the switch to HDMI caused the issues to resurface again.

These cards also have an issue on port 2 connected to my Westinghouse L2410NM through an HDMI switch. Port 1 does not show this issue on the L2410NM through the switch, and neither port shows this issue when connected directly without the switch.

This problem does not occur if I use an nVidia 8800GTS 512MB to display over DVI to the BenQ. 1080i/p/720p, etc... all work 100%. With ATI my issue occurred whether I was using Vista or XP

I have contacted ATI support to see if there is anything they can do over e-mail. I also may call them and see what they can provide as advice. Maybe there is some registry hack that can fix the issue.

But it does seem you are correct: The BenQ does use one input path for both connectors, and switches them internally, but the ATI card does not seem to allow it properly.

If I receive any advice from ATI I will let you know what they say. I will also try BenQ but last time I called them on this issue they couldn't even get the facts of my issue correct, and I became frustrated and said "bye"


Regards,

10e
 
Hi 10e, thanks for confirming the ATI & Benq issues. At least I know I'm not alone. I'm currently using ATI CCC 8.3 which fixed "No Signal" problem (issue #2 in my original post). The Benq support sucks, the tech support guy that I talked to was clueless. He didn't even know what ATI is. BTW, if you hear anything from ATI or Benq, pls let us know.
 
Yes please keep us up to date.. I've been reading most of these fp241vw threads and their issues.. I haven't received my (longer) cables yet to plug in both HDMI and DVI at the same time (which is really why i bought this monitor..). I have used DVI alone with my x1950 pro and everything works fine..I'll probably try both dvi and hdmi this week-end when i have the time.. hopefully i dont have the issue like you guys also.. I will be getting a 4x2 HDMI switch for my 2 HD screens..

I've tried plugging in my toshiba hd-a30 (hd-dvd player) with HDMI to the monitor and am getting a green line on the bottom of the 16:9 image (between the image and black bar). Image still shows up but its pretty annoying. I then tried my Xbox 360 through component and got a similar green line but not as bad as the hd player through hdmi..

Anyway i've seen a post from 10e (i think from ncix.. which is where i bought mine) mentioning this but haven't found a solution. Sent a message to ncix (the day after i received it) support mentioning this (and my stuck and dead pixels) but the guy said was that i have to go through Benq for the deal pixels. He was telling me that the green line is a compression/codec issue.. and that I should be using a real HD output from a bluray or HD-DVD. Replied to his message saying that compression or codecs are obviously not the problem as it is already coming out of a hd-dvd player through HDMI and its not some downloaded avi or divx movie...

I have not received any answer since.
 
You should be fine with your X1950 Pro.

It's specifically a HD 2x00 and HD 38x0 issue as far as I can tell.

I have also e-mailed ATI and they have asked me to use a Dual-link cable, and some other things, but so far, the solution I posted in the FP241VW thread and here is the only thing that worked.

Like I said, though, it will not affect you until you install an ATI HD 38x0 card.

HDMI is limited to 1920x1080. You will likely not be able to use any video card to do 1920x1200 on this screen over HDMI. I think BenQ implemented this as a video port for video devices, not a graphics port.

The green line is only an FP241W/VW issue highdef movies. Even the PS3 with BluRay shows this green line on the FP241 series, while other monitors have not shown it.

I am going to try BenQ support tonight and see if there is anyone working that has knowledge specifically for this monitor. I also have utilities to look through the firmware of this monitor and potentially update it, but they are dangerous, so I will be very careful. If there is anything I can do to fix some of these issues, I will try.

I don't care that much if I brick it. I'll just warranty return it, and I have another 24" that I can use with similar capabilities.



Regards,

10e

BerinG said:
Yes please keep us up to date.. I've been reading most of these fp241vw threads and their issues.. I haven't received my (longer) cables yet to plug in both HDMI and DVI at the same time (which is really why i bought this monitor..). I have used DVI alone with my x1950 pro and everything works fine..I'll probably try both dvi and hdmi this week-end when i have the time.. hopefully i dont have the issue like you guys also.. I will be getting a 4x2 HDMI switch for my 2 HD screens..

I've tried plugging in my toshiba hd-a30 (hd-dvd player) with HDMI to the monitor and am getting a green line on the bottom of the 16:9 image (between the image and black bar). Image still shows up but its pretty annoying. I then tried my Xbox 360 through component and got a similar green line but not as bad as the hd player through hdmi..

Anyway i've seen a post from 10e (i think from ncix.. which is where i bought mine) mentioning this but haven't found a solution. Sent a message to ncix (the day after i received it) support mentioning this (and my stuck and dead pixels) but the guy said was that i have to go through Benq for the deal pixels. He was telling me that the green line is a compression/codec issue.. and that I should be using a real HD output from a bluray or HD-DVD. Replied to his message saying that compression or codecs are obviously not the problem as it is already coming out of a hd-dvd player through HDMI and its not some downloaded avi or divx movie...

I have not received any answer since.
Click to expand...
 
The green line on the HDMI input has been a known issue for this monitor. I don't think there is a fix. However, you can turn on the overscan mode in the montor menu and this should remove the green line. Unfortunately, you will lose some of your picture due to overscan. Also, this will no longer be 1:1 pixel mapping.

10e, I was able to get 1920x1200 over HDMI by using custom timing with Powerstrip. The way I did was to copy the timing figures from DVI 1920x1200 mode and add it to HDMI display settings.
 
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