Monitor flickering and USB ports randomly mess up

[phillpower2]

We are going all around the houses here

Is the clone of the Windows OS and system drivers installation for the new MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk or the previous MSI B450 Tomahawk MB.

[Zephyrtale]

Yeah pretty much haha, I’ve tried quite a few things in the past but its very weird.

Its for the new MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk, I clean installed onto my old HDD when I upgraded and soon after I got the Crucial P3 Plus 1TB and cloned it from the HDD to it.

[phillpower2]

As long as Windows and the system drivers for the new MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk MB were cloned you should be ok, this for two reasons, a clone from the previous MB would not only have the wrong drivers but also a replication of anything bad from the previous set up.

Suggest that you do the two tests below, first with just the one screen hooked up and then again with two.

Stress test your GPU with Furmark

Check your FPS etc with SUPERPOSITION

Something interesting I did find though is that if both are using Display ports the flickering happens much faster, I dunno if that coincides with anything or not.

Display ports are the fastest type of video port and slow RAM would have an affect on their performance.

[Zephyrtale]

Okay so these are the results of the two tests, the first two sent are with one monitor and the second two are with both.

Display ports are the fastest type of video port and slow RAM would have an affect on their performance.

Okay so I’ll try and get new RAM sticks and see, should I still get 32GB all together or is 16GB good enough?

[phillpower2]

Both sets of results are good and confirm that there is zero wrong with your GPU.

Did you see any flickering at all.

If your budget will allow it go for two 16GB sticks of DDR4 3200MHz RAM, no worries if not doable at the moment because two 8GB sticks of 3200MHz will do for gaming until they start releasing more demanding stuff in the future.

[Zephyrtale]

Did you see any flickering at all.

Yeah it was still flickering, even with the one monitor though it was connected with a display port cable.

But alright I’ll see what I can find and update in a few days whenever I get the chance, thank you again very much!

[Zephyrtale]

Okay, so I got the new RAM, the same kinda and brand just 3200 instead of 2400 and the issue still persists. I even went into the bios and made sure the speed was set to 3200 cause I checked and saw it was running at 2100 beforehand, but still nothing. I’m at a loss.

[phillpower2]

Pain in the proverbial but at least you will have a better performing rig once we get this sorted.

Suggestion, this on the screen that is flickering, try increasing the refresh rate just on that screen, do it in increments rather than one big increase.

Have the other problems cleared up since you got an appropriate PSU.

[Zephyrtale]

This is true, I’m just still confused monitor wise since even the new one my friend let me borrow still had the flickering issue too. Unless this is just an issue with BenQ monitors? But I used them for a year or two without issues beforehand. I’m not noticing issues with any of my other electronics but do you think it could maybe be an outlet issue?

Suggestion, this on the screen that is flickering, try increasing the refresh rate just on that screen, do it in increments rather than one big increase.

I’ve tried all of the different refresh rates and I haven’t noticed much of a difference between any of them but the issue is still there.

Have the other problems cleared up since you got an appropriate PSU.

I believe the other issues have cleared up, I haven’t noticed any of my other peripherals bugging out but I will keep an eye on it for sure.

[phillpower2]

Bugging is not the appropriate terminology as it would suggest a software issue while your issue/s were due to a sub standard PSU.

Have you tried the refresh rate suggestion since you got the appropriate PSU.

[Zephyrtale]

Okay, so I don’t believe its the monitors. I was able to trade monitors with someone since yesterday, they experienced no flickering from the monitors. For me using different monitors, the entirety of yesterday they were fine, but today I experienced a flicker from both screens randomly at different times. It hasn’t been consistent but I feel with enough time it’ll progressively get worse like the others did. So if its not the monitors and its not my PC, do you think it could be an issue with the outlets?

Bugging is not the appropriate terminology as it would suggest a software issue while your issue/s were due to a sub standard PSU.

Ahh, my bad there.

Have you tried the refresh rate suggestion since you got the appropriate PSU.

Yes I have, I’ve tried each different refresh rates and each time the issue comes back.

[phillpower2]

Are you using a good quality power strip, known brand names are only any good if they have surge protection.

The last test that you can do is try your PC elsewhere.

[Zephyrtale]

In all honesty, that is one thing I have overlooked for a long time as my current one is well over 10 years old. I’ll be getting a new one tomorrow to see if that helps, but nothing else on the power strip is having any issues. Unless the monitors and PC are taking up much more so they are showing more issues?

The last test that you can do is try your PC elsewhere.

That might be a bit more difficult but, if the power strip doesn’t do the trick I’ll see if I can.

[phillpower2]

How are things going with this.

[Zephyrtale]

I got the new power strip and the issue still occurred, but I got rid of a few other plugs on it and so far it seems to be going okay? But I’m still gonna keep an eye on it, but I’m definitely leaning more towards a power issue.

If not though do you think the case could be the issue perhaps, since that has been used since the same build as well.