PC Graphics

[hadesflames]

I have a PowerColor Red Devil 5700XT paired to an MSI Optix MAG321CQR on an ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Formula (Ryzen 3900X)

My issue is a bit difficult to describe so I'll go with an image of what I see when I boot up Windows:

Here's what I know and what I've done so far:

The monitor itself is definitely fine. When I plug it into another PC using the same cable, it works perfectly fine. This is also happening whether I use DP or HDMI.

The GPU itself should be fine. This only happens after windows is booted up. Everything looks perfectly fine up to that point.

Before continuing with what I've done so far, a little context:
I left on holiday for about a week on the 17th of September. I just got back today. Before leaving, my PC was working perfectly fine and I'd never had this issue before. I shut down my PC and left. I got back just now and as soon as I booted up my PC, this happened.

So, I tried booting into the recovery environment and that worked just fine. Running troubleshooter accomplished nothing at all (as expected but worth a shot I suppose) so I did a system restore to October 8th. Well before I shutdown my PC to leave for my holiday. I booted back up and no dice.

I've gotten a bit of my display working but only at the top by turning it off and on again. It's like the rest of the display is just not refreshing. Here's another image:

Although it looks like it's working, nothing below the "about" and "store" links (top left of google page) is refreshing and it's very staticy. I can't see my mouse moving at all if I take it anywhere below that. But above it's working just fine.

I've also tried running DDU and reinstalling drivers.

[hadesflames]

I also tried plugging in another monitor and that works just fine. So my monitor works perfectly fine with another system. And my system works perfectly fine with another monitor.

I've also tried connecting via HDMI instead of Display Port. The same HDMI cable I used to connect to the other system where the monitor work. That also didn't work.

[hadesflames]

Actually this definitey appears to be some kind of driver issue. I was on 22.5.1 (WHQL) and although I said I did DDU to reinstall driver, that was using the other monitor.

So I downloaded 22.9.1 and just installed it normally but with the factory reset option ticked on. I also did this with my MSI monitor now having just about have of the screen usable. After the radeon software removed the driver the screen flickered as you would expect and things were smaller now that the drivers are not installed. Normal, although half the screen's display was still messed up. After the restart my screen was back to working as normal, the full display looked completely normal. (aside from everything being small due to lack of driers) The AMD driver installation continued, and the moment the screen flickered due to the drivers being installed, the issue returned with half the screen being messed up as shown above and the other half or so being relatively useable. This issue must be something wrong with drivers and my particular monitor and it's clearly been bugged in the drivers for quite a while.

[BigAl01]

I wonder if you have some electrical interference issue when you get this monitor near your computer.  Did you add some other electrical device that's nearby, maybe a WiFi or Bluetooth device, like a wireless mouse or speakers?  I would also suspect the HDMI or Display Port cable.  It could be a loose connection that when moved around might affect the video signal.  Try moving the cable a bit when the display is looking messed up.  Try moving the cable when the display is acting properly.

I would also search the Internet  and your MSI monitors support page, looking for similar issues.  There might be some type of incompatibility that you stumbled upon that has already been addressed, like a certain setting in the driver software (maybe refresh rate, Freesync, etc.).

[hadesflames]

No, like I said I went on holiday for a week and nothing has changed in my room. In fact, the monitor is on one of those arms that you latch on to your desk, not on its stand. I didn't move the monitor at all to test it on the other PC I just brought my laptop and plugged that in and it worked just fine instantly.

It also doesn't explain the part about the driver factory reset installation I did earlier. Also after leaving it turned on for a few hours all of the messed up part has cleared away. The display looks perfectly fine now, and all I've done is just leave it on for a few hours. No other change.

[hadesflames]

I turned my monitor off for the night and this morning is was messed up again. Then it was fine after an hour or so of turning it off and on again.

[BigAl01]

Some part is failing until it warms to operating temperature or a connection is making poor contact until heating expands the contact area.  I suspect the video card.  I would remove / reinsert your video card and if that doesn't work, move it to the other PCIe slot.

[hadesflames · Accepted solution]

Nah I don't turn off my PC at all. Only my monitor at night to sleep. I also did try reslotting the GPU, cleaning up slots etc. But that didn't help. It also doesn't really explain what I said before about how connecting another monitor instantly works and connecting this monitor to another PC also instantly works.

The biggest clue in my opinion was what I said about the driver reinstall earlier. The monitor was instantly cleared up and back to working order when the driver was uninstalled and INSTANTLY went back to being messed up when the driver was reinstalled. This is 100% a driver issue. Which is nothing new really for the 5000 series GPUs.

Considering how no one else seems to be experiencing this issue with their monitor combos, I doubt AMD will ever fix. So I'll just deal with it until I'm ready to upgrade my monitor and/or GPU I suppose.

[BigAl01]

It could be a failure occurring in the monitor hardware, perhaps when GPU drivers access certain features of the monitor like FreeSync.  But, it could be a GPU driver issue too, as you suggest.  Having something change after an hour or so suggests thermal expansion problems to me as an electrical engineer.

[hadesflames]

I understand, and I'm a software engineer myself so I understand that I'd have a bias towards seeing things as software issues, but I think I also mentioned in my OP (and if I didn't I apologize) that the issue only starts after Windows is loaded up to the login screen. I.e. if the issue is occurring and I restart my PC, the display works perfectly fine together with the system, shows ASUS's ROG logo and loading spinner etc perfectly fine. It's only when Windows is done loading (which is when the drivers would be loaded up) that the issue represents itself. Further cementing that it must be a driver issue in my mind.

You're also right that it could be a software issue on the monitor's end either with monitor driver (MSI hasn't published any driver updates for this monitor since the initial one in 2019) or with the monitor's firmware. I did try disabling freesync on Adrenaline software but that didn't seem to do anything.

[Jameswalter]

It is usually caused by overheating or physical damage to the monitor and connecting cables. Conflicts between the screen and selected screen resolution and refresh rate settings can also cause line problems, as can out-of-date device drivers and operating systems. Most probably your desktop is damaged. It's time to change

[hadesflames]

No.

[goodplay]

Could it be OS malfunction, have you tried SFC & DISM commands (or a repair install of OS)?