Samsung Odyssey G9 OLED - black screens, connection losses, and more

[ElfVierzehn]

Hello,

I have the G9 OLED for two days and have really lousy problems:

- when I start a game in fullscreen mode with the native resolution of 5120x1440, the monitor sometimes shuts down. There's no way to restore the image until I'm somehow able to either blindly quit the game or restart the PC - sometimes only the reset button helps.

- When starting certain apps or fullscreen applications, I hear a sound like a device is connecting and disconnecting. I also hear this randomly - it stopped, when I disconnected the USB cable from the monitor and ramains happening when I start full screen applications and exit them.

- I randomly have black screens every now and then without doing anything specific. And quite extreme: If I watch a video via any media player, enter fullscreen and move the mouse, the screen goes black for 3 seconds and then returns. If I move the mouse again, the screen goes black again. This goes on and on.

- I am using an RTX 4090 with this monitor. When I set it to 240 Hz, the GPU memory clock rate is not downclocked when the PC is idle. That means the GPU memory clock (not GPU clock) is always running at max clock, which is not ideal for power consumption and temperatures.

I use a Display Port 1.4 cable with 32.4 Gbit/s, but also have an HDMI 2.1 cable with 48 gbit/s. This happens with both cables. As soon as I lower the monitor Hz to 120, the memory MHz goes back to the correct idle value, as it should. Is this a normal behavior?

- when I turn off VRR on the monitor, it is no longer possible to set the native resolution.

The monitor is running on the latest firmware version 1023.

These are honestly such massive problems that I am almost determined to return this monitor to Samsung as soon as possible.

Any input from more experienced Samsung users who have been able to remedy these issues?

Thanks so much!

[PeeDee304]

And now the blackouts are happening after exiting games at @ 120Hz mode now.

[rikoriko123]

Maybe it's not blackouts, but rather Windows switching 120->240Hz mode? There is no signal at this point, the device switches from 120 to 240?

[Cthugha]

The solution have been mentioned a few times. If you have this kind of problem, and a firmware update doesn't solve it, you need a new panel from Samsung Service. Don't accept having to use 120hz or disabling VRR. Just open a support case with Samsung and have the panel replaced. Or return the screen. 

[PeeDee304]

I think thats whats most of us are experiencing. Its just easier to call them "blackouts" on here. Its more of a switching from a VRR Graphics mode to desktop mode where the issue occurs. Since I received my monitor its been on 240Hz on my then RTX3090, after the 14XX Firmware update I have had this issue. 

[-_G_-]

Similar issues with the Odyssey G95NC, (57" in split screen, 50/50).

I assume it is something in the base firmware for more than one of the monitor series, I have updated mine with no changes noticed and am running the Samsung drivers.

I have noticed that HDMI connections are generally less problematic for me. DisplayPort however is incredibly unreliable, so I suspect that is where the main issue lies. The side of my split screen with HDMI rarely has issues, but the DP side is always flaking out and losing resolution, going dark. I replaced my dock twice thinking it was a dock issue originally, but no, the problem follows the monitor and always with DisplayPort.

[Liqurd4tay0z]

I am happy to report that since updating my G9 OLED (LS49CG932SNXZA) a couple weeks ago to firmware version 1007.1 I am not having anymore issues, the monitor is working perfectly! I hope this issue can be addressed for all other models that people are experiencing this issue on. I will report back if anything changes.

[orion-heart]

Thanks for the update!

I also have had no random black screens using DP for ~1month now after going from 1006.3 back to 1005.2.

To me it seems more like a faulty upgrade framework that caused my monitor to experience issues after I went from stock 1004.0 to 1006.3. Maybe I'll test 1007.1 later but I'm happy for now.

[DJ_EddieL]

I recently purchased a 49" Odyssey OLED G9 (G95SC) LS49CG954SNXZA and have the same issue with "blackouts". 

I'm running a NVIDIA 4060Ti RTX 16GB card, using the factory Samsung provided DP cable, etc. When the monitor has Game Mode enabled and I'm playing a game I hit 240 Hz and have no issues unless I accidently hit a key that opens some other window on my desktop or when I exit the game. Screen goes to black. I have to either disconnect the DP cable and reconnect it or use the remote to turn off Game Mode to recover.

If I run my games with Game Mode disabled (running at 120 Hz), everything works with no issue. This is 100% a Samsung issue and I'm fairly confident that it's driver/firmware related. I opened a ticket and all they did was send out a tech who had no clue and they just closed the ticket. Going to attempt to call Samsung again today. Insane that the monitor doesn't work at the advertised specs. Maybe a class action lawsuit would get their attention.

[rikoriko123]

Hi.
I haven't responded for a while because I wanted to take more time to test the new monitor firmware. Since I don't often use full-screen games, I thought it would be better to have a more comprehensive experience rather than just using it on the desktop.

Overall, the new firmware version 1007 is indeed better. Since my last message, I haven't experienced any black screens. However, there is another bug where a calibration screen (a gray one with blue vertical stripes dividing the screen into three sections) briefly flashes on the display. This occurs particularly when using VMware Workstation, though it happens occasionally even without it.

I recommend upgrading to the new firmware, but I can't rule out the possibility of blackouts returning.

Additionally, I should mention that I will no longer purchase Samsung products, especially monitors, and I will discourage my friends and colleagues from doing so. I simply won't recommend them; there are many other brands to choose from, but not Samsung.

Let's see if any new bugs appear; perhaps we'll get lucky, and they will fix all the identified issues in the next six months (sarcasm).

[rikoriko123]

Also, just want to mention that the lack of a public changelog for firmware updates makes it difficult to understand what has changed, and the inability to easily roll back the firmware without complications, along with the unavailability of older firmware versions, all reflect poorly on Samsung. The quality of Samsung products has significantly declined since I purchased my first Sync Master 172s monitor in 2003; such quality is no longer found, unfortunately.