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!

[japtaincack]

I'm seemingly having the same issues. Galaxy G9 OLED smart version. I've isolated the issue to firmware issues. Specifically around adaptive sync/game mode, and HDR. When you monitor detects such content, it switches something internally, and has to be redetected. From Window's point of view, it looses the monitor briefly. 

The fix I've found is using window mode in most games. If a game boots up in fullscreen mode, and doesn't have the native resolution already set, it's a nightmare. Sometimes it takes about 60 seconds to finally stabilize. If I turn off adaptive sync and HDR my issues go away. I'm on the latest firmware and nvidia drivers. Can someone else confirm? 

Why are they putting smart features on gaming monitors. I hate smart TVs and their smart garbage. Who doesn't already have an xbox, steam deck, fire tv, or apple tv? Smart features on a TV or monitor are absolutely useless. Their firmware is utter garbage and was written by outsourced overseas coders. I shouldn't be surprised I suppose.

[japtaincack]

It's too bad because they have the best display. They just decided to wrap it with garbage firmware and terrible smart features. It's a gaming monitor, it should perform it's purpose as such and nothing more. I bet it was a corporate overlord decision to include smart features to inflate the price. I've worked for many big tech companies, and this has their corporate stink and offshoring written all over it.

[DJ_EddieL]

I've tried every solution (work around) suggested in this long thread. There is no fix until Samsung resolves the firmware issue. 

[DJ_EddieL]

Unfortunately, this monitor series seems to have some serious firmware issues preventing the monitors from running at advertised specifications. They do not seem to care to acknowledge that it's a problem. 

[PeeDee304]

The weird thing about this scenario is prior to the FW update it was working great.  One would think that Samsung would just roll back the changes that were done in that update. But they haven't or maybe they can't. In addition to the silence on the issue was too frustrating for me. 

[DocratesCR]

SAMSUNG!!! ¿Where is the support? This is a premium monitor for gaming, failling on gaming...

BTW, anyone got the previous firmware file? 

[CommunityName11]

If it is true that this only concerns the smart version, is there a way to force the non-smart firmware on the screen? It is a far shot, but I don't need the smart features anyways.

[Milonai]

Same counts for me, is there a non-smart firmeware?

[zurie]

I have a Samsung G9 OLED as well.  also get intermittent black. 

I have a 240hz 8k KVM and I can switch between mac and PC.  the mac doesn't seem to go black very much if at all... the mac runs 120hz no VRR no game mode, SDR.  works ok.

I think its something with the increased bandwidth of 240hz HDR VRR (maybe DSC) etc.. .on windows.

its not a windows driver issue.  

I have tried a 350 dollar fiberoptic Display Port cable and it does work 99.9% of the time.  I've ordered over 40 cables from Amazon (and returned 37).  I have narrowed it down to a few cables that work...

but even these working cables only work 99.95% of the time.   If you push the monitor to the limits, 240hz HDR, you can still get a black screen...

I notice it alot when running 'fully maximized apps' like Blender, or Unity that use 3D and also in games...  If i disable game mode I can get 5120x1440 SDR at 8bit and so far I haven't seen a black screen in the 3 hours since i've switched to that, but i am almost certain this is a firmware issue, and or a bandwidth issue.  My studio is HOT so its not a heat issue.  

I notice it the most at 240hz, HDR on, and then go from a window Youtube video to alt tab to Blender Maximized, goes black.   

you can restore your nvidia driver with Ctrl + Windows + Shift + B. 

display pops right back on (in 5 seconds or so).

this cable works
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CPJ9VYF1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

this cable works
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BS3LWYXM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8

but not 100% of the time.. 99.95% of the time...    

I have tried limiting my FPS to 237 FPS in windows and in games via nvidia control panel.  I am currently trying SDR 120hz. etc..   honestly if i can get it to work with no black screens in windows blender, unity, etc then I can run 120hz SDR for windows... and if i want to play a game i'll switch to game mode 240hz HDR and give it a shot... but I would really appreciate some new firmwares that we can update to, and have the ability to change between firmwares to test...

I am also using a GreenMatrix DP 8k 240hz KVM ($200 dollars) and it does also work 99.95% of the time... I bought 4 of them and swapped them around along with the 40 cables trying to find a setup that works 100% of the time with no drop outs.     I have not tried the UPS fix (where someone said they had it plugged into a UPS).  Also am using external speakers (hoping that somehow frees up bandwidth but i doubt it).

Would appreciate Samsung taking this serious as this is a 1800 dollar monitor and we should not have any black screens.

[JohnnyA1]

I’m dealing with an issue on my Samsung G9 G93SC monitor, and it’s been pretty frustrating. I was away for six weeks, and when I got back and turned on my computer, the monitor wouldn’t display anything. After a lot of troubleshooting, I found that when both the HDMI and DisplayPort cables are plugged in, the monitor either shows no image or doesn’t even recognize a connection. But as soon as I unplug one of the cables, it works fine again, displaying the boot screen and everything else as normal.

What’s weird is that this setup used to work perfectly. I’d regularly use both inputs for Picture-by-Picture mode (PBP), especially for games that don’t support ultra-wide resolutions. Both my monitor and NVIDIA 4090 GPU have the latest firmware and drivers, so I don’t think it’s a software issue with the graphics card.

I remember seeing a Reddit post where someone had the exact same problem, and when they contacted Samsung, they actually got a circuit board replaced in their monitor, which fixed it. I’m starting to wonder if this could be a hardware fault on the monitor’s end.