Samsung QN95a / games consoles blacking out intermittently...

[Swordfish86]

Hello. I’ve just bought a 55” QN95a - it’s connected to both a PS5 and an Xbox Series X. 

I've been having an issue, where when playing a game on either console, the screen/sound blacks out for about two seconds and then just goes back to normal. The game carries on in the background as it’s momentarily blacked out.

I’ve scoured the internet and it seems it’s a very common issue, particularly with Samsung Tv’s. 

ive been offered a replacement tv or just one connect box, and I’ve opted to try a new one connect (easier that packing up a whole tv etc) that should come in a couple of weeks. But I’m not convinced that it’s a technical fault, but rather something software / setting related.

Ive obviously spoken to Samsung, but as always, it’s just the usual, generic troubleshooting. I’ve tried factory settings, different hdmi ports, changing from 8bit to 10bit etc. But it persists.

Any other ideas? The tv works flawlessly otherwise, it would be wonderful to get to the bottom of this one issue

Thanks

[Spokk]

Nice - what exactly did they replace? Sounds like something I would like to replace too

[JW88]

First we replaced the big circuit board, and but no change, so we changed back. Then we replaced the smaller one, with the HDMI ports, and it must've been there something was faulty because the dropouts disappeared directly. 

[siCTR]

I had a similar issue with picture dropouts, but only only when watching Sky Q (never had problems with PS5).  Last week I replaced the HDMI cable from the TV to  the Sky Q box with an Amazon Basics "Premium 48Gbps Ultra High Speed 8k HDMI cable" and have had no picture dropouts since.   However, there were still occasional sound dropouts through my soundbar, so I also replaced the HDMI cable on the ARC channel and now have no sound or picture dropouts.  

These are the cables I used:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasics-Premium-High-Speed-HDMI-Cable-Dark-Grey/dp/B08BS26741/ref=sr_1... 

[Awe81]

Just to add to the discussion. I had the same issues with my brand new 85 inch QN95A connected through a Denon x1700 receiver and on to my Xbox series X, only using HDMI-port 1 on the OCB. The picture would drop out a lot, and it could take up to a minute before it returned. Tried all different 48Gb cables but still the same black dropouts. Even the Google TV would cause blackouts (also connected over on the Denon). 

So I remembered that we had issues at work doing 4k to a customer screen in a conference room where the HDMI-cable was too long, we changed that to a fiberoptic HDMI which made it work. So I tried the same at home, going from 3m and 2m cables (OCB->Denon) down to 1m (regular cable, not fiberoptic) and voila, no more black screens.

Running 4k@120hz with HDR 10 and zero dropouts for several days. 

[siCTR]

Yes, good point about cable length. I used 0.9metre cables. 

[Laststar]

Had a Samsung Tech come out this morning to look at the HDMI Xbox/Playstation dropouts. They were sent with a USB stick with firmware to fix the problem. 

My TV's firmware and the HDMI Firmware was already updated to the firmware sent so the technicians were at a loss at what to do. 

They've gone back to Samsung for more information. Six month old QN95A 55 inch and still I despise ever buying it, bloody outrageous they are refusing to give me a refund. 

[Awe81]

Sorry to add again but the black screen issues continues. Had one good evening without blacks but they are now coming back frequently. Sometimes a couple of seconds and sometimes I have to turn off the TV and leave it off for a couple of minutes.

To add even further, I can actually see that the picture is not 100% black, its actually missing almost all backlight but if I capture the screen with my girlfriends Iphone (doesnt work with my Samsung Galaxy S20+) I can see a very, very dark picture on the screen. Pulling up the system menus shows with the same darkness so something is definately wrong with the backlight.

I got a new OCB-cable from Samsung support but the results are the same with that.

[johnnyw84]

I got my 65" QN95A end of 2021. Worked fine for like first 2 months with my pc that has RTX 3080. Since then it has been getting gradually worse. At first the flickering/signal lost only happened like few times a day with 4K/HDR/120hz, then after while it started to get more & more frequent and had to disable HDR to make it work somehow. Now lately it has gone to state that cant use 120hz at all anymore, flickers every few seconds and then lose signal completely after while. Only works reliably at 4K 60hz.

Tried all the HDMI ports, several different HDMI 2.1 cables and same thing with all of them. I guess there must be something badly messed up.

Will see what support says, but after reading this thread im not very positive getting it fixed.

[johnnyw84]

Just bought new ESL 1m 8K/4k 240hz cable from local shop and made no difference. Did cable test which suggested bad cable, just as it did with other 2 high quality cables i tried yesterday and today. So i guess my HDMI ports on OCB or something else at the box is busted. Start to get pretty angry about this tbh. What also noticed that OCB gets really hot at left top corner, there is some sort off hotspot near the fibre cable. other areas are not even warm but that left top corner is really hot to touch.

***** tried 1440p @120Hz and even that  flickers now randomly. Ridicilously bad quality for these so called premium tv:s.

Firmware is also latest v.2001

[Manc]

So a bit of an update from my side and having dealt with the same issue as everyone else over the last year. I had an engineer out for the second time who updated not just the TV firmware but also the HDMI firmware (which didn't happen last time). All has been working well for several months now.

I would request the engineer looks at the HDMI firmware upgrade as this is not updated by updating through your TV yourself.