Laptop display flickering and artifacts (Asus X13 Flow)

Mr.Meerkat · April 7

Hey all, so I have a 2.5-ish year old Asus X13 Flow GV301QE. Unfortunately, the display has started to sometimes flicker and has lines running across the display.

Symptoms:

1. If the right 2-3cm of the display isn't black, the display flickers and artifacts.

2. Whilst posting, there is a purple line running across the splash-screen.

Spoiler

Note the black background on the right 2-3cm of the display, if the window gets extended to the right, the display starts artifacting and flickers.

Also note the grey line running across just below the AMD logo.

Chrome window extended to the edge, note the artifacting and the display will also be flickering.

And yes, the photos are from earlier this week as I tried troubleshooting it.

Another example of the screen flickering/artifacting.

Since it is a laptop can go 360 with the display, the flickering happens regardless of screen angle.

Screen flickers regardless of brightness

Things I've tried:

1. Changing display refresh rate, the flickering is worse with 60Hz compared to 120Hz. Display doesn't like any other refresh rate.

2. Reinstalling both AMD and Nvidia drivers, doesn't help

3. Reseating the display cable, didn't help (which removes the only simple fix...egh)

4. Tried external display via HDMI, no artifacting or oddness

Since there is a purple line artifact during the ROG splash screen on start, it would suggest it's a hardware issue rather than software. Don't suppose anyone here have any suggestions or ideas?

Edit: Should also clarify that the laptop has not been dropped at any point.

Somerandomtechyboi · April 7

try a gpu benchmark and see if it crashes or artifacts even more, if it does then your laptop is fucked

for a software fix try downclocking the gpu via msi afterburner both core and vram see which ones causing the artifacting

if artifacting still happens even if the gpu is fully downclocked only thing you might be able to do is reflow the gpu with a heatgun whilst following a proper reflow curve so also need a temp gun that can read 200c+

if that doesnt work then youll have to straight up replace the gpu chip or the vram or whatevers faulty with a bga rework station and yea not worth it unless you can find a laptop with the same gpu that you can scrap the gpu and vram out of, even if you did find one for a decent price youd still need a bunch of solder equipment some stencils and a rework station, technically the rework station isnt strictly neccesary but good luck trying it with a heatgun + whatever you have laying around that can preheat the bottom of the mobo

if its still under warranty you can try rma otherwise youll probably have to buy a new or used laptop if the software fix and reflowing the gpu doesnt work

edit :

14 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

4. Tried external display via HDMI, no artifacting or oddness

uhhh i think im stupid

try stressing the gpu anyways to make sure it isnt the gpu

since swapping the display cable doesnt work might have to buy a new panel and replace your current screen

could also be on the mobos side something to do with the stuff before the display connector but display outputs like hdmi arent affected so even a display swap might not work if its a mobo issue

emosun · April 7

28 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

Whilst posting, there is a purple line running across the splash-screen.

then the display itself , or the gpu/motherboard is at fault. replace one , if it doesn't fix it then replace the other.

Mr.Meerkat · April 7

4 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

uhhh i think im stupid

try stressing the gpu anyways to make sure it isnt the gpu

since swapping the display cable doesnt work might have to buy a new panel and replace your current screen

could also be on the mobos side something to do with the stuff before the display connector but display outputs like hdmi arent affected so even a display swap might not work if its a mobo issue

Haha, no worries. Was just about to point that out again

The problem is since it's the 2021 model, it doesn't have the MUX switch so everything (internal display, DP/USB-C, HDMI ect.) all goes through the Radeon iGPU (dGPU passes-through the iGPU). Have tried stress testing with both the iGPU and dGPU, and the flicking is still there but it doesn't get any worse.

I've not switched the display cable as it's almost impossible to buy one. I've only simply reseated it for now (in case it was loose).

Anyway, I guess it's time for me to go display cable and new display hunting. Dunno what's worse, second major issue with this laptop (since the original WD SSD failed very, very, very, very pre-maturely) or the fact that parts are so hard to come by. Maybe it's my excuse to go obtain myself a MBP 14" with a M2 pro...