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Re: Acer GN 246 Lightboost hack support?

Posted: 23 Feb 2015, 03:20
by aaron81182
sukka wrote:Sorry to bring up an old post, but I've exhausted all of my google-fu and looked at a bunch of threads for this monitor, and this seems like the place to ask, so...

What can I do to enable Lightboost if I have the GN246HL, an AMD card, and no Nvidia "surrogate" card? Is it just not possible? I'm (obviously) brand new to the 120/144hz club, so sorry for my ignorance.
Sorry old post. Sukka, did you find a solution? tried sending you a pm, to no avail. im new here.

Re: Acer GN 246 Lightboost hack support?

Posted: 23 Feb 2015, 04:08
by Falkentyne
It's not possible. The strobelight bypass was patched in newer lightboost monitors. The only way is with an Nvidia card.

Re: Acer GN 246 Lightboost hack support?

Posted: 17 Apr 2015, 16:46
by batpimp
Sorry to necro a this thread.

To confirm, lightboost can work as long as you have a Nvidia card that is 500 series or newer correct?

Re: Acer GN 246 Lightboost hack support?

Posted: 23 Apr 2015, 18:11
by ididit
I got lightboost enabled with the GN246HL + a Radeon 5770 and I didn't have to do anything special at all.

All I did was download the strobelight utility from http://www.monitortests.com, ran the set up, and selected to install the following refresh rates: 120hz strobed, 144, and 60. Then restarted the computer and it booted up at 120hz with the blue light on the monitor becoming green.

I can change my monitors hz like normal in Catalyst Control Center. The only ones listed are the ones I selected while installing refresh rates. 144 and 60hz make the light go back blue and 120hz makes it green.

At 120hz with the green light in the monitor settings by pressing the physical buttons on it NVIDIA 3D LightBoost is now selectable whereas it wasn't before. I can turn it all the way down to min which I assume is 10% and max which is 100%.

The Strobelight utility itself DOES NOT work. Trying to open it says that my monitor isn't supported. But the refresh rates that were installed do and turn on and unlock the lightboost settings in the monitor itself.

Now I have some questions. There is a lot of hoopla surrounding getting this monitor to work with a Radeon card, but was it really this simple or is there something I am missing? I am noticing some pretty major eye fatigue after using it for about 15 minutes now at 10% and I am not sure if this is normal and something I need to get used to, or if I am missing something major like with these settings I am supposed to be wearing 3d glasses or something and there's like a 2d option I need to check that I am locked out from by not having access to Nvidia drivers lol.

Re: Acer GN 246 Lightboost hack support?

Posted: 24 Apr 2015, 06:18
by Falkentyne
ididit wrote:I got lightboost enabled with the GN246HL + a Radeon 5770 and I didn't have to do anything special at all.

All I did was download the strobelight utility from http://www.monitortests.com, ran the set up, and selected to install the following refresh rates: 120hz strobed, 144, and 60. Then restarted the computer and it booted up at 120hz with the blue light on the monitor becoming green.

I can change my monitors hz like normal in Catalyst Control Center. The only ones listed are the ones I selected while installing refresh rates. 144 and 60hz make the light go back blue and 120hz makes it green.

At 120hz with the green light in the monitor settings by pressing the physical buttons on it NVIDIA 3D LightBoost is now selectable whereas it wasn't before. I can turn it all the way down to min which I assume is 10% and max which is 100%.

The Strobelight utility itself DOES NOT work. Trying to open it says that my monitor isn't supported. But the refresh rates that were installed do and turn on and unlock the lightboost settings in the monitor itself.

Now I have some questions. There is a lot of hoopla surrounding getting this monitor to work with a Radeon card, but was it really this simple or is there something I am missing? I am noticing some pretty major eye fatigue after using it for about 15 minutes now at 10% and I am not sure if this is normal and something I need to get used to, or if I am missing something major like with these settings I am supposed to be wearing 3d glasses or something and there's like a 2d option I need to check that I am locked out from by not having access to Nvidia drivers lol.
Hmmm

Send a PM to Chief and also one to ToastyX on the monitortests forums.
It's VERY possible that your monitor has lightboost unlocked by default, but that would be the very first time this has happened.

I want you to do something for me.

Set your monitor into lightboost mode.
DO NOT run strobelight at all

then UNPLUG IT from the wall. completely. drain the power. Make SURE All AC power is cut.
The best way to ensure a clean wipe is to unplug it for 30 seconds, and press the power button while it is unplugged. This will ensure a complete wipe. (I found that a 10 second unplug on my Benq was not enough to erase the lightboost unlock)

Then plug it back in.
Make fully and completely sure that the strobelight TSR is NOT active in memory at all.
Switch directly to a lightboost installed refresh rate.

Is lightboost mode STILL active?

Re: Acer GN 246 Lightboost hack support?

Posted: 08 May 2015, 13:09
by Falkentyne
I replied to your post a few weeks ago but you haven't been back online.

I wanted to know how you got lightboost enabled on an AMD Card, and if it was STILL enabled after you AC powered off the screen, because this should not have been possible at all.

The screen should be unplugged for 30 seconds, and the power button pressed while it's still unplugged, to make sure it is fully discharged.

Re: Acer GN 246 Lightboost hack support?

Posted: 29 Jun 2015, 17:42
by ImJLu
Sorry to necro this thread, but I have lightboost working on an AMD card (Sapphire 6870) in a similar fashion as ididit.

Ran strobelight-setup.exe, selected 120hz strobed and 144hz, restarted the computer. As soon as I switched from 144hz to 120hz in Windows, I was given a nvidia 3D logo in the bottom right of the screen, the screen became noticably dimmer, and the power LED turned from blue to green. Unless I'm mistaken, that means I have lightboost on.

Re: Acer GN 246 Lightboost hack support?

Posted: 29 Jun 2015, 17:45
by Falkentyne
Yep.
Looks like the vendor lock was removed from this monitor?

Try unplugging the monitor for 30 seconds (from the AC outlet) then replugging it back in.
Is lightboost still activated (WITHOUT running strobelight.exe?) Just select the lightboost resolution directly from windows...
Do not run strobelight. That way I can see if its a permanent unlock.

Re: Acer GN 246 Lightboost hack support?

Posted: 29 Jun 2015, 19:19
by ImJLu
Turned off monitor, unplugged, waited 30 seconds, pressed power to make sure the monitor's completely unpowered, plugged it back in, turned it back on. The LED was still green and lightboost was still on when I turned the monitor back on. Never ran strobelight.exe to begin with, just the setup.

Re: Acer GN 246 Lightboost hack support?

Posted: 29 Jun 2015, 19:38
by Falkentyne
That's good then.
While lightboost doesn't have very good image quality (you're locked out of the OSD), it's nice to know that there are monitors out there that have lightboost unlocked by default.

Might want to send chief blur buster and ToastyX a PM so they can add that to the list for monitors that don't need any special software for strobing.

Lightboost is activated by a 1138 lines vertical total at 100hz, 1143 lines at 110hz and 1149 lines at 120hz. Most monitors require a specific Nvidia driver handshake before these vertical totals will put the monitor into 3d mode (otherwise nothing is changed). Strobelight (LB activation) only works on first generation lightboost monitors, and uses a brute force workaround which makes the monitor accept the unlock without an Nvidia card. Newer monitors won't initialize lightboost with strobelight. This seems to be the first monitor that has lightboost unlocked automatically. Good find!

I wonder if any other monitors, including gsync monitors, have lightboost unlocked permanently?