Display problem with BenQ XL2720Z (white milky stripes)

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Dober
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Display problem with BenQ XL2720Z (white milky stripes)

Post by Dober » 09 Nov 2019, 07:51

Good day my fellow monitor enthusiasts,

I have encountered a weird problem with my monitor. I will link these 3 pictures so you can look for yourselves:

https://ibb.co/NnLkFxJ
https://ibb.co/hW87NXm
https://ibb.co/9hc6qTy

It's 2 white lines (non straight) in the upper part of the monitor. I think they look washed out or kind of milky. You can't see them all the time. You must have the correct (ingame) lighting. It is clearly visible in racing or open world games because you see them on the horizon (Blue sky or greyish clouds). And it's so distracting and driving me insane.

I made the pictures with completely grey and purple background because I think you can see them best there. Image quality is still kinda lacking because of my smartphone cam but I hope you can see what I mean in the pics.

Can anyone tell me what this particular picture problem is? Is it the display itself or are technical aspects of the monitor damaged? And is it fixable?

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Chief Blur Buster
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Re: Display problem with BenQ XL2720Z (white milky stripes)

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 10 Nov 2019, 14:06

I recognize these.

It's probably pressure spots (or former wet-spots, one or the other) behind the screen glass. Sometimes it's pressure stuff (like how you press on an LCD and things distort) from stuff inside the panel or behind the panel (like wiring). Sometimes it's temporary temperature hotspots (because it's summer or winter) that disappears when goes to yesterday's temperature. This can show up more often in aging LCD monitors that has been moved around lots, used heavily, and exhibits a lot of temperature swings. Instead of pressure, it can also be humidity -- high humidity and temperature cycles can contribute to adding moisture bars (wet spots), i.e. condensation behind the glass which may leave spots even when fully dried out. Since you said XL2720Z, it is probably a few years old, if it faded in slowly then this is normal wear and tear of a heavily used monitor.. If it suddenly happened after a move, and does not go away, then it's probably pressure damage from a monitor move.

Unfortunately, this isn't fixable by an end user if it's one of those permanent ones. Your two hope are:
(A) If this is temperature-related, try giving the monitor its original temperatures it was used to, and see if it happens.
(B) If you just finished moving between apartments (i.e. November 1st move date!) and it suddenly appeared, give 4 weeks for pressure spots like these to fade by keeping the monitor perfectly vertical.

Know those pressure spots when you press your finger on a screen? Sometimes what you see are weak aftereffects of previous pressure spots from being boxed up, especially using non-manufacturer padding pressing against the screen (manufacturer foam blocks is specifically designed not to press against the screen). It can create these spots sometimes. If pressure is applied 24/7 on the screen, that can create semi-permanent pressure spots. So, for every 1 day of monitor storage you need a few days of 24/7 warmup recovery to erase pressure spots. So if you boxed your monitor with non-manufacturer padding or the monitor was stored flat -- like for 3 days during a move, then give your monitor a couple weeks to recover. Sometimes it never recovers (alas).

If unfixable (e.g. slowly appeared by itself over years), and this drives you insane, I suggest one of the upcoming 240Hz 1ms IPS monitors especially if you often play bright open-world games -- they are the bee's knees in eye-pleasing quality for these kinds of games, IMHO.
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Dober
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Re: Display problem with BenQ XL2720Z (white milky stripes)

Post by Dober » 13 Nov 2019, 09:08

Chief,
thank you very much for this lenghty answer!

I'd like to give some more information because you took so much time to answer in such great detail.

I've bought the monitor in August 2014. So it is over 5 years old now and it has seen pretty much daily use since then with some exceptions. I never really moved it from my desk so I'd like to rule out the pressure damage theory. That leaves me with the temperature/humidity theory and I guess it makes sense. I hope I won't go paranoid about having too high humidity levels in my appartment now after reading your reply. But when I think back to when I have seen these white spots for the first time I think it must have been during this years summer. I live in central Europe and I can tell you this years (and last years) summers have been really really hot. So the monitor had to experience two years of very hot summertime. Also I think what you say about dried up wet spots makes sense. To me the white spots really look like you have poured water behind the screen and those white spots look like limescale spots (You know when you let water dry up by itself if that makes any sense). It's better to see in person than on pictures.

But one thing is funny. I bought another monitor some weeks ago and put the Benq aside as secondary monitor. I used the pivot functionality to save space on my desk next to the new monitor. So the BenQ was vertical for about two weeks (just like you suggested) by conincidence. I had to send the new monitor back and went back to using the BenQ (of course horizontally). The white spots were almost completely gone but have come back to levels you can see on the pictures I posted in the beginning after about 1 week of use. Also the spots gain intensity the longer the monitor is used. So for example after 6 hours of use the spots are easier to spot than after 10 minutes. As an ordinary person I would guess the monitor warms up over time and intensifies the white spots.

I've read your reply carefully and I know you said setting up the monitor vertically is for fixing pressure spots and not temperature/humidity spots which are more likely the cause in my case. Would you still recommend to do so in my case? Can it actually work vs humidity spots? I know I said the spots were almost gone after two weeks but maybe that was pure luck or something. I don't know.

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Re: Display problem with BenQ XL2720Z (white milky stripes)

Post by Falkentyne » 15 Nov 2019, 15:41

Chief Blur Buster wrote:I recognize these.

It's probably pressure spots (or former wet-spots, one or the other) behind the screen glass. Sometimes it's pressure stuff (like how you press on an LCD and things distort) from stuff inside the panel or behind the panel (like wiring). Sometimes it's temporary temperature hotspots (because it's summer or winter) that disappears when goes to yesterday's temperature. This can show up more often in aging LCD monitors that has been moved around lots, used heavily, and exhibits a lot of temperature swings. Instead of pressure, it can also be humidity -- high humidity and temperature cycles can contribute to adding moisture bars (wet spots), i.e. condensation behind the glass which may leave spots even when fully dried out. Since you said XL2720Z, it is probably a few years old, if it faded in slowly then this is normal wear and tear of a heavily used monitor.. If it suddenly happened after a move, and does not go away, then it's probably pressure damage from a monitor move.

Unfortunately, this isn't fixable by an end user if it's one of those permanent ones. Your two hope are:
(A) If this is temperature-related, try giving the monitor its original temperatures it was used to, and see if it happens.
(B) If you just finished moving between apartments (i.e. November 1st move date!) and it suddenly appeared, give 4 weeks for pressure spots like these to fade by keeping the monitor perfectly vertical.

Know those pressure spots when you press your finger on a screen? Sometimes what you see are weak aftereffects of previous pressure spots from being boxed up, especially using non-manufacturer padding pressing against the screen (manufacturer foam blocks is specifically designed not to press against the screen). It can create these spots sometimes. If pressure is applied 24/7 on the screen, that can create semi-permanent pressure spots. So, for every 1 day of monitor storage you need a few days of 24/7 warmup recovery to erase pressure spots. So if you boxed your monitor with non-manufacturer padding or the monitor was stored flat -- like for 3 days during a move, then give your monitor a couple weeks to recover. Sometimes it never recovers (alas).

If unfixable (e.g. slowly appeared by itself over years), and this drives you insane, I suggest one of the upcoming 240Hz 1ms IPS monitors especially if you often play bright open-world games -- they are the bee's knees in eye-pleasing quality for these kinds of games, IMHO.
I wish I could multi-quote.

Those lines are from 'burn-in' from having something (usually a browser pane window) on the screen long term.
I have those on mine and its something that happens more as the monitor ages. It never happened when the monitor was new, and my monitor is about close to 6 years old now (bought direct from Benq, came with firmware V2 originally), and they are definitely noticeable if I leave a Prime95 stress test or a browser open for hours on one screen.

I also do not know if it happens more or less if a VT Tweak is NOT active, or if blur reduction is NOT active (remember those inverse inversion type alternating line artifacts that happen with high VT or accelerated scanout ever since Lightboost on the VG248QE). I really can't be bothered to test much.

Those burn-in patterns will go away if the monitor is left off for a long time, or you can use that java based jscreenfix-deluxe.jar (if you can find it) and use pure white burn overnight a few times.

Unfortunately as the monitors age, the problem will come back sooner with browser/window panes left on again.

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