Blur Busters Forums

ch3x wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2022, 05:34

Hi everyone,
I have recently bought myself the monitor noted in the title, I was surprised to find the monitor was able to be overclocked from 144hz to 264hz. The only issue I encountered is the dreaded Out of Range message that appears once you surpass the recommended frequency.

Looking through multiple forums I found a program called SoftMCCS which you are able to adjust the monitor values directly from your computer. In the same forum on overclocking BenQ monitors there was also a few programs that had been written to automate the altering of these values to automatically remove the message whenever something changed.

Unfortunately these programs do not work for the LG monitor but I have found a potential fix but need help executing it. In SoftMCCS there is a manufacturer specific code 0x-F9 which when changed will remove the OOR message for a short period of time. I attempted to alter the other programs to switch this value back and forth very quickly but because I have no experience with coding it inevitably failed. If someone could help me out with a small program that automatically switches this value then there would be a fix to allow overclocking on all LG monitors that use this firmware.

Any help is appreciated.

[DllImport("dxva2.dll", EntryPoint = "SetVCPFeature", SetLastError = true)]
        [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
        public static extern bool SetVCPFeature(
        [In] IntPtr hMonitor, uint dwVCPCode, uint dwNewValue);

[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, ExactSpelling = true)]
        private static extern UInt32 MonitorFromPoint(Point pt, UInt32 dwFlags);

const UInt32 MONITOR_DEFAULTTOPRIMARY = 0x00000001;

IntPtr GetPrimaryMonitorHandle()
{
    const Point ptZero = { 0, 0 };
    return MonitorFromPoint(ptZero, MONITOR_DEFAULTTOPRIMARY);
}

void OutOfRangeKiller()
{
  IntPtr hMonitor = GetPrimaryMonitorHandle();
  while (true)
  {
    SetVCPFeature(hMonitor, 0xF9, 1);
    Thread.Sleep(1000);  // Sleep 1000 milliseconds
    SetVCPFeature(hMonitor, 0xF9, 2);
    Thread.Sleep(1000);  // Sleep 1000 milliseconds
  }
}

Chief Blur Buster wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2022, 23:44

ch3x wrote: ↑

13 Jun 2022, 05:34

Hi everyone,
I have recently bought myself the monitor noted in the title, I was surprised to find the monitor was able to be overclocked from 144hz to 264hz. The only issue I encountered is the dreaded Out of Range message that appears once you surpass the recommended frequency.

Looking through multiple forums I found a program called SoftMCCS which you are able to adjust the monitor values directly from your computer. In the same forum on overclocking BenQ monitors there was also a few programs that had been written to automate the altering of these values to automatically remove the message whenever something changed.

Unfortunately these programs do not work for the LG monitor but I have found a potential fix but need help executing it. In SoftMCCS there is a manufacturer specific code 0x-F9 which when changed will remove the OOR message for a short period of time. I attempted to alter the other programs to switch this value back and forth very quickly but because I have no experience with coding it inevitably failed. If someone could help me out with a small program that automatically switches this value then there would be a fix to allow overclocking on all LG monitors that use this firmware.

Any help is appreciated.

Fantastic Out-Of-Range (OOR) bypass discovery -- overclocking becomes much easier when you're able to sneak past the out-of-range firmware cop.

It probably wouldn't be very difficult to write a small program to continually ping the monitor with these DDC commands at a time interval -- even as an infinite loop test in a Win32 C# console app:

Let's say, you're using C# (.NET), the favourite starter Windows language;

The only problem is the OS-level Windows API is not easily accessed from C# so this requires a slightly complex declaration (interop / pinvoke) to get access to SetVCPFeature() -- the DDC/CI commanding API. And an API to get the monitor handle.

Code: Select all

[DllImport("dxva2.dll", EntryPoint = "SetVCPFeature", SetLastError = true)]
        [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
        public static extern bool SetVCPFeature(
        [In] IntPtr hMonitor, uint dwVCPCode, uint dwNewValue);

[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, ExactSpelling = true)]
        private static extern UInt32 MonitorFromPoint(Point pt, UInt32 dwFlags);

One this is done, the rest becomes reasonably easy: the crudest test program would be the main() of a win32 C# console app that one can just minimize.

Code: Select all

const UInt32 MONITOR_DEFAULTTOPRIMARY = 0x00000001;

IntPtr GetPrimaryMonitorHandle()
{
    const Point ptZero = { 0, 0 };
    return MonitorFromPoint(ptZero, MONITOR_DEFAULTTOPRIMARY);
}

void OutOfRangeKiller()
{
  IntPtr hMonitor = GetPrimaryMonitorHandle();
  while (true)
  {
    SetVCPFeature(hMonitor, 0xF9, 1);
    Thread.Sleep(1000);  // Sleep 1000 milliseconds
    SetVCPFeature(hMonitor, 0xF9, 2);
    Thread.Sleep(1000);  // Sleep 1000 milliseconds
  }
}

Obviously, this is mental test code only, may have errors, not compile tested.

This assumes your LG monitor is the primary. In your tiny Hello World C# shoestring app (console or windowed), call OutOfRangeKiller() and there you go.

You will have to do more homework for things like a system tray app or some windowed app with an exit function or other configurability, preferably as a separate thread. But hopefully you can grab that code from elsewhere, and this should be enough to allow you to do more tests.

If someone (with more time than I) could help complete a Visual Studio Project (either in C++ or C#) to help this user out, much would be appreicated!

elexor wrote: ↑

17 Jun 2022, 09:53

For a quick test you can make a simple batfile and use winddcutil

https://github.com/scottaxcell/winddcut ... 64/Release

Code: Select all

:loop
winddcutil.exe setvcp 0 F9 1 	
timeout /t 3			
winddcutil.exe setvcp 0 F9 2
timeout /t 3			
goto loop

3 is seconds between commands
0 is the monitor id which is usually 0 for single monitor setups
you can use winddcutil.exe detect to list monitor ids

Chief Blur Buster wrote: ↑

17 Jun 2022, 16:54

elexor wrote: ↑

17 Jun 2022, 09:53

For a quick test you can make a simple batfile and use winddcutil

https://github.com/scottaxcell/winddcut ... 64/Release

Code: Select all

:loop
winddcutil.exe setvcp 0 F9 1 	
timeout /t 3			
winddcutil.exe setvcp 0 F9 2
timeout /t 3			
goto loop

3 is seconds between commands
0 is the monitor id which is usually 0 for single monitor setups
you can use winddcutil.exe detect to list monitor ids

Fantastic -- a batch file with winddcutil.exe is even simpler.

Consumes more CPU, but this is a useful proof of concept and can be configured to a low background priority in a pinch (Task Manager -> Go to Details -> Set Priority ..... or just use a wmic.exe command line to self-set low CPU priority)

264 Hz is quite the nice overclock of a 144Hz panel.