Terrible Samsung customer service after a failed repair of my Odyssey G9 Neo

[Brandon H Supervisor]

man WTF has happened to Samsung the last couple years. I just keep hearing more and more stories like this about most of their products.

It's gotten to the point where their only products that seem worth while and I would trust are their SSDs and phones. And even the SSD trust has been scuffed a bit after the bad 980 Pro life plummet issues.

[neufuse Veteran]

On 10/01/2024 at 11:41, Brandon H said:

man WTF has happened to Samsung the last couple years. I just keep hearing more and more stories like this about most of their products.

It's gotten to the point where their only products that seem worth while and I would trust are their SSDs and phones. And even the SSD trust has been scuffed a bit after the bad 980 Pro life plummet issues.

SSD's have been going down hill lately also......

[+Warwagon MVC]

It's so weird that it only happens after waking up from sleep.

 

 

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 10/01/2024 at 21:21, Warwagon said:

It's so weird that it only happens after waking up from sleep.

 

 

It is absolutely something in the hardware or programed into the firmware, because it is the wake process that isn't correctly restarted sporadically, it doesn't happen every time but it could get worse, and I have warranty now, I won't after April.

[+Warwagon MVC]

On 10/01/2024 at 17:14, Steven P. said:

It is absolutely something in the hardware or programed into the firmware, because it is the wake process that isn't correctly restarted sporadically, it doesn't happen every time but it could get worse, and I have warranty now, I won't after April.

I was reading all about it online.

[Steven P. Administrators]

January 14 update

0:45 and 0:58

Not heard anything back from Samsung (DM via Twitter) since Wednesday.

First reported October 26, two "repairs" later still the same exact issue.

[Steven P. Administrators]

January 16 update:

Samsung have said on DM that they have started an internal investigation based on all of the messaging between Oct 26 and Monday and  the two failed repairs, and they say that this process will take at max 5 working days, after which I will be contacted by phone or email to discuss further steps.  So I should know more by Monday Jan 22.

[DewThePDX]

On 16/01/2024 at 05:17, Steven P. said:

January 16 update:

Samsung have said on DM that they have started an internal investigation based on all of the messaging between Oct 26 and Monday and  the two failed repairs, and they say that this process will take at max 5 working days, after which I will be contacted by phone or email to discuss further steps.  So I should know more by Monday Jan 22.

This is reminding me of a lot of customer service experiences I've had the last couple years.

 

It's so frustrating.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Jan 17 update:

I can hardly believe it, but Samsung simply ordered CERepair to pick up my monitor for repair again, I could hear on the phone that the guy who called was not impressed with having to do it. But this is not a solution, I already told Samsung I don't want anything to do with CERepair again, they are idiots and failed twice already (blaming the customer for the fault) and they introduced NEW faults in the screen that still have not been repaired.

This is machine translated:

[Steven P. Administrators]

More than a day later, no response from Samsung. 😡

[neufuse Veteran]

I'd just demand they replace the thing with a new one at this point

[Arceles]

Ahm... if you are the owner of this site, why don you try to make an story regarding all the woes so far with samsung? and put some sort of warranty mishaps tag to it? At least more people would see it.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 18/01/2024 at 22:42, Arceles said:

Ahm... if you are the owner of this site, why don you try to make an story regarding all the woes so far with samsung? and put some sort of warranty mishaps tag to it? At least more people would see it.

Yeah, I'd wait until this fiasco is resolved before that..

[Steven P. Administrators]

January 19 update:

the above is machine translated, but yes someone really did just reply with a generic comment "is your problem already solved?" this is the kind of behavior companies will do to keep customers hanging while being able to announce that they are actually responding, but of course the responses are quite meaningless.

[DewThePDX]

On 19/01/2024 at 02:05, Steven P. said:

January 19 update:

the above is machine translated, but yes someone really did just reply with a generic comment "is your problem already solved?" this is the kind of behavior companies will do to keep customers hanging while being able to announce that they are actually responding, but of course the responses are quite meaningless.

Yup. It's how they "cheat" SLA. They make this kind of contact to meet an internal metric.

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 20/01/2024 at 19:30, DewThePDX said:

Yup. It's how they "cheat" SLA. They make this kind of contact to meet an internal metric.

I have decided I am going to try calling on Monday. It makes me sick that I have so many Samsung products (TV, monitor, phone, Watch, SSD storage) and they treat me like this.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 20/01/2024 at 12:32, Steven P. said:

I have decided I am going to try calling on Monday. It makes me sick that I have so many Samsung products (TV, monitor, phone, Watch, SSD storage) and they treat me like this.

Time for a change, bro.

[John Callaham Veteran]

sorry this has still not been resolved by Samsung...this is unacceptable

[Ned Flanders]

Hi @Steven P. I had the exact same issue (see video attached), however my monitor is a Studio Display 5k that was experiencing the issue.

System notes

• I'm running 4 displays in total. So dual Apple Studio 5k displays, and dual 4k monitors.
• GPU is a 7900XTX. Adrenaline driver version 23.12.1
• Ryzen 7 5700G, Windows 10
• G.Skill 32GB (2x16GB) Trident Z 3200MHz AMD RGB DDR4 RAM

 

Issues I was experiencing

• flickering of static boxes or lines exactly like yours
• mainly happens when waking the PC from sleep

 

Things I tried which did NOT resolve the issue

• using DDU (safe mode) to do a clean install of GPU driver. Disconnect internet before doing this, so when it uninstalls the drivers and restarts, windows will be unable to try and download generic drivers. Then go ahead and install latest GPU drivers. 
• using latest driver version. And using older driver versions.
• new cables
• disable internal/onboard GPU
• update motherboard bios.

 

Solution(s) that fixed it for me (zero flickering issues, gone!)

• after weeks of researching online and testing, I'm certain the issue was related to.... RAM and GPU/drivers
• RAM - replaced the ram from corsair vengeance PRO (6GB) to GSkill F4-3200C16D-32GTZRX Trident Z 3200MHz (64GB). I thought to do this because the issue mainly occurred when waking from sleep and Windows just stores everything in RAM when in sleep mode. Definitely try this. Because after this, the monitor stopped exhibiting the issues when waking from sleep mode.
• RAM - disable XMP profile in your bios. Set the DRAM frquency manually (in my case DRAM 3200mhz, and FCLK 1600mhz).
• With my dual 4k 60hz monitors, I created a custom resolution for them inside the Adrenaline software and set them to 50hz instead of 60hz. Then go to Windows display settings > Advanced display settings and select the new (custom) refresh rate. The main reason to lower the Hz is likely due to driver issues. This actually made a massive difference for me in terms of stability and addressing the flickering issues, and alot of others online have had success using this method. 
• Also AMD adrenaline software settings attached, you may want to see for reference. 
• Since your Samsung Odyssey G9 has an insane 240hz refresh rate, you should definitely try creating a custom resolution and set the refresh rate lower to 235hz - 230hz for testing purposes and see if that helps. Or even try 144hz if need be. 

 

In summary / other notes

• I think the main cause is related to how the display drivers and monitor refresh rate are interacting.
• Funny enough, my peon Nvidia 1660Ti had been running this 4 monitor setup with zero issues, no flickering for over a year. Then the issues came when I switched to the 7900XTX... and you know how reliable AMD drivers LOL. 

I hope this helps anyone else experiencing the same issue. 

Diddly. 

 

[Steven P. Administrators]

@Ned Flandersthanks for your detailed reply.

A few things from my perspective:

• Yes I have 64GB DDR5 6000MHz Kingston Renegade in EXPO. My KF560C36BBEAK2-64 kit isn't on the QVL but the 32GB variant is.
• When I had the 4070 Ti in this same system I could force a driver restart (CTRL-WIN-SHIFT-B) and that would fix the issue
• Since I sold my 4070Ti and replaced with the 7900 XTX it is far worse (CTRL-WIN-SHIFT-B) does not fix the flashing block lines
• If I set my monitor to 240Hz the flashing from wake is really bad, it is less obvious at lower refresh rates, but it is there. I'll try it at 144Hz too (currently have it at custom 120Hz)
• Local Dimming set to Auto changes to OFF when the monitor is turned off and on again

I am not keen on disabling EXPO for a faulty monitor hardware, nerfing the entire system. The issue does not happen with other monitors on the same system.

The other issues are also still there like no serial number and model number programmed in that I want fixing. I will make sure to note these conditions to the technician as well.

Jan 22 update:

Samsung have said they can only instruct CERepair to attempt a third fix. This time I will add a page with detailed instructions of the issue.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

christ. at this point I'd just be demanding a refund because of how much they've drawn out the ticket.

[Steven P. Administrators]

This is what I have printed out (in Dutch) to go with the display, in the hope they finally test the damn thing properly, with help from @Ned Flandersexperiences I have also upped my memory voltage to 1.37V (from 1.35V).

OPEN STANDING ISSUES

Both on DisplayPort and HDMI at the highest frequency (DP 240Hz HDMI 120Hz) when I lock my Windows 10 PC, the monitor automatically turns off after 1 minute. After about 1 hour in sleep mode, "wake up" the monitor with a mouse movement, entire flashing blocks of lines will appear. With AMD cards this can only be corrected by turning the monitor off and on. On NVIDIA cards (4070Ti) ctrl + shift + win + B (driver restart) usually fixes the problem.

This issue appears to occur on DDR4 and DDR5 systems with (AMD) EXPO or (Intel) XMP memory profiles enabled.

THIS HAPPENED AFTER THE MOTHERBOARD WAS REPLACED (first repair request)

• OSD > System > Local Dimming (Auto) automatically switches to OFF when the screen is manually turned 'off' and 'on'
• OSD > Support > Information > 'Model Code' and 'S/N' missing (not present)

Cannot currently check this as I no longer have an NVIDIA card, but when I did back in  October:

• Monitor is no longer NVIDIA "G Sync certified" according to NVIDIA G Sync driver setting (but CAN be enabled) to be clear, this is a certified G Sync screen, but the driver indicates that this is NOT the case. However, it is possible to enable G Sync.

I think it has to do with the missing Model number, if that's what the Nvidia driver looks at?

[hellowalkman Reporter]

On 22/01/2024 at 23:29, Steven P. said:

I have also upped my memory voltage to 1.37V (from 1.35V)

We did this to see if perhaps unstable DRAM could be the culprit. Hopefully, the bump will help iron out such instabilities and resolve the flickering issue.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Last night I locked the PC and watched some TV, it was locked for 1h40m and when I woke to unlock, no flashing occured (since we upped the RAM voltage to 1.37 from 1.35)

This morning I disabled the iGPU as well in the BIOS by setting Advanced -> AMD CBS -> NBIO Common Options -> GFX Configuration -> Detect Discrete Display -> Enabled.

This basically turns off the iGPU until something is plugged into it, far better than manually doing "iGPU_Disabled" which would require a BIOS reset if your dGPU dies.

January 23 update:

CERepair are picking up the monitor tomorrow between 1pm - 4pm. I told the guy I would tape the issues (on an A4) I am having to the screen in the box, he said he would instruct technical dept. that there would be instructions delivered with the monitor.

Previously I relied on what Samsung had forwarded to CERepair, which were not correct or incomplete, both times.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Jan 26 update

OK just got an email, machine translated:

Original:

The difference here is that I am now being kept in the loop at the progress of the repair (good) and they have not said "it's a user problem" based on the feedback paper I shipped with the monitor. Plus, this is only a couple of days after they picked it up, which is also good. Here's hoping for finally a solution to the issues.