Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

[kishisaki]

Hello Everyone,

I have a Dell U3011 Rev. 03 and using the monitor for about 16 hours a day the half right side of the screen starts flickering appears at random times anywhere in between after 1 to 5 days of use, the only way to go away is to turn off the monitor completely from the wall outlet for about 20 to 30 minutes, then it will give me again about 1 to 5 days of use 16 hours a day before flickering again.

I have tried all the main inputs so far with very high quality cables and extremely thick cables: 6ft 24AWG CL2 Dual Link DVI-D cable and 6ft Premium DisplayPort 1.2 cable and i have no interference from any equipment as far as i know anywhere in my house radious and i have done basic visual capacitor inspection and none have bulged caps, i also tried to replicate/remedy the issue by touching the ribbon cables connected to the screen and various components and nothing happens.

I am posting pictures of the various component and similar issues that is very close to what i have, unfortunately i have not had the chance to capture the issue at camera, its faint compare to the pictures bellow and doesn't show up on camera clearly, but its enough to get the idea of my issue.

Regards, Kishisaki.

[selldoor]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

Are you able to try running it without the back on and/or with additional cooling to see if the on time increases.
Conversely try heating the boards gently with a hairdryer when it is ok and see if it accelerates the fault. If it does then try and narrow it down to an area then a component.

[kishisaki]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

Are you able to try running it without the back on and/or with additional cooling to see if the on time increases.
Conversely try heating the boards gently with a hairdryer when it is ok and see if it accelerates the fault. If it does then try and narrow it down to an area then a component.

hello,

yes the first time the issue appeared was with the cover on at the 1-2 day mark before the issue appeared, then i took it apart and never put it back and it hit 4-5 day mark before the issue appeared.

regards.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

That looks like a Tcon issue. Usually the culprit will be the large processor on the Tcon because of failed solder joints. Point the hairdrier to the Tcon board (the board in the last pic) to confirm this.

[kishisaki]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

That looks like a Tcon issue. Usually the culprit will be the large processor on the Tcon because of failed solder joints. Point the hairdrier to the Tcon board (the board in the last pic) to confirm this.

yep that did it looks like its that middle chip in the Tcon board i took off the thermal pad from it and heat it up while the unit was on, 5 seconds on it the right screen went flickering.

so should i No Clean Flux this chip and reflux it like the PlayStation 3?

[Davi.p]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

if the problem is solder joints he can try to press that area, or i add, press the ribbon cables from tcon to panel.

[kishisaki]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

if the problem is solder joints he can try to press that area, or i add, press the ribbon cables from tcon to panel.

i try pressing the chip and its area nothing happen still the same.
i touched the ribbon cables nothing happen still the same.

[Davi.p]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

I don't see the middle chip under the pad, it's a bga type?

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

Yes it definitely is a BGA. Reflow time.

[Davi.p]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

Yes... but i don't know why it don't react to the pressure..

[kishisaki]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

Yes it definitely is a BGA. Reflow time.

yep i am going to give it a try tomorrow after i get my hands on some expensive local retail flux-pen.

Yes... but i don't know why it don't react to the pressure..

yeah i am not sure, what i did was first i removed the board i heated with a hairdryer for 5 minutes and then i lets it cool then i assembled it and turn it on fine then while on i heated again and the issue reappeared.

[Davi.p]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

Yes, i don't have doubts about the soldering issue, but why don't react to the pressure.. i have a Toshiba laptop where i strongly suspect a bga soldering problem on the GPU IC (as often, the ON time until the freezing was varying through the passing days until now it don't boot more) and if i keep it pressed the suspect IC it doesn't seem to change behavior..

[kotomo]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

I also have a Dell U3011, however mine is a Rev. 04. I know this topic is old, but I've got the same problem with one I have recently acquired and am hoping to find some more advice on what the actual problem is.

I've always wanted one of these Dell 30" monitors but never could justify to myself about spending over $1K for one. Even used at $500 I just seemed to put it off in place of spending more on storage space or better gaming hardware. I recently decided to take the gamble on an ebay item that was described to power on but has a deep scratch in the bottom center of the screen. The monitor was of course sold as is so I knew there had to be a catch. The scratch is barely visible at all and there are no dead pixels in the LCD panel. The color and back light all look fantastic. Yay! However, after the monitor is on for about 40 minutes from being at room temperature, I get the same horizontal flickering lines. Turning it off, and then back on again alleviates those lines, however they reappear after about another 5-10 minutes of being on.

Here is a video of the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm6pwHuno7w

What I have done so far to try and narrow it down and fix:

Reseated all the cables running from the main input board to the Tcon board. The ribbon cables from the Tcon board to the tape carrier circuit boards at the top of the display.

Bought a known working main input board from ebay. However the same symptom occurred on the same side of the screen.

Ran the monitor for over an hour with the main back panel removed and a house fan blowing on the back of the monitor and never saw the issue arise.

Tried to re-flow the main BGA chip on the the Tcon board with a Wagner heat gun. Still no luck. Maybe I haven't successfully re-flowed it. (I've tried the heat gun trick on my old Xbox-360 multiple times. Never had any success.)

The next thing I'm going to try is replacing the main filter cap, as well as the surrounding ones, on the PSU board. It's the largest physical cap on the board, 450V 120microFarad.

One thing I do notice about the PSU, is that I get a nice buzzing noise when the monitor is not powered on, but plugged in. It's not all that loud but is noticeable when my head is hovering over the top of the monitor. I suspect this is because of poor filtering from some deteriorated component on the PSU, hence why I'm replacing what I think to be the most likely culprits, the capacitors. The capacitors show no leaks or bulges but I figure for under $20, this is worth a shot. When the monitor is powered on, the buzzing is less audible but still present.

I am beginning to feel like it might be the tape carrier circuitry is not bonded properly to the LCD panel or it's overheating. After the 40 minute mark and the problem arises, the hottest part of the whole monitor is at the very top of the LCD panel. This is just from feeling with my hands. If it's just overheating then I suppose all that needs to happen is find a better way to get it cool.

Essentially, I am asking around and bringing this back up to see if anyone has any insight to what this actual problem is. To determine if it's the actual LCD panel itself, or if it's the replaceable, repairable internal circuity that controls the whole panel.

Thank you.

[bammbammfran]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

I tried to post a comment on utube but wouldn't work ??

since it is doing half the screen ,It might be an issue with the one ribbon at the top of the lcd controller board where one splits into two.
try rubbing your finger with decent pressure across the ribbon lock down clip while the issue is there to see if there is any affect.
try removing that ribbon, cleaning it good with alcohol and reseating it.
If it is not that, it is probably that controller board.

so the next thing to try, is to remove the controller board cover and if you can apply a heatsink to the chip and see if that helps it run longer till it acts up again.

[kotomo]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

Thanks for the reply. Now that you mentioned it, I did use a pink eraser gently on the contacts of the ribbon cables going from the Tcon board to the LCD panel. I'll give the alcohol a try tonight.

I did also manage to scrounge up a tiny heat sink so I'll stick that on their if the alcohol cleaning doesn't work. I'll be sure to post my results.

[bammbammfran]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

OK
These connectors are usually not a real issue on this model, but it doesn't hurt to rule them out especially since it is just half of the screen involved.
If you pop the top metal frame off, you can even do the two at the screen on that side.
I think that the issue on these is similar to the 3008wfp in that, they did put a thermal pad on the chip, but the thermal pad is not thick enough to transfer the heat to the perforated top cover, if the pad was thicker, it would make the top cover act like a heatsink.
I usually cut a hole out of the cover and mount a heatsink right to the chip and eliminate the pad.
On some, I actually use a vga heatsink/fan combo that I power from the 24 volts of the inverter with a voltage regulator

[kishisaki]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

good that you revive the post, i got a notification via email so i thought was a great idea and time to let every one know how i fix my issue.

My Issue was the BGA chips and ram, so i did re-flow them using a Wagner heat gun and RMA Liquid Flux, that solved my problem and its working fine every since my post.

re-flow is a pain in the but i will tell you that, either you have the proper equipment to do it or you don't, the middle ground is hard.
i did how ever the middle ground with no proper equipment and i ended up blowing 2-3 capacitors in the process due to excessive heat, but you need a lot of heat to re-flow around 235 C so that's the issue you can pop a capacitor easy so i had to replace 2-3 capacitor in the process or you can just thermal protect all the capacitor maybe all components that doesn't need to be re-flow with proper protection but i was lazy and i paid for it. you may also use a Infra-red or light base heat guns with a good thermal sensor to monitor temperatures to re-flow since you can apply more heat to a more accurate control area you want.
Trust me man BGA sucks man my PS3, Xbox, GPU all had issues regarding BGA, re-flow using reputable Flux or re-ball it its the best option i would seek a re-ball led next time i have BGA issues for sure.

here is the flux that i used it: http://www.ebay.com/itm/230729054223
this sucker is good and but its very messy beware.

[kotomo]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

So on a positive update, I have tried bammbammfran's suggestion of getting the Tcon BGA chip cooler. Just in the most ghetto-fied way. I simply taped some small 12v fans to the back where the Tcon board is located. I have now been 3 hours with the monitor on and no flickering pixels of doom.

kishisaki, thanks for the tips on actually doing a successful re-flow. Right now I'm debating on whether to actually continue with a re-flow, or just figure out how I'm going to get 12v to these fans, or fan, from the monitor.

Thanks for all your help, I'll continue to keep you folks posted.

[bammbammfran]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

what I did on a dell 3007wfp as far as a cooler is pictured
the sink sits all the way down on the actual chip and the hole in the t-con over is tight and it actually helps to hold the heatsink down onto the chip. that fan is an evercool cyclone that I use to use. I switched to much larger zalmans on my gateways and samsungs

I took power from the 24 volts of the inverter board and ran it to a voltage regulator and then to the fan

it also helps to cut a hole out of the rear case right above the fan so that the fan can get cooler room temperature air

[kotomo]

Re: Dell U3011 Rev. 03 Half Right Side Flickering After a Period of Time

what I did on a dell 3007wfp as far as a cooler is pictured
the sink sits all the way down on the actual chip and the hole in the t-con over is tight and it actually helps to hold the heatsink down onto the chip. that fan is an evercool cyclone that I use to use. I switched to much larger zalmans on my gateways and samsungs

I took power from the 24 volts of the inverter board and ran it to a voltage regulator and then to the fan

it also helps to cut a hole out of the rear case right above the fan so that the fan can get cooler room temperature air

That's pretty damn awesome, sir! I think I'm going to settle on doing the same thing. I like simple stupid. Thanks for those pics, too!