Second Monitor Interference

[Horus40k]

Hi All.

Just bought this game and really looking forward to getting into it. Unfortunately i am having the following problems.
When i launch the game, my second monitor is emitting an interference noise. Usually when this happens i can select the Vsync option and it disappears. but for some reason its not working on this game.

The interference doesn't happen straight away, the game launches and the intro sound play, the interference starts just before the menu screen appears.

My monitors are a 24" Benq and a27" ULTRAGear.
The 24" Benq has maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080. so i keep my ULTRA set to the same resolution so i have no conflicts.

Also when changing the graphics options the game tends to hang and i have to force close it down and restart the program.

I have even been into my graphics settings to limit the FPS (as i read on another article this could be an issue.
I have made the following changes to try and rectify the problem

Display mode, i have tried all 3 - Full Screen / Windowed & Borderless Window - nothing made a difference
Anti-Aliasing - havent touched as i didnt think it would make a difference
Upscaling - I tried AMD FSR 1.0 Performance - but it hung the program, so i had to end the task in the manager screen, when i rerun X4 the upscaling was back at none
Present Mode - I have tried No VSync and adaptive Vsync but that didnt work either.

The Graphics quality is set to high, im not sure if changing that to custom and manually changing the individual settings would work.

I also bought this on GOG (i was told the Developers get more profit rather than using steam).

Obviously if i switch the 2nd monitor off than the interference disappears. But i really enjoy having a second monitor to be able to look up things while playing.

If you require anymore information, please do not hesitate to ask

Hope everyone is having a great weekend

[CBJ]

I'm afraid this isn't something we would be able to do anything about, as it's almost certainly a hardware issue. The fact that it appears to happen only while playing the game is probably coincidental; it just means that the hardware conditions required to cause it only occur when that hardware is operating at certain levels of load or frequency, for example.

Personally I would start by checking that all cables are securely inserted, checking that all the cables have the necessary interference suppression and so on, moving the cables around to see if that has an effect, and so on. Then I'd move on to the graphics card, to see whether different sockets make a difference, and similarly with the monitors themselves.

[Imperial Good]

emitting an interference noise

Is this a visual noise on the screen? Or an audio noise? Audio noise would likely be coil whine related.

If audio related, make sure it is your display and not your GPU. GPUs making coil whine while playing games is common and is the result of massively changing currents powering the GPU core as the workload changes.

If it is your display making the noise then it might be related to variable refresh rate. Some displays do not handle the entire variable refresh rate range properly, which can result in flicker or coil whine at specific frequencies and resolutions.

If your display does not support variable refresh rate and is the source of the noise then make sure it is plugged into the same electric circuit as the computer and other display. This is to rule out minor voltage differences causing interference or undesired currents.

Possibly a video of the issue might help make sure people understand exactly what is wrong.

Display mode, i have tried all 3 - Full Screen / Windowed & Borderless Window - nothing made a difference

On windows you probably want to use Borderless Window. Fullscreen is kind of a legacy concept before windows had fullscreen optimisation.

Anti-Aliasing - havent touched as i didnt think it would make a difference

If it is coil whine on the GPU then this might make a difference by loading the GPU less.

Obviously if i switch the 2nd monitor off than the interference disappears. But i really enjoy having a second monitor to be able to look up things while playing.

Are both your main display and the second display using the same refresh rate with same variable refresh rate support? If there are differences then this could be a potential cause.

[Horus40k]

Hi there

Thank you for the replies. After tinkering around with all of the options, i have managed to get the whine to stop. I have selected the following

Anti-Aliasing - FXAA low
Upscaling - AMD FSR 1.0 Performance
Display Mode - Borderless Window
Present Mode - VSync
Graphics Quality - Low

Also made sure both monitors are running on the same refresh rate

Now i did play around with the custom settings, and it appears that with Volumetric fog on it produces the whine. (although without the AMD FSR Performance 1.0 selected the whine was still there).

I'm not 100% sure what the whine was from and now that i have it working, i'm a bit hesitant to start changing the settings.

The most annoying part was the game freezing up after selecting a setting (I have read that some SSD's are not compatible with this game and you have to alter via the config file in documents).
The game froze visually but by pressing buttons you can hear the menu sound going off. so its definitely a display bug, the game is working, but my screen is just showing the intro picture

The graphics are quite terrible at this setting, but i can play and my 2nd monitor is not producing any interference noise. so i'm happy

Thank you for your help. If anyone see's this and has a better suggestion i'm all ears or should i say eyes lol

[CBJ]

I don't know where you get the idea that the game is "incompatible" with some SSDs. There was an issue with a particular setting in some SSD software (Samsung Magician) a while back, but no incompatibility.

As for your system's current sensitivity to the settings, including the freezing up, I would reiterate that it sounds like very much like a hardware issue.

[Horus40k]

I don't know where you get the idea that the game is "incompatible" with some SSDs. There was an issue with a particular setting in some SSD software (Samsung Magician) a while back, but no incompatibility.

As for your system's current sensitivity to the settings, including the freezing up, I would reiterate that it sounds like very much like a hardware issue.

Hi there

i was only going off what i read. Ill quote the post

start quote

x4
Re: [4.0 CoH] Game hangs when changing graphics settings.
Post by michi_oss » Tue, 1. Jun 21, 17:01

The problem is caused by the SSD SN850. I have a similar issue. Posted in the German forum.
viewtopic.php?f=183&t=437010&p=5039147& ... 0#p5039147

For me it was not possible to change the resolution or window mode. After moving the game to a SATA SSD I could change any graphic setting.

So X4 has a problem with this SSD. No idea which problem. Perhaps the Cache?

end quote

You are probably correct its a hardware problem, as i do have to change settings in most games to get around the problem. I was just struggling too find the setting to get round it on this game.

Thankfully its all working well now

[CBJ]

That post is over 3 years old, and the assumption that it was a compatibility issue was entirely the player's, with no evidence on our side to support it. Regardless of that, it has nothing in common with the problem you've run into.

[Imperial Good]

If the coil whine is coming from your GPU, that is normal and should not affect the life of the GPU. As far as I am aware, all modern, reasonably powerful, GPUs will produce significant coil whine when under some types of workload, with the highest end GPUs often having it the loudest. It is the result of changing power usage from 10s to 100s of watts and back potentially millions of times per second due to cycle to cycle variances in the workload. The more power the GPU uses the more noticeable it can be.

If the coil whine is coming from your display, it is likely related to specific refresh rates and resolutions. You can try changing those in the desktop settings to find a combination that stops it. You might have to disable variable refresh rate on the display causing the whine.

[Horus40k]

If the coil whine is coming from your GPU, that is normal and should not affect the life of the GPU. As far as I am aware, all modern, reasonably powerful, GPUs will produce significant coil whine when under some types of workload, with the highest end GPUs often having it the loudest. It is the result of changing power usage from 10s to 100s of watts and back potentially millions of times per second due to cycle to cycle variances in the workload. The more power the GPU uses the more noticeable it can be.

If the coil whine is coming from your display, it is likely related to specific refresh rates and resolutions. You can try changing those in the desktop settings to find a combination that stops it. You might have to disable variable refresh rate on the display causing the whine.

Hi Thanks for the reply

The whine is definitely coming from my second monitor. When i turn the 2nd monitor off the whine disappears. I have reduced my main monitor down to 60hz refresh rate (to match my 2nd monitor) I have also lowered my resolution on my main monitor down to 1920 x 1080 to match my second monitor. While my second monitor is active (ie browsing the internet). The whine disappears, but as soon as i click on the game (on the main monitor) the whine from the 2nd monitor appears
IF i put the graphics quality at low the whine becomes barely noticeable, if i increase it to medium the whine increases slightly. Than if i increase it to high it jumps to a really high whine. Than Ultra is ridiculously loud.

Also Variable Refresh rate is disabled on both monitors.

It's really strange as normally if i have problems on games, activating the Vsync, usually clears the whine up no problem. Not sure why on this game the Vsync doesn't seem to alleviate the problem. It's obviously a hardware problem between my 2 monitors (i only recently upgraded my main monitor, i was running the same model of my 2nd monitor as my main and never had these problems. Unfortunately one of the monitors died, so decided to buy a new one).

The Vsync options have the following effects

Triple Buffering Vsync - The whine is really bad
No Vsync - The Whine is really bad
Vsync - Depending on settings can alleviate the whine (if i put the graphics settings on low)
Adaptive VSync - Is the same as Vsync ( the graphics options seems to dictate the whine).

For Now im playing with low graphics settings and enjoying the game

If you have any further advice, id be happy to try out any suggestions (ive made a copy of the config file, which works. so i can play about with it and if it really messes up i can just go back to the copy config file),

Hope your having a great weekend.

[Imperial Good]

Try running the game on just the second monitor with the first monitor turned off. If the whine still happens, maybe it is related to power quality in the local circuit? Maybe the second monitor does not have good power conditioning circuitry so noise and interference is bleeding from the computer attached to the same electrical circuit. When the graphics are high, the GPU is working hard so the computer draws more power from that circuit reducing the power quality so the display whines more. This does seem a bit extreme and if this is the case it would likely be caused by a faulty or poorly built device somewhere on that circuit.

Not sure how one would prove this though. Devices to test for power quality are usually quite expensive, and due to the need to manipulate mains electricity do contain a level of risk associated with them.

If the display has a built in speaker, maybe this is noise coming from the speakers? If it has an analogue audio input, perhaps try using the on screen display to disable or mute the sound and see if that helps.

[gbjbaanb]

I don't know where you get the idea that the game is "incompatible" with some SSDs. There was an issue with a particular setting in some SSD software (Samsung Magician) a while back, but no incompatibility.

It still says in the troubleshooting thread

Game on Samsung or Crucial SSD not starting and cannot change graphics settings
Try moving the game installation to a different drive or not using Samsung SSD Magician and Rapid mode, or Crucial SSD Momentum Cache, if still on SSD.

I can confirm this is still the case, unresponsive black screen at startup if x4 is installed on my Crucial SSD. works OK if install is changed to a gigabyte SSD. And for the record, I do not have any of the manufacturer's caching software installed (or any other manufacturer driver/firmware/utility or other junk, just the plain nvme drive stuck in a slot)