Well, I shutdown yesterday and powered back on and it still appears to be happening. How long did it take to stop for you and did you leave it on or off?
A few hours later it was invisible, the machine was kept on but the display was off (screensaving).
@joshwiththegoodhair (Iāve only ever used the USBC cable and the Genuine adapter that shipped with the GPD from memory I cannot remember what that was but the max Volts/Amperage was posted on this forum.)
Mine still intermittently flickers from time to time usually if left to idle to screensaver for extended period and then I resume from. My Bios is still 0.24. Recently I noticed that even if I shut it down and left it powered off for 5 minutes on starting up it was still flickering eventually it either stops or my eyes adjust to it and I donāt notice it as much.
Drastically reduced by this evening but still slightly there. Hopefully it is something GPD can fix through either a display specific driver or firmware but at least it feels usable again, at first it was so bad I couldnāt stand to look at it
I just had the same issue.
Laptop was open and running for ah hour or so with micro-hdmi to HDMI screen projection using just the external screen, laptop was plugged into a equivalently rated power supply via USB-C.
Then I locked the laptop when I walked away for a few minutes and upon returning after waking the laptop it was using the laptop screen and the backlight was flickering.
Turning down the backlight to itās lowest setting confirms itās the backlight and not the graphics driver.
In the past Iāve had other laptops have the same problem caused by it rapidly swapping screen refresh rates, but the p2max only has a 60htz refresh rate in Windows 10.
I have the same problem on my gpd p2max:
- screen goes to sleep due to power saving settings (not full suspend, just the screen); laptop temperature is cool as it is basically idling
- trying to wake the screen up does not work, after moving mouse or typing the screen stays black, but the laptop is otherwise responsive
- put it to sleep, wake it and screen is back, but flickering
- turning it off or going to another OS does not help
- canāt notice any flickering on the lowest backlight, but the very next level already shows flickering
It has happened three times. The first two times it quickly went away, this third time (and the reason I ended up in this forum) is not going away so soon. After 1 hour it feels like the flickering is not as bad, but will have to wait longer to see if it finally goes away.
I can see the flickering in the BIOS screen as well.
My main OS is Ubuntu Eoan (19.10) and I have been through a few kernel updates.
Changing the kernel (or even the OS) does not help at all, so it seems like it is a hardware problem triggered by the screen going to sleep somehow.
Does this problem happen when only using Windows? Iām curious if this is a linux-only thing?
Obviously, if this happens in linux, it persists if you restart into Windows, but if someone is only using Windows, does this problem ever occur? If itās only happening in linux, there might be some hope with some weird DPMS settings, but if itās happening in Windows as well, itās a hardware issue that has to be fixed.
I only really use Linux on it. Windows is there, but I rarely boot on it.
Hopefully someone else who is using Windows more often might be able to tell if the problem ever occurs there - but it does take a while to happen, I have been running it for more than 4 months straight and I only seen it happen 3 times.
Edit: This did not work and the problem came back after a couple days. 
So, being stuck at home for COVID yesterday, I spent a little time trying to resolve this issue, and think I may have found a solution. I updated the kernel and that seemed to make this issue happen every single restart - which was annoying, but created a good test scenario.
First - to answer my own previous question, Windows can cause the issue when power management turns off the display, so it is definitely hardware related. I also went into linux and tried a couple different options in terms of how power management turns off the display - xscreensaver, xfce/xflock4, gnome-screensaver, etc. This problem happened in each scenario. But one thing I noticed is that I could occasionally see part of the screen that should have been showing (for a quick second) before the screen turned black, but was still powered on. This behavior is very similar to when Windows does updates and when the Pocket restarts, the BIOS and Windows loading screen has similar weird behavior. Itās almost as if, on a lower level, the display resolution/mode wasnāt syncing or being set properly.
That led me to believe that maybe there was something in the BIOS that could potentially fix. I switched a couple options which seems to have resolved this:
- Boot > Fast Boot > Enabled
- Boot > Fast Boot > āVGA Supportā = Auto (was āEFI Driverā)
- Boot > Quiet Boot > Disabled
Now, when I boot, the EFI screen is giant and ugly, but so far, I havenāt been able to recreate the weird suspend issue. My thought is the second āVGA Supportā option is disabling EFI resolutions (or something similar) which is the cause of the problem.
Again, Iāve only tested this āgoodā behavior for a day, but I have spent many restarts and scenarios trying to recreate the problem and havenāt been able to. I thought I would share to see if anyone else wanted to give it a try and report back?
Edit: Almost two weeks later and this is still working. Whenever I need to reboot, I power off the P2 Max, disconnect the power adapter, power it back on, then reconnect the power adapter. Iāve yet to have the flickering issue again (although this āsolutionā is a PITA).
A new week and new tests.
For me, if this flickering/lock issue is going to happen, it almost always happens upon first lock. Iāve been using that as a test scenario to test some power cycling scenarios.
- (power adapter disconnected) power off > power on > connect power adapter after Xorg is loaded - no issues with unlocking or flickering
- (power adapter connected) power off > power on - occasional lock issues (25% of the time)
- (power adapter disconnected) reboot/restart - good number of lock issues (40% of the time)
- (power adapter connected) reboot/restart - this seems to cause the most issues for me; almost every time (80% of the time); this is also the scenario I typically use when rebooting
So, for now, Iām going to try disconnecting the power adapter, powering off, then back on, then connect power again. Iāll report back.
Hello,
I booted my P2 Max up today and left it running with the screen closed while charging. When I opened it back up I had a flickering screen. Itās pretty bad. Hard to look at for more than a couple of seconds.
Iāve tried what you suggested with no luck. I also tried updating my BIOS to the 1.27 version. This did not help.
Iāve had my P2 Max for less than six months, and Iām bummed out. Does anyone know if Iām out of luck, or will GPD work with me?
Iām willing to try stuff if anyone has any suggestions.
Thanks!
Have you tried installing the 0.27 firmware? Here is a link to the firmware
and their site:
Think this serious issue needs to be looked into instead of ignored by the GPD team, i am typing this on my p2 max now flickering almost having a seizure lol.
disconnected battery for 24hours a few days ago hoping it would help, still here a few days later but like other users say it isnt visible at minimum brightness.
(my device was shipped with V0.29 bios)
Happened to me yesterday. Win10home 20h2.
Disconnected HDMI cable USB cable and USBC Charging cable.
Closed the lid and when I opened it again 10 seconds later the screen was flickering.
I donā recall if I had to wake it using power button (probably yes).
Iām set to sleep on lid close.
Was using the adapter that came with it. .
The flickering looks almost like a slow screen refresh rate to me. In fact I kept going back to confirm Windows driver was set to 60 Hz. This could be backlight is flickering at less than 28Hz or some frequency that is visible. It is less visible on white background document screen which to me says backlight balance problem.
Booted to bios to check settings and the flickering continued in Bios also. This is a hardware or bios issue.
By this morning (I left the unit on overnight so backup could run ) The flicker had resolved itself.
I use HDMI monitor most of the time so if itās happening on and off I wouldnāt normally notice .
Just checking in if any of you still have the device / have the same issue.
I just picked up a P2 Max 2022 refresh and ran into a similar issue.
With a CPU refresh, Iād assume the hardware design (and flaw) stays the sameā¦