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The screen flashes/blanks randomly, when It flashes, It goes blank and stays in blank for like 2 seconds and screen comes back again. But again after having 1 second of screen, it goes blank again. Sometimes it might take up to 10 minutes for it to go blank, but sometimes every 2 seconds it goes blank. I've tested using a 1280x768 monitor and it worked fine without even one blanking. I'm using a HDMI to VGA converter. My own monitor is 1048x768 LG Flatron old monitor. Could that be my monitor is taking some power from raspberry? But if it's taking power, then why does the monitor go blank randomly and why sometimes it works for 10 minutes without blanking?

Also as a note, I've tried hdmi-safe and it was the same. I tried changing the resolution but it was still the same problem.

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  • On a side note: are you sure that it is the Pi? I mean do the displays work fine with other sources (e.g. PC, Laptop)? I just happen to have a monitor around that shows such sympthoms without the Pi...
    – Ghanima ♦
    Mar 30, 2015 at 13:40
  • @Ghanima The monitor works fine with my PC, I've also had some tests with it on a Laptop and It worked fine. The thing is, Monitor's cable input is VGA and the other side of cable where goes to the monitor is something other than VGA, I don't know what It's named.
    – 111WARLOCK111
    Mar 30, 2015 at 13:58
  • I'm no expert but I believe the more connectors involved the greater the signal loss. Do you have a normal HDMI TV or monitor you can connect the pi to for a while to compare?
    – goldilocks ♦
    Mar 30, 2015 at 14:25
  • Have you supplied power for your HDMI convertor? The D to A convertor needs it, and the HDMI cable (pin 18) is only good for 50 milliamps: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI Your convertor may be intermittently starved for juice.
    – Wayfaring Stranger
    Apr 13, 2015 at 1:05
  • I had the same problem with the rpi 2 using a powered usb hub. Setting Boost to 4 did not work. I am using an elo touchscreen with vga to hdmi adapter. Will try boost to 6 and changing hdmi group.
    – Nitin
    Jul 27, 2017 at 14:41

9 Answers 9

Reset to default
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In /boot/config.txt, uncomment the line with config_hdmi_boost and change its value to =6.

The suggested value of 4 was still too low for a Samsung 205BW monitor connected to a Raspberry Pi 3.

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  • 1
    Beware that it is possible to effectively set that beyond the officially documented maximum of 7, and you may find other people online recommending that. However, we've had someone report here having to increase the number occasionally over time (I think the real max is 11), and eventually the jack stopped working completely.
    – goldilocks ♦
    Oct 21, 2016 at 18:50
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I'm not sure this will help, but had this similar problem on my Raspberry (old 1 Model B) also yesterday. I had not noticed it before because I only recently started using it with X and a monitor. Every time I scrolled in a browser window or even an lxterminal the screen would go blank for 2 seconds seemingly randomly. Changing resolution or tweaking with hdmi settings in /boot/config.txt had no effect whatsoever. It turned out that the problem was related to insufficient power fed to the display adaptor. I had my raspberry connected to my router's usb slot and obviously this port is only meant for usb sticks that require far less power, perhaps just a few hundred mAs. Connecting the raspberry to a usb port on my pc solved the problem. No more flashing. So try connecting your unit to a different power supply (one rated for at least 1A, preferably more). I hope this helps anyone with similar issues.

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5

I finally solved this issue by changing /boot/config.txt. By setting hdmi_group=1 and hdmi_mode=25, which will set the refresh rate to 100Hz.

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  • 1
    note specific mode numbers are for specific monitor resolution, so not a lot of good as a general answer.
    – agentp
    Jun 19, 2017 at 23:48
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I had the same screen flashing problem. I tried various suggestions here but it did not help. I replaced my 15' HDMI cable with a 2' cable and the problem went away.

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    Thanks! Sometimes it's not config just a connection problem! None of the suggested changes stabilized my display so I changed the cable from a generic HDMI cable to a different (fancy) HDMI cable that was also connected to the same monitor and the blanking stopped.
    – agtb
    Nov 7, 2019 at 19:10
  • The same problem was with me, I changed my power adopter but the issue not solved. Then I read your solution and changed my HDMI cable. Now no screen flashing! Thanks for the great answer.
    – Muhammad Sarmad Mahmood Malik
    Apr 25, 2020 at 0:08
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I got the same problem of intermittent blank screen on Raspberry Pi 3. Searched the web for many days, didn't find the right answer. It's not caused by a power voltage issue, or HDMI boost parameter as many answers suggest.

I finally solved this issue by changing /boot/config.txt, by setting hdmi_group=1. And hdmi_mode=41. Which will set the refresh rate to 100.

Seems the default configuration doesn't work properly.

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This problem started happening after my RPI Model B+ lost power suddenly.

Several reboots and "fixes" to /boot/config.txt (described above) did not help.

What worked for me was to go the drive eject icon in far upper right corner of screen and eject my SD card. After a reboot, problem was fixed.

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I had a similar problem with a mini screen. It would start displaying, turn on for a single frame, and turn off over and over again. I had to physically remove the speakers from the monitor and it never happened again. Hope this helps someone!

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The simplest answer I've personally discovered is that an aux cable or even a dummy 3.5mm jack needs to be plugged into the HDMI to VGA adapter always , if not the pi finds audio not being picked up I guess and it tries to identify the display causing the screen flickering cz HDMI has both audio and video . When the 3.5mm slot in the adaptor is plugged with anything, screen flickering stops

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Add this line to /boot/config.txt

disable_splash=1

Then reboot 2 times.

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  • There is no way disabling the splash will improve the video quality later on. And "reboot 2 times" suggests that you did something between the reboots that really helped, but didn't take note of it.
    – Dmitry Grigoryev
    Jan 9, 2020 at 8:39

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