4k 144 Hz monitors never get signal again after turning off

## Problem Description I recently got some 4k 144 Hz monitors, and they perform great when they *do* work. The problem is, whenever I turn them off via the monitors' power buttons, or whenever they go blank due to DPMS settings, they will *never* get signal again whenever I power the monitors back on, or whenever I "wake" the computer up (jiggle the mouse or press keyboard keys or whatever), unless I manually intervene. The monitors will just report a DisplayPort NO SIGNAL message, and I'll just be sitting there with no visual input to the system. This sort of issue never happened to me with 4k 60 Hz monitors, so I'm assuming the issue has to do with the higher refresh rate, for whatever reason. Or maybe it's just the screens themselves? I've gotten pretty far with finding workarounds (see below) but I'd like to get a root-cause now, so that I know what the problem actually is (NVidia / drivers? the screens themselves? Linux kernel issue? Some weird DPMS settings? DisplayPort?), so that I don't have to deal with this problem in the future when I decide to upgrade other hardware. I'm not great with debugging low-level (to me at least) Linux issues like this one, so I'm seeking help in root-causing. ## My Setup ##### Relevant Hardware - NVidia 3080 Ti (specifically [this](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09622N253) one) - 2x Asus 4K 144 Hz monitors (specifically [these](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09FP3J623) ones) connected via DisplayPort (using the cables that came with the monitors) ##### Relevant Software - Distro: Arch - Linux kernel: core/linux 6.0.2.arch1-1 - NVidia driver: extra/nvidia 520.56.06-4 - X11 version: extra/xorg-server 21.1.4-1 - Display manager: extra/gdm 43.0-1 - Window manager: community/bspwm 0.9.10-2 (I doubt this is relevant, but just in case...) ## What I've root-caused so far, and workarounds I've found ##### xrandr reports that the display is connected when in this state With both screens fully functional, running xrandr gives me:

[...]
DP-0 connected 3840x2160+3840+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 620mm x 340mm
   3840x2160     60.00 + 144.00*  119.88   100.00    59.94    50.00    29.97    25.00    23.98 
[...]
DP-2 connected primary 3840x2160+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 620mm x 340mm
   3840x2160     60.00 + 144.00*  119.88   100.00    59.94    50.00    29.97    25.00    23.98
[...]

When I turn one monitor off:

[...]
DP-0 disconnected 3840x2160+3840+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
[...]
DP-2 connected primary 3840x2160+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 620mm x 340mm
   3840x2160     60.00 + 144.00*  119.88   100.00    59.94    50.00    29.97    25.00    23.98
[...]

And then when I turn that monitor back on, after the monitor reports DisplayPort NO SIGNAL and goes to idle:

[...]
DP-0 connected 3840x2160+3840+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 620mm x 340mm
   3840x2160     60.00 + 144.00*  119.88   100.00    59.94    50.00    29.97    25.00    23.98
[...]
DP-2 connected primary 3840x2160+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 620mm x 340mm
   3840x2160     60.00 + 144.00*  119.88   100.00    59.94    50.00    29.97    25.00    23.98
[...]

So, for some reason, the system thinks that the monitor is connected, but the signal is just being ignored by the monitor? Or something? ##### Workaround: Disable screen blanking

xset s 0 0
xset s off
xset s noblank

or in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-monitor.conf [](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Display_Power_Management_Signaling#Disabling_DPMS) :

Section "Extensions"
    Option      "DPMS" "Disable"
EndSection

This solves the issue where I walk away from my computer for a little bit and come back to unresponsive screens (because they never blank anymore), but it doesn't solve the issue where I power off the screens myself. ##### Workaround: Displays work again when I reboot the system The displays start working again when I reboot. Not a great workaround: I lose any work I was in the middle of doing, I lose all my open windows, I have to wait for the system to reboot; overall not fun. However, the monitors *do* reliably come back when I reboot. ##### Workaround: Displays (almost always?) work again if I quit bspwm I have a hotkey to quit bspwm (executes bspc quit), which brings me back to the login screen. For whatever reason, the monitors *usually* seem to come back if I do this. I *think* I've seen one of them fail to come back once or twice but it's pretty rare, so that's why I say "usually". Also not a great workaround: I lose any work I was in the middle of doing, lose all my windows, etc. At least I don't have to wait for a reboot though! ##### Workaround: Displays will *usually* come back if I change their refresh rate I'm unfortunately having trouble finding the post where I got this idea from right now, but someone mentioned that it might be some sort of handshaking issue in DisplayPort that's more likely to happen at higher refresh rates, or something? At any rate, I set up two different hotkeys that do this:

# hotkey 1
xrandr --output DP-2 --primary --mode 3840x2160 --rate 60.00 --rotate normal --output DP-0 --mode 3840x2160 --rate 60.00 --rotate normal --right-of DP-2
# hotkey 2
xrandr --output DP-2 --primary --mode 3840x2160 --rate 144.00 --rotate normal --output DP-0 --mode 3840x2160 --rate 144.00 --rotate normal --right-of DP-2

If I'm in a situation where the screens are gone, I can set both of their refresh rates to 60 Hz, and then set them back to 144 Hz, and they'll *usually* come back. If not, I can just try again until they do. Not a bad workaround: I don't lose any work or any of my active windows anymore, and I don't have to wait for reboot. Still a little annoying, though.