GA403UI - Intermittent Black Screen on Boot for builtin display

Purple-Chicken · 2026-07-08 01:24:19

Upon booting, after the startup logo shows up, the screen goes entirely black, instead of showing me GRUB or BIOS (when I try entering it). The expected behavior is being able to see those when I boot.
The issue can best be described as intermittent (as I can't exactly figure out what is causing the issue), however recently I have got it to work when booting with
Below are the output of some commands I ran after getting the screen to show on boot

`fastfetch -c none`

purple@ArchG14
--------------
OS: Arch Linux x86_64
Host: ROG Zephyrus G14 GA403UI_GA403UI (1.0)
Kernel: Linux 7.0.12-hardened1-2-hardened
Uptime: 19 mins
Packages: 828 (pacman)
Shell: bash 5.3.15
Display (Unknown-1): 2880x1800 in 35", 60 Hz
Terminal: /dev/pts/0 10.4p1
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS (16) @ 5.26 GHz
GPU 1: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q / Mobile [Discrete]
GPU 2: AMD Radeon 780M Graphics
Memory: 1.31 GiB / 30.64 GiB (4%)
Swap: 0 B / 4.00 GiB (0%)
Disk (/): 41.62 GiB / 949.37 GiB (4%) - btrfs
Local IP (wlp3s0): 192.168.2.5/24
Battery (A32-K55): 97% (7 hours, 38 mins remaining) [Discharging]
Locale: C.UTF-8

pacman -Qs nvidia*

local/egl-gbm 1.1.3-1
    The GBM EGL external platform library
local/egl-wayland 4:1.1.21-1
    EGLStream-based Wayland external platform
local/egl-wayland2 1.0.1-1
    EGLStream-based Wayland external platform (2)
local/egl-x11 1.0.5-1
    NVIDIA XLib and XCB EGL Platform Library
local/lib32-nvidia-utils 610.43.02-1
    NVIDIA drivers utilities (32-bit)
local/libvdpau 1.5-4
    Nvidia VDPAU library
local/linux-firmware-nvidia 20260622-1
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for NVIDIA GPUs and SoCs
local/nvidia-open-dkms 610.43.02-3
    NVIDIA open kernel modules - module sources
local/nvidia-utils 610.43.02-3
    NVIDIA drivers utilities
local/nvtop 3.3.2-1
    GPUs process monitoring for AMD, Intel and NVIDIA

systemd-analyze cat-config modprobe.d

# /usr/lib/modprobe.d/nvidia-sleep.conf
# https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/595.45.04/README/powermanagement.html
# Enable Suspend Notifiers for faster and more modern suspend
options nvidia NVreg_UseKernelSuspendNotifiers=1
#
# The destination should not be using tmpfs, so we prefer
# /var/tmp instead of /tmp
options nvidia NVreg_TemporaryFilePath=/var/tmp

# /usr/lib/modprobe.d/nvidia-utils.conf
blacklist nouveau
blacklist nova_core
blacklist nova_drm

# /usr/lib/modprobe.d/systemd.conf
#  SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later
#
#  This file is part of systemd.
#
#  systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
#  under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
#  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
#  (at your option) any later version.
#
# When bonding module is loaded, it creates bond0 by default due to max_bonds
# option default value 1. This interferes with the network configuration
# management / networkd, as it is not possible to detect whether this bond0 was
# intentionally configured by the user, or should be managed by
# networkd/NM/etc. Therefore disable bond0 creation.

options bonding max_bonds=0

# Do the same for dummy0.

options dummy numdummies=0

# Do the same for ifb0.

options ifb numifbs=0

lsmod | grep -E "amdgpu|nvidia"

nvidia_wmi_ec_backlight    12288  0
nvidia_drm            167936  0
nvidia_uvm           2457600  0
nvidia_modeset       1921024  1 nvidia_drm
nvidia              18186240  2 nvidia_uvm,nvidia_modeset
amdgpu              16920576  0
amdxcp                 12288  1 amdgpu
drm_panel_backlight_quirks    12288  1 amdgpu
gpu_sched              73728  2 amdxdna,amdgpu
drm_buddy              28672  1 amdgpu
drm_ttm_helper         20480  2 amdgpu,nvidia_drm
ttm                   126976  2 amdgpu,drm_ttm_helper
video                  81920  5 nvidia_wmi_ec_backlight,asus_wmi,amdgpu,asus_nb_wmi,nvidia_modeset
wmi                    36864  5 video,nvidia_wmi_ec_backlight,asus_armoury,asus_wmi,wmi_bmof
drm_exec               12288  1 amdgpu
i2c_algo_bit           24576  1 amdgpu
drm_suballoc_helper    16384  1 amdgpu
drm_display_helper    290816  1 amdgpu
cec                    98304  2 drm_display_helper,amdgpu

lspci -d ::03xx

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation AD106M [GeForce RTX 4070 Max-Q / Mobile] (rev a1)
65:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] HawkPoint1 (rev cb)

cat /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:01:00.0/power/runtime_status

suspended

cat /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:65:00.0/power/runtime_status

active

Things I have tried:
Reinstalling Nvidia Drivers
Reinstalling Arch via Arch Install Wiki
Update BIOS
Changing various GRUB and modprobe configs

How this issue started:
About a month ago I had an interrupted `yay -Syu` update (through closing the lid, which I set up to hibernate in hyprland), which is when the black screen issues started occurring, Fortunately I could ssh into my machine, and after a couple reboots or power cycles, the screen would randomly start working again, then stop once I rebooted. That is how I was able to reinstall Arch using the official wiki, and set up another ssh tunnel before I would be locked out again.

Last edited by Purple-Chicken (2026-07-08 02:13:31)

seth · 2026-07-08 07:08:00

instead of showing me GRUB or BIOS (when I try entering it)

If this also affects the pre-boot system on cold boots (fully powered down, not a warm reboot) it's not *overly* likely to be related to the OS, though

Display (Unknown-1): 2880x1800 in 35", 60 Hz

That suggests you're running on the simpledrm device

intermittent

This is a notebook? Do you use the internal panel or an external monitor? Can you attach a latter? Does that also drop out?

however recently I have got it to work when booting with [sic!]

Booting with what?
Because of the simpledrm device: "nomodeset"?

Kernel: Linux 7.0.12-hardened1-2-hardened

Assuming the amdgpu module leaves the HW in an undefined state, do you get reliable behavior w/ the LTS kernel?

Purple-Chicken · Today 04:50:18

If this also affects the pre-boot system on cold boots (fully powered down, not a warm reboot) it's not *overly* likely to be related to the OS, though

I have been suspecting that the hibernate must have messed with one of the circuits relating to the internal display, and because of it the hardware is unable to detect the builtin display.

That suggests you're running on the simpledrm device

Is that an issue? I don't believe I messed around with DRM on my device.

This is a notebook? Do you use the internal panel or an external monitor? Can you attach a latter? Does that also drop out?

Yes, this is a notebook device. The issue occurs with the internal panel. After booting into Linux the external monitor (connected via HDMI) appears to function correctly. I am even able to see the BIOS after selecting the appropriate option in GRUB. BIOS confirms that the internal monitor is not detected on boot.

Booting with what?

Before sending I noticed that every time the internal panel would work on boot, the computer was connected to AC. However, before sending I wanted to double check, and there was one occasion when the internal panel worked [bold]without[/bold] AC connected (battery power only). I simply forgot to delete this line before sending.

Do you get reliable behavior w/ the LTS kernel?

Other than an additional message on boot, the LTS kernel and the standard kernel do not appear to change the behavior or resolve the issue. The additional message is as follows:

error: commands/loadenv.c:check_blocklists:289:sparse file not allowed. 
Loading Linux linux-lts ... 
Loading initial ramdisk ... 

Press any key to continue...

seth · Today 06:20:30

Is that an issue?

It means that you're not using your GPU but rendering everything in software - it's not MPAA "drm" (futile effort to prevent pirating bad movies)
If that's the only way to get the eDP to display anything, that's an issue.

Please post your complete system journal for a boot where the eDP fails, eg.

sudo journalctl -b | curl -s -H "Accept: application/json, */*" --upload-file - 'https://paste.c-net.org/'

for the current one and also

sudo journalctl -b -1 | curl -s -H "Accept: application/json, */*" --upload-file - 'https://paste.c-net.org/'

for the previous one (so we can see what's leading up to apparently losing the output in the pre-boot system)

Arch Linux

#1 2026-07-08 01:24:19

GA403UI - Intermittent Black Screen on Boot for builtin display

#2 2026-07-08 07:08:00

Re: GA403UI - Intermittent Black Screen on Boot for builtin display

#3 Today 04:50:18

Re: GA403UI - Intermittent Black Screen on Boot for builtin display

#4 Today 06:20:30

Re: GA403UI - Intermittent Black Screen on Boot for builtin display

Board footer