(Nerdy) multiple screens setup crashes

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Hello, I’m having a not-so-conventional screens setup and I’d like to get some advices because I’m having some heavy crashes from time to time, and I couldn’t find answers to my issue on other sides of the internet :slight_smile:

So, at first, here’s the setup:

  • Framework Laptop 16
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS
  • Expansion bay graphics module: AMD Radeon™ RX 7700S (1st Gen)
  • 48GB DDR5-5600
  • NVMe SN850X 2TB storage
  • OS: LMDE 6 (Faye) x86_64, Kernel 6.1.0-41-amd64
  • Screens:
    • Dell 19’’ (old), DVI output, can be configured to 75.02 Hz or 60.02 Hz
    • Philips CEC 22’’ (old too) DVI output, locked to 60.00 Hz
    • Samsung 27’’ curved (recent: bought last year), HDMI output, can be configured to 71.91 Hz, 60 Hz, 50 Hz or 59.94 Hz
    • The native Framework Laptop display, configurable to 60.00 Hz or 165.00 Hz
  • Note about the screens: they are all connected to the laptop through a setup that is like “only stuff I could find”:
    • All screens have an output cord that is {their output} → DisplayPort female. That is: two DVI→DisplayPort, and one HDMI→DisplayPort
    • They are all connected to a StarTech DisplayPort 3-screens splitter, with an external power supply.
    • The splitter has a DisplayPort male output, to which I plug a J&D DisplayPort female-to-female coupler
    • Out of this coupler, I have a DisplayPort→USB 3.1 Type-C male cord that I plug to the USB Type-C port on the back of the laptop’s graphics expansion bay, which is documented to correspond to the display output.

So far, the setup works: I can configure all 3 screens conjointedly with the laptop’s display.

Side-note: I have exactly the same setup for my desktop computer, they’re both on the same desk, and I “switch” the display cables when I switch computer: sometimes it’s the USB-C-to-laptop when I’m using it, and when I use the desktop computer, it’s full DisplayPort.

On the desktop computer, everything is fine, and I reported zero crash.

I just reported a few “sync” issues (sometimes the biggest screen isn’t detected), which are quickly fixed by… unplugging and re-plugging the cable :slight_smile:

The issue on the laptop is that “from time to time”, in situations that I still haven’t exactly concretely defined because they’re so diverse, I end up with the following types of issues:

  • Some “burning horizontal lines” appear when the screen’s input is received at first, like when turning the computer on, or when plugging the cable.
  • There are a lot of random sync issues when I turn every peripheral on: sometimes the biggest screen isn’t detected (same issue as the aforementioned desktop computer, but more often), but this part is fixed by unplugging and re-plugging the USB-C cable to the laptop.
  • And the worst part: sometimes, everything “crashes”, and my OS session is reset. This means that every app is SIGKILL/SIGQUIT terminated, and the OS tells me to enter my username and password to log in again. It must be noted that it is not a computer restart: it’s a “session reset”.

The issue I’d like to fix is the last one, because it’s the worst one: I lost some work because of that, and thankfully I’m a developer so I kinda never have “pending unsaved work” (I save everything everytime), and since it doesn’t imply data corruption (or it “just doesn’t yet”…), I mostly lost time, the “todo-list” I had in mind, and the running softwares that I all have to restart.

I searched in the logs by running dmesg -w, and I found stuff like this:

# ...
drm:amdgpu_job_timedout [amdgpu]] *ERROR* ring sdma0 timeout, signaled seq=87027, emitted seq=87029                                          
[drm:amdgpu_job_timedout [amdgpu]] *ERROR* Process information: process  pid 0 thread  pid 0   
# ...
[drm] DPIA AUX failed on 0x600(1), error 7 
# ...
[drm:amdgpu_dm_process_dmub_aux_transfer_sync [amdgpu]] *ERROR* wait_for_completion_timeout timeout!
# ...
amdgpu 0000:c4:00.0: amdgpu: 0000000071c3ca30 pin failed
# ...
[drm:dm_plane_helper_prepare_fb [amdgpu]] ERROR Failed to pin framebuffer with error -12
# ...

I don’t have a lot of knowledge on CPU-related technologies, so I’m not sure where to look to fix this.

Another side-note: since the setup needs a lot of cables, I fear it might create an electrically unstable environment, and I know that if I just move the DisplayPort female-to-female coupler and the 2 cables connected to it, I can encounter a “sync issue”. Maybe this is the main cause? I don’t know :slight_smile:

Any idea? :sweat_smile:

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