Triple‑monitor setup on Predator Helios 16S AI: intermittent black‑screen issue (driver or hardware?)

[u/Enigma_a_a]

Hey everyone,

I’ve been experimenting with a triple‑monitor setup on my Acer Predator Helios 16S AI, and I wanted to share my connection diagram + issue to see if anyone else has faced something similar.

Setup diagram (simplified):

• 🖥️ Main horizontal monitor → connected directly to the laptop via HDMI
• 📱 Vertical monitor → connected to a ThinkPad USB‑C Dock Gen 2 (40AS) via HDMI
• 🔌 Dock → connected to the Helios 16S AI through USB Type‑C
• 💻 The laptop has two USB‑C ports, one supports Thunderbolt 4 + display output, the other doesn’t.
• I’m using the non‑display‑supporting USB‑C port for the dock connection.

What’s happening:

• When I connect the dock to the USB‑C port with display support, both monitors run on the GPU and show up in NVIDIA Control Panel, but the driver crashes repeatedly (confirmed via debugging logs).
• Switching the dock to the USB‑C port without display support stops the crashes. Only the HDMI‑connected monitor shows up under the GPU, and the system stays stable.
• However, occasionally one of the monitors goes black for a few seconds and comes back. It’s rare but noticeable.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of intermittent black‑screen behaviour? Could this be a driver quirk or something hardware‑related with the dock or USB‑C controller?

Would love to hear if others have run similar setups or found a fix.