Annoying black screen issue with Intel UHD 630 on Dell Precision 7530

[FelixKaiser]

On May 2019 we got Dell Precision 7530 laptops with Intel UHD 630 graphics. And most of our collegues have randomly black screen issues. So let me explain:

The laptop display suddenly gots black, but background illumination is still working, seems the display is filled completely with black pixels. This affects only the laptop display. The external display (connected by HDMI plug) is always working normally, regardless what is set as the primary display and the secondary display. Round about 80% occurement of this issue is when switching to the calendar view of Microsoft Outlook. The other 20% come out of the blue.

For my purpose I established the following workaround: I configured the power switch on my laptop to toggle the display on or off. The laptop display then gets normally displayed again, flickers about two or threetimes and sometimes it gets black again. So sometimes I need two or up to six..seven cycles until the display gets working normally again. There are days without any black screen and there are days with three or four black screens.

On May 2019 we got those laptops with Windows 10 Enterprise 1709. I've installed the Intel Driver and Support Assistent to get always the latest drivers. There are up to three updates a month. But there was never a final solution of that issue, up to today. Sometimes the issue occurs more often, sometimes less often. In September 2020 we got an update to Windows 10 Enterprise 1909, but with out any effect on that issue.

Last week I found a hint, that seems to help: Rollback to an old driver version of February 2018.

https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/Blank-Screen-Intel-HD-Graphics-630-Windows-10-May-2020-Update/td-p/7623293

And really, this seems to work. Got no black screen for days now!

So the keys for finding the final solution of that issue could be in reviewing the changes after driver version 23.20.16.4973 and in the graphics operations that is Outlook using when sliding from the folder view to the calendar view.

Looks to me like a sync problem with framebuffers, e.g. showing an empty framebuffer or try to show a still locked framebuffer or whatever similar.

Searching for the "black screen issue" on Intel graphics shows various results affecting various systems and various chips over the last years. Looking to my collegues with the same laptop: It varies from device to device. Some collegues do not have that problem. Some more often or less often. Maybe small timing or firmware differences? Don't know.

[Sebastian_M_Intel]

Hello FelixKaiser, 

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.   

So we can better investigate this behavior, please provide the following reports with the systems that have this issue (make sure you have the original setup including driver, OS version, external monitor, etc.):  

1. Run the Intel® System Support Utility (Intel® SSU) and attach the report generated:  

• Open the application, check the "Everything" box, and click on "Scan" to see the system and device information. By default, Intel® SSU will take you to the "Summary View".   
• Click on the menu where it says "Summary" to change to "Detailed View".   
• To save your scan, click on "Next", then "Save".   
• Use the option under the reply window to attach the report to the thread (Drag and drop here or browse files to attach).  

2. Provide the Report for Intel® Graphics Drivers, follow this link. 

3. In total, how many systems are being affected by this problem?  

4. It will be very useful to have a video of the issue so we can see the behavior, can you please try to record it with a cellphone maybe? You can attach the file using the Drag and drop here or browse files to attach option, or use a platform like YouTube* and provide the public link.  

Regards, 

Sebastian M  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[FelixKaiser]

When we got our workstations in May 2019, they we're shipped with an Intel graphics driver dated to January or February 2019. In my department there are about 12 of those Dell Precision workstations and about 30% are actively affected by the problem. But some collegues don't use the laptop display, they use two external displays on the docking station. External display were never affected.

I've generated the report while still using the driver from February 2018, because that didn't show the issue until now. If you need reports from other devices I'll have to ask the IT coordinator in my department.

I cannot provide any short video clip, sorry. But maybe a more detailed description also helps: About 80% occurement of the issue is when opening the calendar view of Microsoft Outlook. We're having Microsoft Outlook for Office 365 16.0.12527.21230 in 32bit. I can open the calendar view a dozen times a day and the black screen issue does not occur. It's always very suddenly, so it's very difficulty to reproduce. But when it occurs, Outlook can finish the "slide effect" when showing the calendar view and then the laptop display gets black (while no effect on external display that is still operating normally). The laptop display is the primary display and Outlook is showing there.

As I said my workaround was setting the power button on my laptop to turn on or off the laptop display. So then I pushed the button, Windows locked the computer and turned the display off (backlight got power off). Then waiting three..four seconds and pushing again. The display powered on again and then surprise: About 1-2 seconds after power on, the display got black again or it flickered shortly black (<1 sec) and then got operating normally again. If it stayed completely black again, I've had to repeat the procedure two times, three times... up to six or seven times. I've never seen a working display power on without any short flicker effect. In the seconds after power on the display driver is doing something, that seems sometimes to fail and giving the black screen issue.

Hope my description is useful in some kind.

Thanks!

[Sebastian_M_Intel]

Hello FelixKaiser,  

Thank you for your reply. 

Please let me check this behavior and the information provided internally, once we have an update we will share it on this thread. 

Kindly wait for a response.  

Regards,  

Sebastian M  

Intel Customer Support Technician   

[Sebastian_M_Intel]

Hello FelixKaiser,   

Thank you for waiting. 

After checking this behavior internally, we noticed that this problem is very specific to these Dell* laptops. This is due to the fact that the issue only happens with the built-in display and the Intel® generic drivers. Therefore, we recommend you to work with the laptop manufacturer (OEM) for further help.  

This feedback has already been reported, but in the end is up to Dell* to debug the issue as it is very likely to be caused by their own hardware/software customization, hence they need to investigate. Dell* will work with Intel® if they confirm the problem is related to Intel driver's code. 

Regards,   

Sebastian M   

Intel Customer Support Technician   

[FelixKaiser]

Hello Sebastian,

thanks for checking the behaviour! You are right in the point, that the issue only affects the built-in display. But I'm only using original Intel drivers. I do not use any customized driver or software from Dell. To bypass the OEM check of the setup I always use the "Windows Installer XML Toolset Decompiler" to extract the files from the graphics driver setup. Then I manually select the .inf file in Windows device manager for manual installation of the original Intel driver. I did this since May 2019 and I've got 2-3 updates a month from Intel. All were affected by the problem. At moment I'm using the driver version 23.20.16.4973 dated at February 28th 2018 (see the link in my opening post) and this one is not affected from the problem. So it'd must be a change from March 2018 until about January 2019 (the original driver where the laptop was shipped with was dated there).

I don't think Dell can solve the issue by itself. Or do they have access to the driver source code and can debug it? In this case I'll give this information to our IT coordinator for contacting our distributor. But it looks like they would have to fix an issue caused by changes in the original Intel drivers.

Thank you!

[Sebastian_M_Intel]

Hello FelixKaiser,    

Thanks for the reply. 

As you mentioned, you are using Intel® generic drivers and not the customized ones from the OEM. Remember that the generic Intel® drivers are not validated to work with your system. On the other hand, the OEM drivers are handpicked and include customized features and solutions to platform-specific issues.  

Rest assured that if Dell* debugs this issue using the same system and if they suspect the problem comes from the driver code, they will work with Intel for the proper investigation. 

Our suggestion is to report this to Dell* directly as the issue seems to be related to their laptop.  

Regards,    

Sebastian M    

Intel Customer Support Technician   

[Sebastian_M_Intel]

Hello FelixKaiser,  

I hope the previous post guided you to the correct support place.

We will proceed to close this inquiry from our side as you should be reporting this to Dell*. If you have any additional questions, please submit a new thread and we will gladly assist you.

Regards,  

Sebastian M  

Intel Customer Support Technician