Arc Control v1.68.4938.6 slows and then freezes after multiple rapid button clicks

[BigNish7]

I am having an issue with Intel Arc Control 1.68.4938.6.

I installed Arc Control along with the latest WHQL Arc driver (31.0.101.4369). It's the first time I have installed Arc Control for a while as it has had numerous issues for some time and I was happy to wait for it to be further developed and just installed the driver updates. However, I thought I would give it a go to see how much it had improved.

Unfortunately I am having an issue that after several rapid mouse clicks selecting different items, Arc Control slows dramatically in responding to the mouse clicks and then freezes, or at least seems to freeze as it takes longer than my patience waiting for it to respond. Note that just Arc Control is freezing - the rest of my desktop seems unaffected. 

When this occurs I hover my mouse over the Arc Control icon on the taskbar and right click on the Close Window option which kills the frozen Arc Control.

I installed the latest driver and Arc Control via the 'clean instal' option and to try to fix this issue, I uninstalled the driver using DDU and did a fresh install from scratch. This did not fix the issue.

I would have taken a video of this issue using the screen capture facility of Arc Control, but I am getting the 'Could Not Start Capture. Device operation failure. Make sure you're not connected to a VPN. Error code: -17". I have had this error before with an earlier version of Arc Control and then it was fixed with a later version, but now it seems to be broken again. I am not connected to a VPN.

The simplest way I have found to replicate the issue is to click on the 'Settings' gearwheel icon (most RH of the four icons in the LH top corner  of Arc Control) and then start clicking on, in no particular order, the 'App Preferences',  'Global Game Settings', 'System Info', 'Technical Support' and 'About' tiles. For me, within a short time, Arc Control slows rapidly in response to the clicks and then freezes such that I have to kill it.  

Is anyone else having this Arc Control slowing and then freezing issue after multiple rapid mouse clicks issue? 

I have attached my SSU and Graphics Command Center System Diagnostic files and trust these help.

[Hugo_Intel]

Hello BigNish7

Thank you for posting on the Intel Communities. I am sorry you are experiencing freezes and crashing issues when trying to use the Intel® Arc™ Software.

The behavior that you described is pretty interesting and we would like to know if it is specific to the driver or to the system itself. Please let's try installing the previous driver 31.0.101.4314, this version also contains an older version of the Arc Control software version 1.66.4728.1, so please check if the same issue can be reproduced.

Also, please let us know if Resizable BAR is enabled on your system.

Best Regards,

Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[BigNish7]

Hi Hugo. Sorry for my late reply. I have been doing some further testing and think I have found the issue. It seems specific to Arc Control v1.68.4938.6.

To answer your last question, yes I can confirm that I have Resizable BAR enabled on my system. I have been regularly updating my UEFI (BIOS) and the last several versions from ASUS have enabled ReBAR by default. I am currently on version 2305 which is the latest from my ASUS ROG STRIX Z690-I GAMING WIFI motherboard.

In my further testing, I found that slowing occurs/is triggered after I click the 'Hamburger' icon and, for example, turn the Studio feature OFF. Once I do this I get the slowing and then Arc Control becomes so slow it effectively freezes and I have to kill it via closing it from the taskbar. In my attached video example I show the slowing by rapidly clicking the Settings tiles, but this also occurs if, for example, I rapidly click between the gearwheel and graph icons on the Performance page. I only use the Settings tiles as it is easy to see.

As per your request, I also tested the slowing behaviour with the prior version of Arc Control (v1.66.4728.1) that came bundled with WHQL driver 31.0.101.4314. I am happy to say that I did not get the same slowing behavior with this earlier version.

To show you in more detail what I am experiencing, I took two short videos. One showing the slowing after turning Studio OFF with 1.68.4938.6 and one showing no slowing after turning Studio OFF with 1.66.4728.1.

In the 'slowing' video you will see that once the slowing has started it looks like I am just moving the mouse around over the tiles, but I can assure you I am clicking on the tiles, and other icons, but they are unresponsive.

In summary then, I have found for my PC:

1. Arc Control v1.66.4938.6 slows to the point of appearing frozen when using multiple rapid mouse clicks AFTER turning Studio OFF. I also rebooted and tested it turning Studio ON, and can confirm that this also triggers the slowing behaviour.

2. Arc Control v1.66.4728.1 does not show this slowing behaviour AFTER turning Studio OFF.

I sincerely trust that the above info is clear and I look forward to seeing your response.

[Hugo_Intel]

Hello BigNish7

Thank you for sharing all of this information with us. We will further research this issue and will get back to you as soon as I have an update or in case I need more information from you.

Best Regards,

Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[Hugo_Intel]

Hello BigNish7

We want to let you know that we have been able to reproduce this issue. We will continue investigating the cause and will let you know once we have an update on this.

Best Regards,

Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[RonaldM_Intel]

Hi @BigNish7 

As noted earlier our support staff has been able to confirm and reproduce the issue in our test lab!

Thank you so much for the time you took to report this to us.

I am happy to let you know that we already have a fix in place in our newest Arc Control build (it is internal only for now) but rest assured that an update will be published soon.

You can check out a video of our successful test: https://youtu.be/0Z2CjK9bbHU

Please be patient until our next Arc Control update which as usual should ship bundled with our graphics drivers.

Best Regards,

Ronald M.

[BigNish7]

Hi Ronald M.

I am sorry to say that the most recent BETA driver v31.0.101.4499 did not resolve my issue. It is still exhibits the same issue of slowing down responding to several rapid mouse selection clicks after using the hamburger icon to turn off the Studio features..

Interestingly, I selected to undertake a Clean Installation of driver v31.0.101.4499 over the most recent arc driver I had installed on my PC, which was BETA driver v31.0.101.1382. This triggered a 'Platform Not Supported' error (refer attached Word document). I have never seen this error before when undertaking an update from an older Arc driver to a newer one. The installation did however proceed as normal and the 4499 driver (with Arc Control v1.69.5033.3) was installed. I then rebooted my PC and ran the rapid clicking test and (unfortunately) was able to reproduce the slowing issue.

Given the 'Platform Not Supported' error, I also removed the installed version of driver 4499 via DDU and installed 4499 from scratch (e.g. not over an older version). Once it was installed and my PC rebooted, I ran the rapid clicking test, and again was able to reproduce the slowing issue. I created a video of this for evidence, which I have attached. 

I can also understand that the 4499 version of the driver might not be the version that you were referring to in terms of fixing this issue e.g. the 4499 might have been released before the error was fixed.

I am very sorry that I don't have better news for you. Please let me know if you wish me to undertake some further tests and what you would like me to try.

Kindest regards,

Hugh Higgins (BigNish7)

[RonaldM_Intel]

Thank you for your feedback! 

This has been assigned to our Arc Control dev team for debugging.

Once there is an update or any news we'll contact you back.

Best Regards,

Ronald M.

[BigNish7 · Accepted solution]

Hi @RonaldM_Intel and @Hugo_Intel ,

I recently installed the most recent Driver/Arc Control BETA combo (31.0.101.4575 and 1.70.5084.2) and am very happy to say that Arc Control v1.70.5084.2 no longer displays this issue re. slowing down after multiple mouse clicks. 

I am confident in saying that this behaviour is now resolved.

Thank you both for taking the time to understand the issue and for bringing about a successful resolution. 

Kindest regards,

BigNish7 

[RonaldM_Intel]

@BigNish7 thank you so much for taking the time to report your feedback!

I'll mark this as Solved.

If you encounter any other issue or bug please get back to us ASAP!

Best Regards,

Ronald M.

[BigNish7]

Hi @RonaldM_Intel 

Thank you so much for your update and your very kind words. I have been a 'modern' PC enthusiast since my first 386 running Dos 5.2 (actually my first PC was a TRS-80). I have been following Intel's entry into discrete GPUs for several years and was very keen to get in at the start of the journey with my A770LE. 

I think Intel's approach has been really sensible in terms of releasing two beautifully made cards into the 'wild' and getting the real world feedback which is so critical to developing better hardware/software. It has been a really positive experience for me and I think the broader PC community are now beginning to wake up to what Intel are offering, and the potential for the future.

In terms of this particular issue, I am just happy to be part of the broader 'team' and am pleased to have played a small and hopefully constructive part in making Arc Control better for everyone.

Kindest regards,

BigNish7