Flickering Screen - driver problems - Intel Iris Plus Grafics

[Horst_Waldheim]

Hello,

I will start from the beginning.

I have the Acer Swift 3 Notebook. Two days ago PowerPoint prompet following message:
"PowerPoint has detected that your graphics card may not be configured properly for an optimal slide show experience". And I could not start some presentations.

After this I looked into the device manager and saw that there is only the "Microssoft Basic Display Adapter" installed for the graphics card.
At first I run Windows Update, but it changed nothing.
So I got to the Acer support site, downloaded the driver and installed it.

After this, the screen is flickering in an unbearable manner after the startup. Like 1-2 times per second.
I deinstalled the Acer driver and installed the driver from the Intel website.
27.20.100.9316 and 26.20.100.7985(for testing) showing the same result. It's flickering.

The next step was to disable the "Panel Self Refresh" in the Command Centre. It's still flickering.

I started the device in safe mode. All good, no flickering.
Now I started playing around with activating and deactivating devices.

In the end i can clearly say, it's the Intel driver for the graphics card which causes this trouble.
When I deactivating the graphics card with installed Intel driver, all is good.
If I activate it, it's starts to flicker.

I have no idea what I can do now to run this graphics with the Intel driver.
Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Horst

Windows 10 - 20H2 - 19042.928
Acer Swift 3
Intel Core i7-1065G7
16 GB RAM
NVMe Kingston 500 GB
Bios: 1.8 (latest version)

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello @Horst_Waldheim

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities. In order to review this behavior further, could you please provide the following information?

1- We understand that the graphics driver was not installed since Device Manager was showing "Microsoft Basic Display Adapter" and the flickering behavior started after installing graphics drivers. Was there any specific reason why the graphics driver was not installed from the beginning? Or is this is a new system?

If this is a new system, before installing drivers, did you make sure that initial software like the Chipset software was installed correctly?

(Chipset software includes INF files that give the operating system (OS) information about a piece of hardware on the system. The usual recommendation is to install this software prior to install other software and drivers. If you have inquiries/concerns about this, we recommend checking with Acer* support as the Chipset software is customized and provided by the computer manufacturer (OEM)).

2- Is this happening only with the built-in display or also if you test using an external display using a straight-through connection (e.g. HDMI-to-HDMI)?

3- Is the behavior happening when the system is plugged into the power source, when using only battery, or with both?

4- Does the behavior stop if you try with different display resolutions/refresh rates (perhaps lower ones)?

5- Run the Intel® System Support Utility (Intel® SSU) to gather more details about the system.

• Download the Intel® SSU and save the application on your computer
• Open the application, check the "Everything" checkbox, and click "Scan" to see the system and device information. The Intel® SSU defaults to the "Summary View" on the output screen following the scan. Click the menu where it says "Summary" to change to "Detailed View".
• To save your scan, click Next and click Save.
• Once you have saved the file (.txt file), please attach it to your reply.
• To upload and attach a file, use the "Drag and drop here or browse files to attach" option below the response textbox.

Best regards

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Horst_Waldheim]

Hello @AndrewG_Intel,

thank you for your help.

1. Yes, it's a relatively new system and before the PowerPoint prompt, I didn't noticed that the Intel driver was not installed.
By now, I installed all the drivers from the Acer support page.

2. The flickering happens only with the build-in display.
When I connect the device via HDMI to an external display, the flickering continues.
But the external display works just fine.

3.  This behavior is shown at both states.

4. No, it doesn't. I tested all available resolutions and refresh rates.

5.  I attached the file.



Sincerely
Horst

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello Horst_Waldheim

Thank you for your response.

Checking the Intel® SSU report, we noticed that the system model is "SF313-52" and it is currently running the Intel® generic graphics driver 27.20.100.9316. In this case, we would like to recommend trying a clean install of the graphics driver to see if the behavior is fixed and in order to discard issues related to previous update processes/installations.

Since the driver or software for your Intel® component might have been changed or replaced by the computer manufacturer (OEM) and OEM drivers are handpicked and include customized features and solutions to platform-specific issues, the usual recommendation is to use the OEM driver as the first option. Please follow these steps for the ACER® Laptop:

1- Download the latest ACER* driver from this link and save the file on the computer: Intel® VGA Driver Version 27.20.100.8783*

2- Disconnect from the internet to make sure the driver will not be automatically updated by Windows.

3- Right-click the Windows Start button. Select Device Manager.

4- Expand the section Display adapters and look for the Intel Graphics entry in Device Manager (e.g.: Intel® Iris® Plus Graphics).

5- Right-click on Intel Graphics and click Uninstall.

6- In the device removal dialog box, check Delete the driver software for this device and click OK.

7- Restart the computer after the uninstallation is complete.

8- Open Device Manager once more.

9- Very Important: Expand the Display Adapter section again:

• If the graphics entry still displays Intel® Iris® Plus Graphics or similar, repeat steps 5-7.
• If the graphics entry displays Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, run the previously downloaded Acer file to install the driver.

10- Reboot the computer when prompted.

If the issue persists, you can repeat the process using the (new) latest Intel® generic driver (.exe file) from this link: Intel® Iris® Plus Graphics Windows® 10 DCH Driver, Version: 27.20.100.9466 (Latest).

If the installation is unsuccessful with the Intel's .exe file, try installing the driver using the .zip file:

1- Download from the same link on Download Center and save the .zip file on the computer (igfx_win10_100.9466.zip for Windows® 64 bits).

2- Disconnect from the internet to make sure the driver will not be automatically updated by Windows.

3- Follow the previous steps 5-7 above until the driver in the Device Manager displays as Microsoft Basic Display Adapter. Go to where the .zip file is saved and unzip it.

4- Right-click the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter.

5- Select Update driver.

6- Click Browse my computer for driver software.

7- Click Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.

8- Click Have Disk.

9- Click Browse. Select the location where the driver files are located.

10- Click Next. Drivers are being installed.

11- Reboot the computer when prompted.

In addition, please run the Intel® Processor Diagnostic Tool to verify that both the processor and the GPU (Graphics Processing Unite) are fine.

To save the report, once the test is done, click on "File >> View Results File" and attach the .txt file to your reply.

Please feel free to report back the outcome of the steps. If the issue persists, please provide a new Intel® SSU report and let us know if the flickering issue happens inside the BIOS configuration screen.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Horst_Waldheim]

Hey Andrew,
Thank you very much.

In my first try, I installed the Acer driver. It flickers.
-> Testresult_Acer_27.20.100.8783: all the tests were carried out.

The second try was with the Intel driver. It flickers.
-> Testresult_Intel_27.20.100.9466:
Parallel_Math - FAIL
IPDT64 - Fail

And... I got a Bluescreen with the Intel driver shortly after I run the test.
Stop code: VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE
What failed: igdkmdn64.sys

The flickering does not appear in the BIOS configuration screen.



Sincerely
Horst

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello Horst_Waldheim

Thank you very much for your response and for the reports. Please allow us to look into this and as soon as we have more details available we will be posting back in the thread.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello Horst_Waldheim

Thank you for your patience in this matter.

After checking this further, since the issue only occurs with the built-in display and not with an external display there must be an issue between the driver and the VBIOS (Video BIOS), or an actual hardware issue. Either way, this needs to be debugged by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), in this case, Acer*. If they find the issue is with the Intel driver they will work with Intel directly to address it.

More importantly, considering that you reproduce the issue with the OEM driver from Acer then this must be addressed by the OEM because this driver is customized and tested by the OEM already.

At this point, our recommendation is to contact Acer* support and to address this issue with their support team.

Having said that, we will proceed to close this inquiry now. If you need any additional information, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored. It has been a pleasure to assist you.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician