G620 causes black internal notebook screen

[GoingInside]

Hi all,

I am facing the issues that my internal notebook screen turns black when G620 is active using a G620 driver. External monitors (connected via HDMI, USB-C) work perfectly fine but the internal monitor is constantly black (regardless any HDMI or USB-C cable is connected or not). The screen is active during boot time but turns black as soon as Windows loads.

The only way to activate the internal monitor is to use the Win11 ootb driver after deactivating and uninstalling G620 driver. 

I was facing the same (but transient issue) with Win10 some months back and upgraded to Win11 (fresh installation) back then. It worked perfectly fine for me for some months but re-appeared some days back.

I meanwhile deactivated fast boot and also installed various driver versions (provided by Intel as well as Lenovo) but no luck so far. What I can clearly say is that the internal monitor works with Windows ootb driver but stops working immediately using an "appropriate" driver.

Please find attached the SSU results.

Any help is very much appreciated!!! 🙂

Cheers,

Stefan

[Hugo_Intel]

Hello GoingInside

Thank you for posting on the Intel Communities. I am sorry you are experiencing black screen issues on your laptop after installing the graphics driver.

The best first step will be to test the latest driver provided by your system manufacturer version 31.0.101.2121 since it is the driver optimized for your system. Do a clean installation.

If the issue persists test the latest generic version posted on our website versions 31.0.101.2115 and 31.0.101.2125 accordingly.

If the issue still happens could you please share a screenshot of the device manager>graphics adapter section showing the driver version that it is working with the system?

Best Regards,

Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[GoingInside]

Hello Hugo,

first of all: Thank you so much for trying to help me in this regard! 😀

I have to mention one weird observation before providing you my detailed feedback:
I am using this laptop constantly (8-10 hours per day) during the last weeks  and the internal screen never worked. After I saw your feedback on my cellphone about two hours ago, I immediately started the laptop and I was very much surprised since both my screens (internal and external) were suddenly working. After disconnecting my USBC C cable from the Thunderbolt interface, both monitors turned black. Reconnecting the cable only brought back the external monitors video 😑

As I mentioned in my initial request, I was facing transient issues with Win10 and Win11 already before. In some cases, it helped to re-connect the USBC or HDML cable once or twice and in other cases I was unable to use the internal monitor for a week or so.

What I would also like to mention is that I did
- apply the most recent graphics driver 31.0.101.2121 already some days back after it got published by Lenovo
- assure that all other drivers are up to date (using Lenovo's "Vantage" tool)

I then followed the below procedure for the three driver versions you mentioned. Unfortunately without any luck 😑

1. Uninstalled G620 device from the device manager
2. Performed a reboot after which the internal screen was working
3. Performed a clean installation of the given driver version
4. While installing the driver, the internal screen turned black, there was this typical "windows hardware change beep" and I had to connect the USB C cable again to use the external screen
5. Performed another reboot after which the internal monitor did not work either

Please find attached the screenshot you were asking for.

Any further help was so heavily appreciated! I do like my 5 year old X1 carbon a lot and I really don't want to throw it away because of this major issue...

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello GoingInside, 

Thanks for your response. Before we continue further, I would like to confirm the following:

1. Do you have HDR enabled?

2. Have you tested with different HDMI/USB-C cables?

3. Did you try with the drivers from Lenovo?

4. Have you checked with Lenovo to confirm if there is any malfunction with the laptop screen?

Best regards, 

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[GoingInside]

Hello Deivid,

thanks for your response! Please find below my answer to your particular questions:

1. No. I cannot activate it for neither screen. The external screen does not support HDR and the HDR activation menu itself is not available when I choose the internal screen in the appropriate HDR menu.
2. Yes
3. Yes - please find my answers above
4. No. The reason is that the screen itself works perfectly fine during startup and without any Intel driver.

Thanks

Stefan

[GoingInside]

I can add one more observation...

I was using the notebook today in the office where I did connect the external screen via HDMI.

When I unplugged the HDMI cable in the afternoon the internal screen started working.
I kept the cable disconnected, restarted the machine and the internal monitor was still working.
I then deactivated HDR and shut down again.

I then unplugged the power adapter (which is connected via Thunderbolt) and started one more. The result was a black screen.
Next start without power adapter: Black screen.
Next start with power adapter connected: Screen works

This problem is slowly but surely driving me crazy!!! Any help was such much appreciated!

[Hugo_Intel]

Hello GoingInside

I understand this issue only happens when the power adapter is disconnected. Is this correct?

Please make sure that the refresh rate under Advanced Display settings is set to the same values for charger and off-charger, as well please make sure you are using a high-performance power plan on your system when the power adapter is disconnected.

Best Regards,

Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[GoingInside]

Hello Hugo,

unfortunately, this is not correct. The issue happens for both scenarios, connected and disconnected power adapter.

I mentioned the power apdater yesterday because this is what I experienced just after the screen started working again (which is unfortunately no more the case 😑).

Thanks
Stefan

[Hugo_Intel]

Hello GoingInside

Thank you for clarifying. Were you able to also check the power plan and refresh rate of your internal screen?

Please let's try installing the driver through the device manager following these instructions:

• Open Device Manager  
• Go to display adapters >Intel® UHD Graphics 620
• Double click on Intel® UHD Graphics 620 
• Go to the Driver Tab > Update driver  
• Go to Browse my computer for drivers  
• Go to Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer  
• Double-click on the first option that appears.  

If the issue still happens let's reinstall the driver using the Display Driver Uninstaller.

Do both steps using the latest driver provided by your system manufacturer.

Best Regards,

Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[GoingInside]

Hello Hugo,

thank you very much for getting back to me in this regard once more!

Both approaches did not help 😐

The screen worked temporarily after applying the 2nd approach. The notebook suddenfly froze after some time, I had to turn it pressing the power buttonand the screen was black after restarting the machine again 😞

The only constant is that the screen ALWAYS works before Windows is fully started.

Thanks,

Stefan

[Hugo_Intel]

Hello GoingInside

Thank you for letting us know. Based on the troubleshooting we have done so far this might be related to a potential hardware issue, however, please allow me to check with our team and see if there are further recommendations we can provide. We will post back once we have an update for you.

Best Regards,

Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[Hugo_Intel]

Hello GoingInside

Thank you for your patience. Upon checking this issue with our team and based on the troubleshooting we have done so far the best next step we would advise is that you contact directly the system manufacturer for further troubleshooting steps or to have the hardware inspected since as we previously mentioned there is a possibility of defective hardware. Thank you for your understanding.

Best Regards,

Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[GoingInside]

Hello Hugo,

thank you very much for all your support!

I meanwhile ordered a brand new X1 Gen11. The (expensive) fun fact is that my X1 Gen6 currently works as expected. Lets see whether it is only temporary o because of all the Win updates that came accross meanwhile.

Nevermind, thanks a lot for all your dedication!
Stefan

[pavelump]

I am having this identical issue with my X1 Gen6. The only thing that allows me to use the internal screen is if I switch the display adapter to Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, and my Monitor to Generic PnP Monitor.  Less than ideal.

I tried all of the above suggestions to no avail. Seems like more of a software issue than hardware...

[blimp_pilot]

Has there been any progress on this? I have the EXACT same issue with my x1 carbon 7th gen.....This is a cut and paste from my post on the lenovo forums:

A few days ago the computer starts booting windows then the screen goes black. Two days of troubleshooting have led me to believe that this is related to the uhd graphics driver. If I roll back the driver to the microsoft basic display driver, the screen works fine. But if I update to any version of the uhd driver (via intel, lenovo, windows update), I get the black screen issue on boot. The computer is still working, and if I plug into an external display, that works just fine. So it's the uhd driver that doesn't work with the internal display.

Things I've tried without success:

-Lenovo diagnostics: all pass
-Reset bios to defaults
-All other updates are current
-Win+Ctrl+Shift+S to reset graphics driver DOES NOT fix it
-DDU to remove all old drivers
-Fresh windows install - works initially, but as soon as the display adapter updates, the screen goes black
-In safe mode the display works and is the only way I am able to roll back the driver without an external display

The laptop seems to work just fine with the microsoft basic display driver, but then I cannot use an external display which I require on a regular basis.

Yesterday I went through the following process:

-Install uhd driver via windows update -> screen black but external screen works
-Roll back to microsoft basic driver -> internal screen works again
-Update uhd via lenovo -> screen black but external works
-Roll back to microsoft basic again -> internal screen works
-Update uhd via intel -> screen black but external works

In the intel graphics command center app, the internal monitor shows up as disabled when using the uhd620 drivers, despite the monitor being enabled in device manager.

What's going on here? It really seems like a software problem since the display works fine with the basic display driver (minus being able to change brightness and use external displays).

Thanks.

edit: I've tried the following versions of the uhd driver which all exhibit the same behavior:

27.20.100.8729 via windows update
30.0.101.1338 via lenovo vantage
31.0.101.2115 via intel update