Graphics Command Center stops with running dots after start

[JörgDebus]

Hi all,

after having changed from an older I7 CPU to a modern MB with an Intel I11700K CPU offering UHD Graphics 750 run with W10 21H1 with all updates. Driver seems to work OK.

To readjust my graphics settings I installed the Graphics Command Center (GCC) from the download of the latest driver 30.0.100.9955.

After starting the app, a windows is show with the well known running dots (See attached sc). No more action. Stopping the app with the "Close"-button works.

Responding with a link to the deprecated version of the Graphics Manager may be a good work around.

TIA
Jörg

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello @JörgDebus

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.

In regards to this behavior, we recommend first to perform a Clean Installation of Intel® Graphics Drivers in Windows* using the Intel® Graphics DHC driver Version 30.0.100.9955 (Latest). You may start from "step # 6" using the link provided. During the process, please make sure all steps are followed, including disconnecting from the Internet and making sure you get to the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter before trying to install the graphics driver.

If the behavior persists, please go through the following steps:

1. Restart the system. When the Intel® Graphics Command Center updates, the application can get unsynchronized with the tray application. Restarting the system causes the tray application to restart and solves the issue.
2. Repair or reset the app via Windows* Settings:
   1. Open Settings > Apps > Apps and features.
   2. Locate the Intel® Graphics Command Center application and select Advanced options.
   3. Under Reset, click Repair.
3. Uninstall the application via Windows* Settings and re-install the application from the Microsoft* Store.
   1. Open Settings > Apps > Apps and features.
   2. Locate the Intel® Graphics Command Center application and select Uninstall.
   3. Install the Intel Graphics Command Center.

If the issue is still the same after trying those steps, please provide us with the following information:

1- When you upgraded to this new motherboard/CPU, did you use the hard drive/SSD of the old system or a new drive? Did you perform a fresh/clean install of Windows* after upgrading the hardware? Please provide details.

2- 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

[JörgDebus]

Hi Andrew,

I have performed all the steps you described in your response. Everything worked as specified.

Unfortunately the Graphics Control Center still remains stuck with the running dots after start. So here are some more details:

1. The box has received only an upgrade of the CPU from an I7-4700K to an I7-11700K and the motherboard from ASUS Z97-A to ASUS Z590-A Prime. After booting the first time, the MS Basic Display Adapter was active. Then the drivers from ASUS including the Intel 27.20.100.9127 were successfully installed. The upgraded box runs fine except that the Graphics Control Center did not run.
2. The old configuration had the Graphics Control Panel from the driver installation installed. It ran flawlessly.
3. When looking into the OS details, in Services I have found, that the Service-Process for the HD Graphics Control Panel has been started. See file (1).
4. After performing the steps you recommended incl. the installation of the Graphics Command Center, I got the set of drivers you may find in file (2). Two new Intel drivers have been installed. The driver for UHD Graphics is the active one. The Service for  HD Graphics Control Panel is still alive. See file (3).
5. The SSU Output is in file (4).

One more indicator may be of some importance: After installation of the Graphics Command Center from the MS Store, I always receive a Message when logging in the first time after a boot. See (5).

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello JörgDebus

We would like to add regarding your request for the "link to the deprecated version of the Graphics Manager" that the Intel® Graphics Control Panel (Intel® GCP) application has been discontinued from the Microsoft* Store as of March 16, 2021. 

The Intel Graphics Control Panel has now been replaced by the Intel® Graphics Command Center for systems with 6th Generation Intel® processors or newer.

The Intel Graphics Control Panel will remain on systems that have the Intel Graphics Control Panel previously installed from the Microsoft Store. This solely impacts systems that do not have the application currently installed and those that wish to install the application.

This information has been documented in the following article: Discontinuation of the Intel® Graphics Control Panel from the Microsoft* Store

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello JörgDebus

Thank you for your response and for all the details.

Could you please try the following steps to check the behavior?

1- Uninstall the application via Windows* Settings.

2- perform a Clean Installation of Intel® Graphics Drivers in Windows* using the customized graphics driver from ASUS* Version 30.0.100.9805. Let the driver automatically download and install the Intel® Graphics Command Center (if it is not installed automatically, download it manually from the Microsoft Store website).

3- Restart the system.

4- If the behavior persists, please repeat steps 1 to 3 but use the newest Intel® generic DCH driver Version 30.0.101.1069.

If the behavior persists, please kindly confirm if when you upgraded to the new hardware, did you perform a fresh/clean install of Windows*? (We mean, did you wipe the hard drive and install a new instance of the operating system? This is since unfortunately, we are not able to determine this from the information provided).

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JörgDebus]

Hi Andrew,

I cleanly installed both drivers. The problem persists. I use the Samsung version 30.0.100.9805 now for further tests.

To provide you with more details:

1. I have upgraded to a new motherboard and CPU without a fresh installation of Windows. There is no real reason for that, because ASUS supplies new drivers for changed hardware. This is mainly the chipset Z590 and other new new components on the motherboard. Because I want to use the embedded graphics from Intel, a new graphics driver was used. All new drivers work fine incl. the 30.0.100.9805. Only the Intel Graphics command Center refuses to run, regardless which graphics driver is used.
2. Trying to professionally analyze the reason of the malfunction of IGGC, I traced the major events from starting to closing the app. I used Sysinternals by Mark Russinovich ( https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon ). The trace shows that IGCC has written to logs. The error log show an unhandled exception: 2021-11-16 14:15:31.435 +01:00 [ERR] App. UnhandledException:Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at GCP.Util.DesktopBridgeService.<OnInitializeAsync>d__9.MoveNext() + 0x241
3. The normal log shows that the app tries to establish a DesktopBridgeService which fails with the unhandled exception.

Attached pls. find

• a ZIP with the AppData related to your app. It also contains the log-files;
• 2 TXT files containing the logs carved out from the originals to show the sequence of events that lead to the suspended state of the app.

From my experience, your engineers should now be able to pinpoint the problem with your sources. Fiddling with driver versions has turned out not to scope.

TIA so much.

Jörg

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello JörgDebus

We are checking this thread and we would like to know if you need further assistance. Please do not hesitate to contact us back if you have additional inquiries.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JörgDebus]

Hi Andrew,

Yesterday I have posted a reply to your last post. It contained a in-depth analysis of the problem derived from tracing. It contained some files with detailed. I have double checked it after posting. It also contained answers to your questions. Where has happened to this post?

So now a second edition of the disappeared post in short:

1. My box is a heavily used developer system with more than 100 component installed and configured since years. To recreate this is practically impossible. So no clean install of windows 10 as another experiment to fix an unknown bug.
2. I tested both drivers after a clean install. No success. I decided to proceed with the ASUS version Version 30.0.100.9805.
3. I have traced (MS SysInternals SysMon) the start of the IGCC app up to the stuck state. The outcome is, that an unhandled exception was thrown. The reason is a missing object:

---

---

---------> 17:54:07.731               Trace started with "Process Start" event (Inserted from trace file)
2021-11-16 17:54:07.881 +01:00 [INF] 	App. Application Starting.
2021-11-16 17:54:07.944 +01:00 [INF] 	App. OnLaunched. Launching... 
2021-11-16 17:54:08.182 +01:00 [INF] 	BaseService. Initializing - Desktop Bridge

2021-11-16 17:54:08.924 +01:00 [ERR] 	App. UnhandledException:Object reference not set to an instance of an object. (Inserted from Error log)
   at GCP.Util.DesktopBridgeService.<OnInitializeAsync>d__9.MoveNext() + 0x241

2021-11-16 17:54:13.331 +01:00 [INF] 	App. OnSuspending. Suspending app...
---------> 17:54:13.375               Trace ends after IGCC has been closed for Suspending (Inserted from trace file)
​

The exception is thrown by a component GCP.Util.DesktopBridgeService. The "GCP" reminds me a little of "Graphics Control Program" 😉. Attached pls. find a Zip with the complete AppData folder for your app. There are also the logs I have used to compose the timeline of events above.

I'm sure that with the data from the trace and the logs attached, your engineers will have no problem to derive the reason for this unhandled exception and can then easily decide from whom and how this can be fixed. BTW: An unhandled exception is a bug by itself, because it lets the user alone with an unexplained situation. No message. Only running dots.

So please involve your engineers. I'm prepared to perform any detailed investigation to assist your people.

Thank you in advance and best regards
Jörg

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello JörgDebus

Thank you very much for your response, for all these details, and for the logs. We really appreciate your efforts in this matter.

Please allow us to review this further and we will be posting back in the thread as soon as more details are available or in case additional information from your environment is required.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello JörgDebus

Thank you for your patience in this matter.

We would like to inform you that we have successfully tested Intel® Graphics Command Center version 1.100.3370.0 on our latest drivers and we confirmed the issue cannot be reproduced, hence it seems to be a bug specific to your system.

Our suggestion is to perform a clean operating system (OS) installation or alternatively install a new disk and install Windows fresh to determine if it is OS-specific.

Please note that in order to set the right expectations with you, our engineers and developer team won't look at this if it is impacting only 1 system which went through an OS disk migration from different platforms - which we don't recommend unless a clean OS installation is performed.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JörgDebus]

Hi Andrew,

I have definitively proven with MS dumps that the broken start up of your app is caused by an unhandled exception thrown from within Intel code.

It's unprofessional to assume that an unhandled exception in your app's code was caused by the status of the hosting OS which therefor  should be replaced to fix the problem. Even MS support requests such an action only for claims in cases where prerelease software has been installed.

The windows 10 Pro I run here is professionally managed and has received all Windows updates supplied by MS until today. All other apps or tools (e.g. MS SQLServer 2016, Visual Studio 2019, MS Office and the like) run flawlessly. The only app with problems is Intel Graphics Command Center version 1.100.3370.0.

So I interpret your statement as an undue pressure on me only targeted to hide inadequate knowledge of your support staff to handle a complex, but professionally documented case like this.

Attached pls. find some facts from the MS Store on how other users rank this app: The average rating is 2.6 with 13/36 ranked 1.

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello JörgDebus

Thank you for your response and for this feedback.

Please allow us to review these comments further and we will be posting back as soon as we have more details available.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello JörgDebus

After reviewing this further, we would like to highlight that we have tried replicating this issue but so far Intel® Graphics Command Center works correctly. Our recommendation stands as it is and we will leave the thread open for other users that might be seeing the same issue to comment and participate, but Intel Support's recommendation is to perform a clean OS installation given that the OS installation was moved from chipsets that are completely different and that is not recommended.

We are aware of the app review scores and we take the feedback from our users into consideration so please stay tuned for updates to Intel® Graphics Command Center very soon! especially with Intel Arc's launch coming!

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JörgDebus]

Hi Andrew,

its good to hear that thread is still open.

Again: A fresh installation of windows is a nogo with any professionally used windows installation with like mine. Also no enterprise service manager users will ever accept this "solution" as a valid action to fix an application bug.

I fully agree, that 2 Windows installation may contain some artifacts that trigger a bug in an app to go viral. This may well be the case here, too. But it is also good bug bashing practice to start looking for the reason of a bug at the location where the bug became visible. And here this is exactly the unhandled Exception that puts your app in suspended mode.

To assure this diagnose I have tested with the latest graphics driver from Intel and from ASUS and also Microsoft's Basis driver. The problem persists. Everything else works fine with all this 3 configurations. So the graphics driver is not the trigger of the bug. Its within the app.The traces show, that it crashes early during start when trying to connect the GUI process to some service thread, that is not active.

One possible artefact is a service named "Intel(R) HD Graphics Control Panel Service" and is possibly used by other Intel apps. I have addes SCs from Task Manager and Service Manager. Again not Windows!

To further investigate the influence of the Windows environment, I have installed GCC to a small HyperV machine running Windows 11 maintained to latest updates and running with . The outcome is very interesting and it shows another bug:

• The graphics driver is the Remote Display Adapter.
• No Intel Services are started.
• The GCC app starts and runs to the content window.
• All menus work except "Display" where the the Property window is not initialized (See SC attached). And the app spins waiting again. Another unhandled invalid state.
• Bug: The app cannot execute driver commands in this environment. This should be diagnosed and the user should be informed.

So the the app works in an environment without any Intel Services installed until it wants to access the Intel graphics driver.

So, to go forward, your engineers can easily check, which Intel apps i have to remove to get rid of all Intel Services.

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello JörgDebus

Thank you for your response and for this information. Please kindly allow us to review your comments and feedback and we will be posting back in the thread as soon as possible.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello JörgDebus

Our recommendation is still to reinstall the OS. We have tested the Intel® Graphics Command Center in several systems and no issues like the one you are reporting are present.

We understand that the issue is simple and clear, after installing Intel® Graphics Command Center and launching it, the app won't finish launching/open and it is stopped with a loop of dots. Replication steps would be just "installing IGCC and trying to start/launch the app" (skipping the part that there was an OS disk migration from different platforms); and for the issue in the HyperV, we may try to replicate that also.

However, for both scenarios, we will need more specific steps or any other details that you want to provide us. Please let us know if you could provide detailed step-by-step instructions for replication purposes for both scenarios since we cannot continue if we only have to "install IGCC and try to start/launch the app".

For any other inquiries, please don't hesitate to contact us back.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JörgDebus]

Here are the step by step instructions to reproduce the error.

Prepare the test bed

1. Get a PC with an Intel CPU I7 4700K on a Z79 mobo with GPT partitioning and UEFI Bios.
2. Install Windows 10 21H2 without an Intel graphics driver using the Microsoft basic graphics driver.
3. Install an an Intel HD graphics driver together with Intel Graphics Control Panel (not with Intel Graphics Command Center).
4. Install other Intel apps that use the following services:
   • Intel(R) Capability Licensing Service TCP IP Interface
   • Intel(R) Management and Security Application Local Management Service
   • Intel(R) TPM Provisioning Service (If possible)
5. The Graphics Control Panel should work flawlessly.
6. Open the W11 Task Manager, select Services-Tab, sort column "Description" and find the Intel Services. Make a screenshot of the lines with Intel components.

Upgrade to Intel Graphic Command Center

1. Remove the HD Graphics from Device Manager driver completely.
2. Uninstall the Intel Graphics Control Panel from "Programs and Features".
3. Clean install the latest driver that support both the HD Graphic of the CPU and Intel Graphics Command Center.
4. Install Intel Graphics Control Center from the Store.
5.  Reboot the box
6. Open the W11 Task Manager, select Services-Tab, sort column "Description" and find the Intel Services. Make a screenshot of the lines with Intel components.
7. Start the Intel Graphics Control Center

If the GCC runs normally pls.:

1. Open the W11 Task Manager, select Services-Tab, sort column "Description" and find the Intel Services. Make a screenshot of the lines with Intel components.
2. Post me the 3 Screenshots and close the thread.

If the GCC does not work properly, pls. find the bug.

Best regards

JD

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello JörgDebus

We are checking this thread and we would like to know if you were able to review our previous post. If you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us back.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello JörgDebus

We have not heard back from you so we will proceed to close this thread now. If you need any additional information, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician