Intel HD graphics 5500 started causing flickering screen on my Lenovo Thinkpad t450 on SSD, but inst

[Pride]

1. I am having problems with my intel HD graphics 5500 driver. Every time I install the driver for my Lenovo ThinkPad t450 while using my 250gb SSD, my screen starts flickering. However when I change to an HDD the driver installs and runs perfectly on the same machine. Stranger still, if I move the SSD to another device- an old HP laptop own which has the same GPU- the driver installs and runs with no issues. This to me means the SSD is not at fault and leads me to suspect my bios

   To note a few things I did which I suspect may have caused this:

   1. I recently struggled with Bluestacks installation and tempered with hyper v settings?
   2. Reducing bandwidth consumption in windows following a series of tutorials
   3. Upgraded bios.

   What I did to try and resolve the issue:

   1. Made sure to download the correct driver for my machine using the device serial number on the lenovo website.
   2. Tried running windows update.
   3. Tried updating driver from device manager.
   4. tried resetting windows

[Alberto_R_Intel]

Pride, Thank you for posting in the Intel® Communities Support.

In order for us to provide the most accurate assistance on this topic, we just wanted to confirm a few details about your system:

Is this a new computer?

When did you purchase it?

Originally, the computer came with the HDD or the SSD?

Is there any particular reason why you changed the HDD for an SSD or the SSD for the HDD?

Was the computer working fine before with that same SSD?

Did you make any recent hardware/software changes besides changing the drives?

When did the issue start?

Which Windows* version are you using?

Does the problem happen at home or in the work environment?

You mentioned the screen flickers, the flickering happens all the time or just when doing specific things?

Which are those specific things?

Please attach the SSU report so we can verify further details about the components in your platform, check all the options in the report including the one that says "3rd party software logs":

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25293/Intel-System-Support-Utility-for-Windows-?product=91600

Any questions, please let me know.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Pride]

My computer is a refurbished Lenovo ThinkPad t450.

I purchased it two years ago.

The computer came with a 250GB SSD, it has the word Micron written on it. I assume that is the name of the manufacturer.

I had kept my old 500GB HDD from my old HP laptop. I would interchange the drives every now and then to access more storage space.

The computer has been working fine all along.

My computer came with a Supervisor Password on my bios and I mistakenly tried updating my bios, naively thinking this would "fix" the problem.

All this so I could disable virtualization as was required for Bluestacks installation.

I downloaded the correct update tool for my device from the Lenovo website and ended up updating the firmware and chipset through it.

On further research, I found out that there is an older version of Bluestacks that runs with hyper V. and ended up installing that.

A few days went by everything was good.

One day I decided to update my windows and that's when I believe the issue started.

I realized that some of the features in some of my applications were no longer working properly and that I could no longer alter the brightness.

I ran dxdiag on the "run" window and was informed I was using the Microsoft Basic Display adapter and should update my OS.

I will attach the SSU report as soon as I can

After that I could no longer use the display driver that I was originally using, intel HD graphics 5500. I tried everything I could but to no avail.

As soon as the driver is installed the flickering starts and the machine is forced to restart . After which the Windows diagnostics screen is often triggered. But even if it restarts normally the driver only works for about a minute and then the flickering starts again.

By "works",  I mean my GPU is detected as seen from the taskbar, and the Lenovo Diagnostics tool I installed.

I also ran the Hardware diagnostics tool on startup which reveal that everything was okay.

I even tried downgrading  the bios, but that also did not work.

This happens at home.

[Alberto_R_Intel]

Pride, Thank you very much for providing that information.

"I will attach the SSU report as soon as I can", no problem at all, take your time, once you get the chance please provide the SSU report so w can look deeper into the device configuration.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Pride]

Thank you very much, Albert.

I have attached the full ssu report as per your request

[Alberto_R_Intel]

Pride, You are very welcome, thank you very much for providing the SSU report.

Based on the information showing in the report, we can confirm that the graphics driver version currently installed is 20.19.15.5063.

Just to let you know, the Intel® graphics drivers are generic, meaning they might or might not work with your system. We always recommend to install the graphics driver provided by the manufacturer of the computer, since that driver was customized by them to work with your specific platform.

I looked in Lenovo's website and actually, the graphics driver version that they have available is 20.19.15.5144, which should be the driver for your computer tested and validate them. Please try a clean installation of that driver following the instructions in the links below:

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-t-series-laptops/thinkpad-t450/downloads/driver-list/component?name=Graphics%20Processing%20Units%20%28GPU%29%20and%20Server-AI%20Accelerators

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000057389/graphics.html

If the problem persists after that, then we can try a clean installation this time of Intel® graphics driver version 30.0.100.9805:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19344/intel-graphics-windows-10-windows-11-dch-drivers.html

Additionally, we suggest to get in contact directly with Lenovo support to confirm the latest BIOS version is currently installed in the laptop or to gather the instructions on how to do that:

https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Pride]

Good day, Albert

I have uninstalled the previous  driver and did a clean install of the 20.19.15.5144 version through the link you provided.

As soon as the install finished however, the screen started flickering again. I restarted the machine several times, and after each restart, the driver did work but for less than a minute, then the screen started flickering again.

I then restarted the machine and disabled the driver from device manager before the screen could start flickering. After this I upgraded my bios to the latest version (1.37) using my device serial number from the Lenovo website. After this I tried enabling the driver but as soon as I did that the screen started flickering once more. I then restarted the laptop again and disabled the driver long enough for me to do a clean reinstall of that same driver. Once again as soon as the install was done the screen started flickering. I again restarted the laptop several times but again I only had one minute before the screen started flickering.

I then booted into safe mode and uninstalled the driver using a tool called DDU (display driver uninstaller) but again as soon as I installed the driver after restarting the machine the screen started flickering.

I then tried installing the 30.0.100.9805 version of the driver but, I realized that my PC falls short of the specifications needed for it.

I have attached another ssu report for your perusal. 

[Pride]

Good day, Albert.

I have done a clean installation of the driver provided by Lenovo for my device (20.19.15.5144). Again as soon as the driver is installed the screen starts flickering. Forcibly restarting the machine-which is about the only one can do-does nothing to change this. The driver will work for about a minute and then the screen will start flickering.

I then disabled the driver (before the screen could flicker) and tried updating my bios to the latest version (1.37) for my device as per the Lenovo website. I used my device serial number to download the latest version of the bios. The update was successful, as you will notice from the ssu report attached. After this I tried enabling the driver only for the screen to flicker once more. I then restarted the machine again and disabled the driver to buy time for me to uninstall it. After uninstalling the driver I reinstalled it again and again, like clockwork the screen started flickering almost immediately after the installation.

I then booted into safe mode and tried uninstalling the driver using a tool called DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller), after this I reinstalled the driver but the problem persisted.

I then tried downloading the 30.0.100.9805 version of the driver, but I noticed my machine does not qualify under the requirements needed to install this driver. 

[Pride]

Hi Albert, sorry I've been trying to reply for days now.

I did as you suggested. I did a clean install of the version of the driver that is specific to my device. I had attached an ssu report to show this both of  my  failed responses. I soon as I did this the flickering started again soon after the install.

I then updated my bios to to the latest version for my device (ver 1.37) as specified in the Lenovo website (I used my serial number for this). I then tried the same driver again using the clean install method you recommended. When this failed I tried using the DDU tool to uninstall the driver from safe boot again as soon as the reinstallation was don the flickering started

The latest driver you recommended I could not install because according to the specifications listed my computer does not qualify for this driver

[Alberto_R_Intel]

Hi Pride, No problem at all, thank you very much for sharing those updates.

We are sorry to hear the issue persists after installing the latest BIOS version and the graphics driver. We will do further research on this matter, as soon as I get any updates I will post all the details on this thread.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Alberto_R_Intel]

Hello Pride, I just received an update on this matter.

After reviewing the case, we suggest to please try a clean installation of Intel® graphics driver version 15.40.48.5171:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/18369/intel-graphics-driver-for-windows-15-40.html

For testing purposes, do you have the option to test a different SSD?

Also, we noticed that you are working with Windows* 10 18363, do you have the opportunity to get in contact directly with Microsoft to install the latest Windows* version 19043 or 19044? That should be helpful for this scenario:

https://support.microsoft.com/

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Pride]

Good day, Albert.

Thank you for keeping the matter in mind.

I will try the recommended driver version and get back to you. Unfortunately, I do not have another SSD.

Also, when I try to update my Windows, the update fails, the computer is restarted and all changes are undone. I assume the drivers are also updated, and as soon Windows updates the graphics driver the update fails. I will however, attempt to get around this, I assume its possible to update windows without updating certain drivers.

[Alberto_R_Intel]

Pride, You are very welcome, thank you very much for providing those details.

"I will try the recommended driver version and get back to you.", perfect, you should be able to install that with no problems:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000057389/graphics.html

"Unfortunately, I do not have another SSD", that is no problem, thank you for letting us know.

It is very strange that the Windows* update fails, ", I assume its possible to update windows without updating certain drivers.", that is correct, actually it is better to update Windows* first and then the drivers. Once you get the chance, please let us know the results.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Alberto_R_Intel]

Hello Pride, I just wanted to check if the information posted previously was useful for you and if you need further assistance on this matter?

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Pride]

Hi Albert.

Unfortunately I am having no luck with this issue. I tried reinstalling the Windows 10 OS, which went quite well this time. I then updated it to the latest version before installing the recommended driver. Again as soon as the driver was installed, I heard that mount sound (similar to when you connect a USB device), the screen brightness went down a bit as if to say "Yes, GPU detected". All this happens within the space of  a minute  then the flickering starts. I then tried the driver that is specified for my machine, but again, same problem. I then opted to reboot and disable the driver before the flickering started, rather than uninstall it so as to keep the lower screen brightness. After like, two days I installed Malware bytes and it caught and reported a few problematic registry entries and keys which I then deleted. I then enabled the driver and this time it the driver lasted for like, 5 minutes before causing the flickering(I almost jumped with excitement, after 2 full minutes passed ). I then tried rebooting and the doing a clean install of the same drive but it did not work.

The only thing that I haven't tried is to try and update the firmware, since this is one of the things I meddled with during my failed attempts at disabling virtualization for Bluestacks installation (I was prompted for a firmware update by the Lenovo update software as I was updating bios and I obliged). I don't know if this is the cause but it the last thing I remember doing.

The weird thing is when I run the Lenovo hardware diagnostics tool everything seems to be okay and the device passes every sing test.

[Pride]

Also, often times the mount sound is followed almost immediately by the dismount sound, Then the flashing begins. 

[Alberto_R_Intel]

Hi Pride, Thank you very much for letting us know those results.

It is unfortunate to hear the problem remains. "The weird thing is when I run the Lenovo hardware diagnostics tool everything seems to be okay and the device passes every sing test.", Yes, that is very strange and the driver provided by them is the proper driver for your platform, tested and validated by them so the computer should work with no problems with that driver version.

"The only thing that I haven't tried is to try and update the firmware, since this is one of the things I meddled with during my failed attempts at disabling virtualization for Bluestacks installation (I was prompted for a firmware update by the Lenovo update software as I was updating bios and I obliged). I don't know if this is the cause but it the last thing I remember doing.", Yes, it is very important to update the BIOS to the latest version provided by Lenovo. 

Were you able to do the BIOS update successfully? If you did not, then we recommend to get in contact directly with Lenovo so they can guide you with the instructions to do the update.

Just to let you know, at this point pretty much we already tried all the troubleshooting steps that we suggest for this scenario. So, besides getting in contact with Lenovo directly to check the BIOS update details, we also advise to report this situation to them, to verify if they might have a more recent driver that contains the fix for this problem, to confirm if they are able to replicate this scenario using the same exact system that you are working with and for further assistance on this matter, since the issue might be related to hardware and a physical inspection of the unit will be needed, warranty options may apply on this case and they should be able to provide you with all the details about the alternatives they have available for this scenario:

https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician