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Intel Iris Xe Graphics flickering black

NTTech
Beginner
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Hey guys,

Computer tech here, this is a laptop for a client of mine.

 

When PC is booted up, the display goes black randomly every few seconds. Accompanying the loss of display is a split second tearing or pixelating of the display.

 

Plugging in a second monitor allows use of the PC as the external screen doesn't cut out, BUT I noticed that when the laptop screen goes black, the cursor, or any animation on the external screen does not run smoothly, like it's dropping every other frame.

The Intel Iris Xe graphics was up to date with a driver version of 30.0.100.9864

Downgrading to the manufacturers 27.20.100.9664 does not fix the issue.

Disabling the graphics driver entirely DOES fix the issue, however this renders the external HDMI output disabled also.

Are you able to advise any further troubleshooting steps?

 

Cheers,

--Nick Thomas

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
2,607 Views

Hi NTTech, Thank you very much for providing that information and the SSU report.


According to the details shown in the SSSU document, the graphics driver version currently installed on your computer is 30.0.100.9864.


It is important to mention that it is always recommended 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.

 

Since the problem remains after installing Acer graphics driver version 27.20.100.9664, even though the Intel® graphics drivers are generic, for testing purposes, try a clean installation of our latest graphics driver version 31.0.101.3790, following the instructions in the links below:

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

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


We also recommend to get in contact directly with Acer Support to make sure the latest BIOS version is currently installed in the machine or to gather the instruction on how to update it:

https://www.acer.com/us-en/support


Once you get the chance please let us know the results so, if necessary, we can further assist you.


Regards,

Albert R.


Intel Customer Support Technician


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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
2,639 Views

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


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

What is the complete model of the laptop?

Was it working fine before without showing the flickering problem?

When did the issue start?

Did you make any recent hardware/software changes, besides updating the drivers, that might cause this issue?

Which Windows* version are you using?

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

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


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NTTech
Beginner
2,625 Views

Hey Albert,

 

Complete model of laptop is: Acer Swift 3 SF314-511 56QF

Yes, the laptop has been working fine since the client bought it (6 months ago-ish) up until last saturday the 7th of January.

There has been no hardware changes, but there was an update to the video driver brought about through windows updates on the 7th, so I suspect that's caused the issue.

Currently running Windows 11 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 22621).

The client uses this machine at home and when travelling, there is no work environment.

I have attached the SSU report as requested.

 

Further troubleshooting steps I have taken:

Removed the v30 driver through device manager (view devices by driver)
Then removed the device (and ticked uninstalled the software).
Restarted the machine and installed the v27 driver again - same issue
Windows update wanted to run a bunch of updates that had become available since last check (including the v30 driver).
Updated, restarted, same issue.

Cheers,

--Nick

 

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
2,608 Views

Hi NTTech, Thank you very much for providing that information and the SSU report.


According to the details shown in the SSSU document, the graphics driver version currently installed on your computer is 30.0.100.9864.


It is important to mention that it is always recommended 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.

 

Since the problem remains after installing Acer graphics driver version 27.20.100.9664, even though the Intel® graphics drivers are generic, for testing purposes, try a clean installation of our latest graphics driver version 31.0.101.3790, following the instructions in the links below:

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

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


We also recommend to get in contact directly with Acer Support to make sure the latest BIOS version is currently installed in the machine or to gather the instruction on how to update it:

https://www.acer.com/us-en/support


Once you get the chance please let us know the results so, if necessary, we can further assist you.


Regards,

Albert R.


Intel Customer Support Technician


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NTTech
Beginner
2,594 Views

Hey Albert,

 

As mentioned previously, the v27 driver from the Acer site still had the same issue, BUT removing the drive this time (the v30 version), I noticed that after I had to remove the driver from device manager twice for the "Intel Xe graphics" to disappear and be replaced by "Intel basic display driver"
So it could be that when I removed the driver previously, I only removed it partially, or there was another drive waiting to take its place and I didn't properly remove all the files associated with it.

Regardless, I downloaded and installed the v31 driver you linked (thank you for that) and installed that, selecting "Clean Installation"

Following the installation, it called for a reboot, which was done, and now appears to be operating perfectly.
The Intel Xe graphics is enabled, I can project, and it has no flickering issues at all over the last 10 minutes (it would normally be every few seconds).

I think Windows 10/11 has made me slack in keeping up with and hunting down drivers - I'll have to be mindful of that.

Thank you for all your help 😃

EDIT: Windows 10 automatically downloaded the v30 driver and installed it again (as it had previously been uninstalled and WU was grumpy with this obviously) and the issue returned. However, switching the driver back to v31 through device manager has fixed it, so hopefully now everyone's happy.

 

Cheers,

--Nick Thomas

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
2,579 Views

Hi NTTech, You are very welcome, thank you very much for letting us know those updates.

 

Perfect, excellent it is great to hear that you were able to install graphics driver version v31 and after that the problem with the flickering got fixed and the computer is now working properly.

 

Thank you very much as well for sharing the results on the thread, we are sure they will be very helpful and useful for all the peers looking at this conversation.

 

In reference to the Windows* updates, as an option you can always get in contact directly with Microsoft Support to check with them if there is a way to disable the Automatic Updates to prevent for the issue to come back with a different graphics diver version that might get installed automatically:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us

 

Any other inquiries, do not hesitate to contact us again.

 

Regards,

Albert R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

 

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