Intel UHD 620 drivers (Blurry Text in Cleartype)

[LG000]

I have a Dell XPS13 (9380) w/ FHD 1080p screen on Windows 10. Text scaling is horrible, text in buttons/tabs for various native apps are blurry, text in boxes is splotchy especially when highlighted, and it's even worse when nightlight is turned on.

I've tried IIGD 26.20.100.6861, 25.20.100.6577, and other versions of the graphics drivers. If I tune Cleartype it becomes somewhat better, but really its hit or miss.

When I remove all the Intel drivers and default back to Microsoft Basic Display Driver with Cleartype, everything is crisp. Clearly that implies the issue is with the drivers.

Any ideas on how to fix?

[Gh0stb1t]

Did you download those drivers from Intel's website or from Dell's? If you downloaded from Intel's, have you tried the drivers provided by Dell?

https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/xps-13-9380-laptop/drivers

Dell should be your first point of support, your laptop might come with customize features and thus, may required customize drivers. Intel's website clearly states you should work with your computer manufacturer before installing Intel's drivers so you don’t lose features or customizations.

If you already worked with Dell, what did they say? What information/help/steps did they provide?

Sharing this report (in .txt format) would be helpful in case any Intel's rep monitors this post

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

Regards,

[Wanner_G_Intel]

Hello LG000, Were you able to review the recommendations provided? If you are still experiencing this issue, please let us know. Wanner G. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[GLeeg]

Dear LG000, Wanner,

I may have exactly the same issue! I would be very happy if that is the case, since I am quite frustrated by this and have been trying to get to the bottom of it. I opened a topic on the Dell XPS support forum, it has grown to quite a long topic now, click here to see the topic. I will summarise:

• There seems to be a problem with my Dell XPS 13 FHD 9380 in combination with the Intel UHD Graphics 620 driver. It is most visible when there is black text on grey backgrounds, with ClearType on. Then, around the text, blocky artifacts appear, mostly blue/red/white in color. However, ClearType is not the cause of the problem, since the problem can be reproduced by opening a specific image in Paint, even when ClearType is disabled
• The problem disappears on an external screen. It also disappears when booting in Ubuntu. Finally, it disappears when uninstalling the Intel 620 drivers and using the Microsoft Basic Display Driver. That is however pretty useless since brightness can't even be controlled then.
• I have tried installing many previous versions of the Intel drivers, including the first DCH drivers, and also the 'legacy' drivers before that (several versions 25.xxx and 15.xxx/24.xxx). That did not help.
• There is a separate issue in the topic above, visible when displaying vertical color bars on the screen. LG000, I would be very curious if you can reproduce this issue on your XPS. To do this, open this picture (click here), and display it completely full screen. The question is whether extra thin vertical lines appear around the color transitions, as the photograph in my topic above shows. I might have my LCD replaced because of this.

In the meantime, I'd like to know from Intel (Wanner?) if they have any clue what causes the artifacts to appear, and if there is any solution available except for rolling back to the default Microsoft driver, which is pretty useless. Of course, this problem may occur on many other laptops with Intel UHD 620 graphics. At least it seems to happen on mine and on LG000's. I have not had access to any other Windows laptop (XPS or not) with Intel 620 UDH graphics.

I am very much looking forward for your replies.

Best,

Gijs Leegwater

[Wanner_G_Intel]

Hello GLeeg, Thank you for posting on this Intel Community. We will be glad to continue working on this issue. We know that you have tried installing different drivers, Windows* DCH and legacy, but we would like to suggest that you can perform a clean installation of the latest Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) driver since they are customized and validated for your system configuration. Please follow these steps to properly switch to the best OEM drivers for your computer: 1. Disconnect from the Internet. 2. Uninstall the generic DCH drivers via Start > Settings > Apps & Features. 3. Uninstall the (DCH) Intel® Graphics Control Panel via Start > Settings > Apps & Features. 4. Restart the computer. 5. Reconnect to the Internet. 6. Go to Device Manager > Right-click on "Intel® HD Graphics" or "Microsoft Basic Display Adapter". 7. Select "Update Driver". 8. Allow Windows Update to Search for the best drivers for your system. 9. Install the driver. 10. Restart the computer. If the issue persists, then you can try forcing the generic DCH drivers. This option is not recommended as it overrides any customization done by your OEM. If you still wish to use generic DCH drivers then follow these steps: 1. Download the latest DCH driver. 2. Disconnect your unit from the Internet to prevent Windows* Updates from installing any other driver. 3. Uninstall the DCH driver and the Intel® Graphics Control Panel from Control Panel > Programs and Features. 4. Restart the computer. 5. Make sure the 'Microsoft Basic Display Adapter' is listed under Windows* Device Manager > Video adapters. If not, repeat steps 2 to 4. 6. If the adapter continues to be listed as ‘Intel HD Graphics’, and no other Intel® Graphics driver is listed under 'Programs and Features' for removal, then it means Windows* has switched to a previously installed Legacy driver. At this point, we can remove Legacy drivers from Device Manager: 6.1.1 Right-click on 'Intel HD Graphics' or similar, and select 'Uninstall Device' 6.1.2 In the pop-up window make sure 'Delete the driver software for this device' is checked. 6.1.3 Click on 'Uninstall'. 6.1.4 Restart. (Repeat steps 6.1.1 through 6.1.4 until the device gets listed as 'Microsoft Basic Display Adapter') 7. Install the DCH driver that was downloaded on step 1. 8. Restart the computer. 9. Enable your Internet connection. 10. Download the Intel Graphics Control Panel from the MS Store (If needed) Please let us know of the results. Wanner G. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[GLeeg]

Hello Wanner,

Thank you for your reply. I am glad you are committed to working on this issue. I have already tried both drivers you suggest. Currently I have (cleanly) installed the latest OEM driver provided by Dell (which can be found here), with version number 25.20.100.6577. I have also tried the newest DCH driver provided by Intel (found here) as you suggested, version 26.20.100.6861. Actually, this driver cannot be installed through the self-extracting .exe, since it says my system is not supported. I managed to install this manually by downloading the .zip, and install the driver in device manager trough the "Have disk..." option and select the .inf file.

Unfortunately, neither attempt solved the problem (like the many other drivers I tried)

Best,

Gijs

[GLeeg]

Regarding the vertical lines in the color bars... I have found out this lines are actually there in the PNG file I got from the screen capture. So it just seems the test pattern has these vertical lines in them, maybe SupportAssist uses a compressed image. So that issue can be ignored!

[GLeeg]

In the meantime, I have also tried the two older OEM drivers available on the Dell website. Doesn't solve the problem either.

[LG000]

I figured it out - need to disable panel self refresh. Install the latest Dell drivers because the latest Intel DCH drivers remove Intel Graphics Control Panel. Then open Intel Graphics Control Panel and disable PSR in the power section.

Reboot and it should work - the setting persists now when you install Intel DCH (6861).

Really poor quality control on part of Dell and Intel. You know something is really wrong when the default Microsoft drivers don’t have the problem.

[GLeeg]

THANK YOU! It works!

I had tried that setting before, but didn't think of rebooting. It really should say that rebooting is necessary for that setting to take effect. Now I am really curious who thought that enabling 'panel self refresh' was a good idea...

Indeed I am also baffled by this. Probably it is an issue on ALL 9380's FHD, maybe even 9370, and who knows what other laptops. I assume you have also already disabled "Adaptive Brightness Control (ABC)" in the BIOS, which makes your screen even brighter when there is more white on it (Intel has nothing to do with this I believe)? Another 'feature' I just cannot imagine what advantage it has (maybe just to score higher on a contrast benchmark measurement?).

Best,

Gijs

[GLeeg]

I did a bit of googling, and found out what the function of 'Panel Self Refresh' is. It is a power-saving feature, which uses a kind of extra cache memory for the case where there are static elements on the screen, then the data is sent from the cache memory instead of the main graphics memory (if I understand correctly) which saves power. Apparently this does not work well on our laptops. So we are now sacrificing battery life to circumvent this issue. The question remains:

Does this occur only on our laptops (if exchanged under warranty, does the problem disappear?) or on all XPS 9380 FHD 13's? Maybe also on the 15-inch version? Maybe on ALL laptops using Intel UHD 620 graphics? Maybe on ALL laptops using any Intel graphics with Panel Self Refresh?

I would like to know if the problem occurs on other laptops of the same type. If not, I might want to use my warranty to get a new one.

Best,

Gijs

[LG000]

I haven’t seen any impact at all to battery life. I believe it’s a software issue

[GLeeg1]

Sigh... the problem is unfortunately coming back often now. Don't know why, maybe after some update. Seems like Panel Self Refresh auto-enables some times, even if it is disabled in the Intel Graphics Control Panel. The problem goes away when I open the graphics control panel, go to power settings, even though panel self refresh is already "disabled", i click "enable" and immediately "disable" again, then I click "apply", then reboot...

Would be terrific if panel self refresh could just be get rid of forever

Have you also found the problem to reappear?

[GLeeg]

Well, since Panel Self Refresh is a power-saving feature, disabling it probably impacts battery life, but maybe just a little bit?

[Wanner_G_Intel]

Hello all, We are glad to know that you were able to fix this issue. Since OEMs usually customize their drivers to ensure system functionality and, in this case, adjust their power options to system design, we recommend reporting this issue to your computer manufacturer. In this way, they may contact Intel if they found out a problem that has to be investigated further. Thank you for your feedback. It is highly appreciated. Wanner G. Intel Customer Support Technician Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[GLeeg]

Thank you, I have forwarded your message to the topic on the Dell support forum. -Gijs

[BOMITH]

Hello LG000,
are you fix this problem

[AlHill]

Do not respond to a 2-year old thread.   Stay with the thread you created, and be patient.

Doc (not an Intel employee or contractor)
[Windows 11 is the new Vista]