Intel UHD not able to display 1080p 120Hz

[AntoineS]

Hi, 

I have a laptop connected to a video projector in my living room. It is capable of receiving and projecting 1080p 120Hz signals (Optoma HD29He)
The output, cable and input are in HDMI 2.0 (Razer Blade Stealth 13' 2018). 

I launched the Intel Graphics Command Center, to set the resolution and refresh rate I wanted. But the display freezes and there is a message saying "Something got wrong, unable to set this resolution/refresh rate". 

Does it have to do with the cable that is too long? A configuration I've missed on my video projector or computer? 

Thanks for your help!

[megan3000]

"Does it have to do with the cable that is too long?"

How long is it?

[AntoineS]

The cable is a little shorter than 5 meters (16.4 feet) long. 

It shouldn't be a problem right ?

[n_scott_pearson]

I have seen a lot of laptops with poorly implemented HDMI ports. If your laptop simply exposes a raw HDMI 1.4 output signal from the processor, then I have seen cases where problems then occur. I am not saying that this is what is going on here; I am simply saying that I have seen this situation occur a number of times before.

Ok, before anything else, let me verify: If you use a 1080p@60Hz connection, it works without issue?

If the problem is only occurring when you use a 1080p@120Hz connection, the only way that we are going to know if the problem has to do with the long cable is to test the connection using a short, good quality cable. If the problem reproduces in this case, then we can look further at the situation with this long cable.

...S

[AntoineS]

On the paper, the HDMI port is a 2.0 port

The 1080p@60Hz works great but with 2 issues :
- Sometimes it loses connection for 2-3 seconds for instance when a player in my laptop goes from windowed to full screen. 
- When my computer goes asleep, there is the "disconnection sound" from windows repeating every 5 seconds... 

With those smaller issues put aside, the video stream works great! 

Now that I phrase it, the first issue could be linked to the problem we are discussing maybe ? I'll let you know when I find the time to test with a shorter good quality cable. 

Thanks all!

[n_scott_pearson]

If the HDMI port is directly being exposed by the MX150 dGFX engine, there is the possibility of it being HDMI 2.0. If this HDMI port is exposed by the iGFX engine, however, it is only going to be HDMI 1.4 - unless the laptop also includes an LSPcon IC which converts a DisplayPort 1.2 signal to an HDMI 2.0 signal (I was not able to verify this in the feature summaries that I could find).

When you see the the monitor temporarily lose its connection with the laptop, this could be the result of a number of possibilities,

1. The cable is borderline not capable of supporting the (60Hz) stream. If this is the case, it will never support 120Hz.
2. The LSPcon IC has an issue. If this is the case, I would be looking for a firmware update on the Razer site. If you cannot find one, I suggest you contact Razer Support to see if one is necessary and available and, if so, get it from them.
3. You are running into one of the issues with the (older) Intel drivers. The problem here is that the drivers are likely customized by Razer to support their laptop design. If this is the case, you shouldn't be using later, non-customized versions of the Intel driver without first verifying with Razer that this is ok and will not cause problems.

That disconnecting sound is nothing to do with the graphics situation. There is likely something wrong elsewhere (I would be checking USB (especially),  Thunderbolt and LAN/WLAN).

Hope this helps,

...S

P.S. You can also try connecting your monitor via Thunderbolt. One of the Thunderbolt ports is listed as exposing a DisplayPort stream. In this case, you could use a USB-C-to-HDMI adapter to connect your projector. Here is an example: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QTS7LPM.