Iris Plug Graphics on Surface Pro 7

[Val88]

Hi all,

I am having some severe problem on my Surface Pro 7 i7 16gb RAM, with the Iris Plug Graphic card.

The problem is that most games crash, around 95% of those I tried. Most crash at startup, and the remaining crashes after very little time, from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Basically I cannot use my laptop for games, not even very simple ones.

In the event viewer I see the problem as 

"Display driver igfxn stopped responding and has successfully recovered."

or more rarely

"Application [game_executable] has been blocked from accessing Graphics hardware."

Trying to debug it, I stumble upon an unity game that produces a log. This is the log when the game crashes (same error in the event viewer):

[2021.03.28-16.16.28:599][538]LogMemory: Virtual Memory: 8427.21 MB used, 8174.69 MB free, 134217728.00 MB total
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Windows GetLastError: The operation completed successfully. (0)
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: === Critical error: ===
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error:
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: Fatal error: [File:D:\Build\++UE4+Release-4.17+Compile\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\RenderCore\Private\RenderingThread.cpp] [Line: 811]
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: Rendering thread exception:
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: Fatal error: [File:D:\Build\++UE4+Release-4.17+Compile\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\Windows\D3D11RHI\Private\D3D11Util.cpp] [Line: 182]
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: Unreal Engine is exiting due to D3D device being lost. (Error: 0x887A0006 - 'HUNG')
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error:
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error:
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: KERNELBASE.dll!0x0000000034074B59
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x000000002E5856D0
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x000000002E342C1B
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x000000002E37B938
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x0000000031B0D528
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x0000000031B1137B
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x0000000031AF52D7
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x0000000031B0122B
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x000000003077CC89
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x000000003077C795
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x000000003077DA1B
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x00000000307761EE
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x0000000031D03E9B
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x0000000031D08E75
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x000000002E41B586
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x000000002E41BAC0
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x000000003075B2B1
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x000000003075B667
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x000000002E584B68
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: UE4Game.exe!0x000000002E57B02C
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: KERNEL32.DLL!0x0000000035D07034
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: ntdll.dll!0x00000000368A2651
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error: ntdll.dll!0x00000000368A2651
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error:
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error:
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error:
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:609][538]LogWindows: Error:
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:725][538]LogExit: Executing StaticShutdownAfterError
[2021.03.28-16.16.28:740][538]LogWindows: FPlatformMisc::RequestExit(1)[2021.03.28-16.16.28:740][538]Log file closed, 03/28/21 18:16:28

Almost all of these games crash without error. One of them, Dragonball FighterZ, instead, returns this interesting error upon crashing: 

LowLevelFatalError

[File:E:\jenkins\sharedspace\DBF_Patch0127\Dev\Engine\Source\Runtime\Windows\D3D11RH\Private\D3d11Util.cpp][Line: 182] Unreal Engine is exiting due to D3D device being lost. (Error: 0x887A006 - 'HUNG'] 

So it seems that the error is connected with Direct3D libraries.

I have tried many different drivers, from the standard Surface Pro ones to the most recents 27.20.100.9316 and the oldest 26.20.100.8141.

Games I have tried:

Life is strange Before the storm (crash on startup)

Dragonball FighterZ (Crashes as soon as any 3d graphic is shown)

Unreal Tournament 2004 (Crashes - but I manage to make it NOT crash if I disable the setting "Foliage". Crazy)

Unreal Tournamente 3 (around every 20 seconds the device is disconnected and then riconnected, and the game freezes for seconds)

Brothers - the two sons crashes at startup menu

Portal 2 - doesn't seem to crash! Only playable one.

Among Us - Crashes after ~1 minute

-----------

These are all games that are supposed to run smoothly on my machine. In fact, they run just fine on my girlfriend's Surface Pro 7 i5.

Microsoft tells me that I can send back the device to get a refurbished one. However, I would like to avoid that and I would love if any developer could try to sort this out.

Or if someone tells me "nobody knows about this, nobody will work on it, just get it changed" that's good to know as well. 

From my side I am happy to make any possible test to sort this out. 

[Val88]

Btw this attached is the output of the Intel Support Utility:

[Val88]

and this is the dxdiag "save all information" output

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello Val88, 

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.   

I would like to let you know that based on your post, this may be related to a malfunction of the laptop since the same games work fine on another laptop that has an inferior CPU generation (i5).

However, in order to better assist you, please provide the following:  

1. when you try to run any of these games, what is the behavior of the task manager? If possible take pictures.

2. Have you updated the BISO?

3. Have you ran all the Windows updates?

4. Have the laptop crashed while running other apps instead of games?

5. You mention that Microsoft offered you a replacement, does that mean that they already diagnosticated the laptop? If not, try to get in contact with their support team to check if the laptop is defective.

6. Run the Intel® Processor Diagnostic Tool to check if there is something wrong with the processor.

- https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19792

Regards,  

Deivid A. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[Val88]

Hi @DeividA_Intel and thank you for your answer.

1. when you try to run any of these games, what is the behavior of the task manager? If possible take pictures. The GPU stands at 30/40% for most of those games, then just when the crash occurs it spikes at 100% just before crashing - then it goes instantly down to 0/1% and (if the game recovers) back to 30/40%. 

2. Have you updated the BISO? Yes, using the Intel Driver and Support Assistant, I got the BIOS 9.104.140 which should be the right one

3. Have you ran all the Windows updates? Yes

4. Have the laptop crashed while running other apps instead of games? No, and even with GPU intensive apps such as Lightroom etc., the GPU works fine at its 20/30% (or more). It doesn't seem to be related to how high the GPU goes: with the only game that I can play, Portal 2, the GPU sits at around 80% and no crash occurs. 

5. You mention that Microsoft offered you a replacement, does that mean that they already diagnosticated the laptop? If not, try to get in contact with their support team to check if the laptop is defective. Microsoft philosophy is that if they don't know what's going on, they are happy to issue a replacement if the machine is under warranty. That may be an option for me but first I want to see if I can solve it in another way, since a) they'll give me a refurbished machine and b) apart from this problem, this machine is running pretty smoothly. 

6. Run the Intel® Processor Diagnostic Tool to check if there is something wrong with the processor.

- https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19792

Done. Everything passed.

It's a very weird problem, and the fact that it doesn't happen just with high GPU usage or with all games makes me think that it's a software problem, not hardware. What do you think? 

[Val88]

@DeividA_Intel  or anyone else, any idea about this?

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello Val88, 

Thank you for the information provided 

If Microsoft offered you a replacement could be because the unit may be defective but did not want to tell you, however, I will proceed to check the issue internally and post back soon with more details. 

Best regards, 

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[Val88]

Hi @DeividA_Intel , any news about this? 🙂 

[DeividA_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hello Val88, 

I performed a Lab of this issue, and I did not experience any issue with the unit and neither with the latest drivers, here the environment used: 

Environment:

1. Nuc10i7FNHJA

2. i7-10710U

3. GFX: UHD Graphics ver  27.20.100.9316

I also attached a couple of videos for you to check.

If you have any advice to improve the Lab, do not hesitate to let me know. However, my recommendation so far would be to get in contact with the manufacturer of the laptop to check the warranty options or to get proper support.

Best regards, 

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[Val88]

Thank you, that's basically what I wanted to know. I am issuing a replacement.