Laptop screen flickers when virtualization is enabled

[Wxman1]

Whenever I enable Virtualization in system BIOS, my laptop's screen begins constantly flickering to the point that it is unusable.  When I disable the option, the display operation returns to normal.  I would like to use a virtual machine, but am unable to do this without virtualization.

I have a Windows 10 laptop (HP Pavilion - 15t-cs300 CTO) with the latest updates installed.  I have an Intel graphics driver (Intel Iris Plus Graphics 31.0.101.2114), along with a Nvidia GForce MX250 GPU, and I ran Intel driver update and it found no updates.  After contacting HP they recommended I contact Intel about a possible driver issue.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Wxman1]

Whenever I enable Virtualization in system BIOS, my laptop's screen begins constantly flickering to the point that it is unusable.  When I disable the option, the display operation returns to normal.  I would like to use a virtual machine, but am unable to do this without virtualization.

I have a Windows 10 laptop (HP Pavilion - 15t-cs300 CTO) with the latest updates installed.  I have an Intel graphics driver (Intel Iris Plus Graphics 31.0.101.2114), along with a Nvidia GForce MX250 GPU, and I ran Intel driver update and it found no updates.  After contacting HP they recommended I contact Intel about a possible driver issue.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello Wxman1  

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities. I am sorry to know that you are having issues with your Intel® Iris® Plus Graphics.   

In order to better assist you, please provide the following:  

1. Is this issue recent?

2. Is this issue present with your laptop out of the box?

3. What is the brand and model name of your processor?

4. Did you try clean install steps when trying to install the latest driver version?

5. What is the BIOS version installed?

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[Wxman1]

Hi Deivid,

Regarding your first 2 questions, I have only attempted to use a virtual machine starting about 2 months ago, and this is when I noticed the problem.  So it's possible the problem existed since I bought my laptop 2 years ago, but I cannot be sure.

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1065G7 CPU @ 1.30GHz, 1498 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)

I did not try a clean install.

BIOS Version/Date Insyde F.16, 4/28/2022

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello Wxman1, 

Thanks for the information provided. In this case a test, please try the following:

1. Clean install of the latest Intel drivers:

• Steps: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000057389.html
• Drivers: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19344/intel-graphics-windows-dch-drivers.html

2. Try with the latest HP drivers if the Intels did not work

3. Can you test an external monitor to see if the same issue happens there?

4. Get in contact with HP to update the BIOS (the latest is F.17)

5. Get in contact with HP to confirm that the laptop is fully compatible with virtualization since the BIOS and motherboard must be compatible as well.

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[Wxman1]

• I did a clean install of the latest Intel drivers, and also updated the BIOS to F.17.  The problem is better, but not resolved (only half of the screen flickers occasionally, instead of the entire screen).
• Windows update apparently doesn't like the new Intel driver, because it installed the HP driver version by itself later that day.  After installing, the HP driver results in much worse flickering than the new Intel version.  In fact, the screen is consistently black and only flickers on for a second or two before going black again.
• The problem does not occur on an external display - that works fine.  The issue only occurs on the laptop screen.
• I contacted HP and asked about virtualization, but the support person was unable to answer my question.  I'll try again this week and hopefully get someone else.

Another interesting bit of information: The display is fine when I first start the laptop.  The issue only starts after the computer has gone into sleep/hibernation and resumed.

[Wxman1]

They said my laptop should be compatible with virtualization

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello Wxman1, 

Thanks for your response. I would like to investigate this issue and to continue I will need the following:

1. Run the Intel® System Support Utility (Intel® SSU) to gather more details about the system.  

• Download the Intel® SSU and save the application on your computer: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/18377/intel-system-support-utility-for-windows.html  
• Open the application, check the "Everything" checkbox, and click "Scan" to see the system and device information. The Intel® SSU defaults to the "Summary View" on the output screen following the scan. Click the menu where it says "Summary" to change to "Detailed View".  
• To save your scan, click Next and click Save.  

2. Provide the Report for Intel® Graphics Drivers: 

• https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005848/graphics.html 

3. Take a video where we can see the issue.

Best regards, 

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[Wxman1]

Hi Deivid,

Attached you can find both diagnostic reports, as well as a video of the problem occurring.  Note that my current driver is now the most-recent HP version, which Windows update installed, not the driver I downloaded from Intel for the clean install.

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello Wxman1, 

Thank you for the information provided 

I will proceed to check the issue internally and post back soon with more details. 

Best regards, 

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello Wxman1, 

Thanks for your patience. In order to continue with the investigation, I would like to confirm the following information:

1. Is the issue present with both HP and Latest Intel drivers? Did you test different versions?

2. Did you confirm that virtualization is enabled in BIOS? HP may provide more details on how to enable it.

3. Which virtualization software do you use? Which operating system is running in the Virtual Machine?

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[Wxman1]

1. The issue is present with both HP drivers (those installed when I ran the diagnostic reports), as well as the latest Intel drivers.

2. The issue begins happening after I enable virtualization in the BIOS, and then the computer goes to sleep/hibernation and resumes.  Currently, virtualization is enabled.

3. Ideally I want to use ubuntu, but I haven't bothered to install the software yet because the screen flickers already, even without any virtual machine.

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello Wxman1, 

Thanks for the confirmation. I will continue the investigation with this information and get back to you as soon as I have any updates.

Thanks for your comprehension.

Best regards, 

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello Wxman1, 

Thanks for your patience. Based on the investigation performed, I recommend you disable the fast startup:

1. Control panel > Power Options > choose what the power button does> uncheck "turn on fast startup"

2. Restart the computer and try again.

If the previous steps did not work, the only option would be to reinstall the operating system and update all drivers.

Best regards, 

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello Wxman1,  

After checking your thread, I would like to know if you need further assistance. 

If so, please let me know. 

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[Wxman1]

Hi Deivid,

Unfortunately disabling the fast startup did not solve the problem.  I haven't yet tried reinstalling the operating system, because things are currently pretty busy with work.  I might have time to do that sometime next month.  Thanks for checking in.

Nathan

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello Wxman1, 

Thanks for the confirmation. If after the reinstallation of the operating system the issue persists, try to get in contact with the manufacturer of the laptop since they may need to run some tests on their unit to confirm if the issue is related to software or hardware.

Please keep in mind that this thread will no longer be monitored by Intel.  

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician