Random black screen @4k120 Intel Iris Xe

[Seech_Ipp]

Hi,

I have a 17" LG Gram with an i7-1165G7 and Iris Xe graphics which I bought pre-loaded with Windows 10 and upgraded to Windows 11. I am having an issue when I attempt to run my high refresh rate 4K monitor at 120hz. I get random black screens, where my monitor will blink to black for a second or two then come back as if nothing happened.

Here are a few things I've tried without any success.

1. Re-installed graphics driver

2. Updated to the latest graphics driver

3. Turned off graphics acceleration in my browser. The black screen happened on both Chrome and Firefox and once I tested it a bit more thoroughly, I realized it happens when I'm using other apps as well.

4. Did a clean install of Windows 11.

The only thing which has worked is turning down the refresh rate to 60hz, which solves the problem. However, since I bought a high refresh rate monitor, I'd like to run it at 4k120 to reduce eyestrain, etc.

It's also worth noting that Windows 10 did exhibit some of this behavior but if I recall correctly only when using a browser so disabling hardware acceleration in the browser was the solution in that instance. It seems the problem has gotten worse with Windows 11.

One last note: I have a second monitor hooked up, 1080p + high refresh which has been rock solid all along. I do not keep the laptop screen on when I am using these two monitors.

If you have any ideas, it would be much appreciated!

[edechamps]

Ah, apologies, I should have realized you were using DisplayPort and not HDMI... as you rightfully pointed out, my guide is quite specific to Thunderbolt-HDMI adapters. Sorry for being off-topic 😞

I can't test with my monitor via DisplayPort - it's an LG OLED TV which only has HDMI inputs.

I thought the issue was really specific to HDMI adapters, and I also thought you had the same issue because your symptoms look exactly the same as what I saw when I tried to use Sabrent or Lenovo adapters with Intel GPU driver 30.0.101.1692 at 4K120: random black screen flickers. Hence my confusion.

I also observed that the same adapters behave differently with Intel GPU drivers 30.0.101.3111 and 30.0.101.3222. Do you notice a difference with these driver versions? In my case they force the output to YCbCr420 instead of RGB in 4K120. Which, granted, is not a solution (YCbCr420 looks quite horrible), but I wonder if these drivers would behave the same in your case.

[RA-7]

In my opinion, it is unclear why IGCC reports the maximum refresh rate for 3840 x 2160 is 60hz when in fact, as you can see from the attached screen shots, Windows lists 3840 x 2160 @ 119hz as a valid mode for this display.

As far as I am concerned, I am also not sure what you mean by turning off vs. disabling, but when I am connected to my external monitors, I go into the graphics settings on my laptop and set the laptop panel to "Disconnected". It is possible to disable it via Device Manager, but I do not do that as I would still like to be able to use my laptop as a laptop when I am away from my desk on occasion, so I do not disable it that way.

Additionally, the IGCC is not reporting correctly the number of monitors connected to the network. This is the IGCC report attached with the secondary 1080p monitor set to disconnected and turned off, yet IGCC still reports that both the secondary monitor and the laptop panel are still showing up as active in both reports. I have set the main monitor to run at 119 Hz on my computer. As I mentioned in my previous report, it was only running at 60 cycles per second in the previous report.

In order to conduct some further testing, I will use only my main monitor set to 119hz and the two screens set to disconnected in order to perform the testing. There are a number of inconsistencies between what IGCC is reporting and what Windows is displaying. Could it be that there is a driver issue with multiple monitors causing this inconsistency

[Seech_Ipp]

In case this might actually help someone, I have finally figured out how to make multi-monitor work though I am still not sure why these steps are necessary. The steps are as follows:

1. Enable HDR mode in Windows 11 settings, since the aforementioned Acer Predator monitor supports it.

2. Turn on the Acer Predator monitor AFTER the laptop finishes booting and the Windows startup screen is displayed.

These seem to me like completely unrelated steps to take, but they work. I am now running two 4K monitors concurrently and my primary Acer display is rock solid at 119hz.

[n_scott_pearson]

@Seech_Ipp,

This sounds like you need a BIOS Update with an upgraded UEFI video driver. Have you checked to see if Acer has made any available? If not, I would check with Acer's support folks regarding one being necessary.

...S