Trackmania United Forever Problem on Latest Intel Iris Xe Driver

[odysseyofnoises]

Hi,

Windows recently updated my Intel Iris Xe graphics driver to version 32.0.101.5763. A new problem started with Trackmania United Forever on this version. About every 3-5 minutes, the game will freeze up and display a black screen. The game doesn't crash and goes back to running normally after 1-2 seconds, but after checking Windows' reliability history, it shows a LiveKernelEvent error with code 141 (hardware error) every time the problem happens. I tried reinstalling the driver and changing many settings in the game, but nothing has fixed it.

Link to a YouTube video showing the issue: https://youtu.be/XWBRu8bYQMs

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi odysseyofnoises,

Thank you for posting in the Community!

Apologies for the delay on my response. Just to add, We supply generic versions of graphics drivers for general purposes. Computer manufacturers might have changed the features, incorporated customizations, or made other changes to the graphics driver software or software packaging. To avoid potential installation incompatibilities, we recommend that you check first with your computer manufacturer and use the driver software provided by them.

Here's the latest graphics driver for your laptop:

HP EliteBook 830 13 inch G10 Notebook PC Software and Driver Downloads | HP® Support

• I suggest doing a clean driver installation using DDU in safe mode is recommended. Follow this link for instructions.
• You could also test using the latest Beta driver. Our Beta drivers go through all Intel quality assurance processes and are safe to use for evaluation. Intel® Arc™ & Iris® Xe Graphics - Windows*

Best regards,

Dean R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[odysseyofnoises]

Thanks for the response.

I used DDU again to uninstall the driver, and this time, I just let HP Support Assistant automatically install a video driver for me. It installed version 31.0.101.5388. That's a pretty old version of the driver, but it does seem to have fixed the problem in Trackmania United Forever (and I don't have any other issues with it in any other program). I also had to turn off Windows driver updates in Group Policy Editor to prevent Windows from automatically downloading the generic Intel driver again.

However, I don't think this is a permanent solution. It works for now, but someday, the driver will probably be automatically updated again, and the newer version is going to have the same problem. So, I hope Intel actually fixes whatever actually causes this problem in a newer driver version in the future.

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi odysseyofnoises,

Apologies for the delay on my response. I'm glad to hear that your laptop is working now. Just to add, we supply generic versions of graphics drivers for general purposes. Computer manufacturers might have changed the features, incorporated customizations, or made other changes to the graphics driver software or software packaging. To avoid potential installation incompatibilities, we recommend that you check first with your computer manufacturer and use the driver software provided by them. Hope that clarifies the issue.

This is noted and let us know if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Dean R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[odysseyofnoises]

I've tried installing the newer 32.0.101.5763 graphics driver directly from HP, and it has exactly the same problem as the generic Intel one. So, the problem isn't connected with whether it's the generic driver or the OEM one; they both have the same issue. It's a bug somewhere in the driver in general. Right now, I'm running the generic version 31.0.101.5444 of the graphics driver, and it works fine. I'm going to just stick with this one for the time being probably. But I still just wanted you to know there's a bug with the driver, and it could affect other games or programs that do something similar (whatever causes the bug in Trackmania).

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi odysseyofnoises,

This is well noted. This is an acknowledgement message for your inquiry, do please wait as this will be investigated internally to be able to provide a resolution to your request. I will get back to you once I have the necessary information.

Best regards,

Dean R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[odysseyofnoises]

Thanks, I appreciate your looking into it.

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi odysseyofnoises,

To resolve the issue, please update your graphics driver to version 32.0.101.6127_101.6044 or a newer version. It’s important to perform a clean installation during this process to ensure everything works smoothly.

Here's the link for reference:

Trackmania* Crashes After Driver Update to Version 31.0.101.5379

I suggest doing a clean driver installation using DDU in safe mode is recommended. Follow this link for instructions.

Once you’ve completed the installation, please let us know the outcome. Thank you!

Best regards,

Dean R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[odysseyofnoises]

I installed the latest driver version 32.0.101.6129 available on the Intel Download Center. Unfortunately, the crashes still happen for me in Trackmania, so I'll go back to 31.0.101.5444.

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi odysseyofnoises,

Apologies for the delay on my response. This is an acknowledgement message for your inquiry, do please wait as this will be investigated internally to be able to provide a resolution to your request. I will get back to you once I have the necessary information.

Best regards,

Dean R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi odysseyofnoises,

Thank you for patiently waiting, I would suggest trying all the following steps here in this link:

Troubleshooting Flickering, Crashing, and Other Common Game Issues on...

Try the latest version of the graphics driver and perform clean installation as well:
Intel® Arc™ & Iris® Xe Graphics - Windows*
Clean Installation of Intel® Graphics Drivers in Windows*

Let us know if the issue still persists.

Best regards,

Dean R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[odysseyofnoises]

Those steps aren't very useful, since those are really basic things that I already tried, as I explained in my original post.

Also, I don't want to keep aimlessly trying to install and uninstall every new updated graphics driver. I'm just going to stick to 31.0.101.5444, since it works for me, and I don't have any problems with it.

I appreciate your help on this, but I think I don't want to mess with it anymore for now. You can go ahead and close this thread.

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi odysseyofnoises,

I’m sorry that the last recommendation didn’t work as expected. This is well acknowledged and as such I will be closing this thread.

Best regards,

Dean R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[odysseyofnoises]

So, I've decided to revisit this issue a few months later. I updated my driver to 32.0.101.6632. I found that if I change the "shadows" setting in the game to "none," then the crashes don't seem to happen. And if I change the setting to anything else, even "minimum" shadows, then the video driver crashes every few minutes, like described earlier in the thread. I think Trackmania is doing something with its shadow calculations that newer Intel drivers don't like. Maybe the newer Intel drivers don't have compatibility for some older graphics processes that the game uses. I don't know if Intel is going to want to fix this, given that it's a pretty old game, but I just wanted to post this in case it maybe will be useful to somebody if they're having the same issue. The shadows don't seem to make that big of a difference in the graphics quality, so running the game without shadows seems like a fair compromise.