Win10 DCH Drivers (620 UHD) not identifying external (HDMI) monitors

[papadeltasierra]

Can anyone shed any light on a strange issue?  I have a laptop (Lenovo) that uses Intel 620 UHD graphics.  If appears that relatively recent Windows 10 updates have broken the "external monitor" function.  A quick web search indicates that I'm not along in seeing this issue but the symptoms seem a little inconsistent across different makes and models or laptop.

I used to be able to plug a second display into the HDMI port of the laptop and either duplicate or extend the desktop.  However first this became unreliable and then stopped working completely after recent Windows updates.

What I see is this:

• No monitor (all Dells, mixture of resolutions and DVI or HDMI connectors) are recognised (The Windows "Detect" monitor button claims there are no monitors); note that there is no Windows "ping" to indicate new hardware attached
• BUT a Panasonic TV, connected via HDMI is immediately recognised ("ping"!) and works perfectly!

I have tried these steps:

1. I removed the existing Lenovo drivers and tried the latest drivers from Intel - no improvement
2. I removed the Intel drivers and tried the latest drivers from the Lenovo website - no improvement
3. Updating BIOS and every other drivers etc that either Windows or the "Lenovo Vantage" program wants to update.

With the Lenovo drivers, the Intel display utilities claim the driver is out of date, but as per #1 I also tried the latest Intel drivers and these didn't work either!

I'm happy to try more debugging/enable diagnostics modes etc if someone from Intel is interested and could help me solve this.

Thanks for any help that you can provide.

[n_scott_pearson]

We need more information.

First of all, please download and run the Intel System Support Utility for Windows. Select all data categories, generate the report and then have the tool save the report to a file. Don't use the Submit capability; it doesn't work currently. Finally, using the Drag and drop here or browse files to attach dialog below the edit box for the body of your response post, upload and attach this file to the response post.

Secondly, please detail the versions of the driver package that you tried at each step.

...S

[papadeltasierra]

Dear Scott,

Thank you for taking an interest in my problem.  I have downloaded and run the Intel tool and attached two sets of output:

1. The first set has a Dell E228WFPc monitor attached to the laptop
2. The second set has my Panasonic TV attached to the laptop.

I took a quick look myself and could see that the Dell monitor appears to not be identified at all but the Panasonic TV is; this is what I see in terms of user experience.  The Dell monitor doesn't cause Windows to "ping" when I connect it and even a manually triggered (via Windows or Intel control panel apps) "detect" fails to spot the monitor is attached.

For your info, I have tried 4 different Dell monitors and my TV and the model numbers are below in case this helps at all; the monitors all fail to be recognised by the laptop.  I've also indicated the style of video connector on the monitor/TV end:

• Dell monitor #1, E22WFPc, DVI
• Dell monitor #2, P2317H, HDMI
• Dell monitor #3, P2314H, DVI
• Dell monitor #4, 1704FTPs, DVI
• Panasonic TV, TX-L32E6B, HDMI

Again, many thanks for any help you can offer with this,

Paul D.Smith (papadeltasierra)

[papadeltasierra]

Scott,

Forgot to give you the driver versions which are:

• Lenovo version (currently in use): 26.20.100.7262
• Intel version (tried but gave same results): 27.20.100.9079

Paul DS.

[n_scott_pearson]

First of all, Intel states that you should not use dongles. If you have an HDMI interface, you should be connecting HDMI monitors. Using a dongle to connect DVI monitors is not supported (and not supported means not tested by Intel).

So, as much as I think that statement is drivel, we do have HDMI<-->HDMI cases that we can look at and compare. At this point, I do not understand why detection would fail. The two HDMI cases should have been treated the same. I can't seem to find the HDMI support levels of the two (TV and Monitor). Are they HDMI 1.2? 1.4? 2.0?

...S

[papadeltasierra]

Scott,

Don't know if this makes any difference but I have both an HDMI/DVI dongle (for use with an HDMI/HDMI cable) and also an HDMI/DVI cable (HDMI one end, DVI the other).  I've used both for many years with other desktop and laptop PCs and DVI monitors without any issues so I was surprised to hear that Intel doesn't support this mode of use.

However...  The Dell P2317H uses HDMI 1.4, https://i.dell.com/sites/csdocuments/Shared-Content_data-Sheets_Documents/en/ca/na-Dell-23-Monitor-P2317H-Product-Spec-Sheet-US-English.pdf.

I can't find that information for the TV though, the online specs are here https://www.panasonic.com/uk/support/discontinued-products/televisions/tx-l32e6b.html, and I checked my paper manual (which is pretty much the same as that link).  There is a note in the paper manual that the TV supports "HDAVI Control 5 function" if that helps at all.

I should also make clear that this I have been using these Dell monitors with this laptop for the past 2 years and it is only recently that they have stopped being detected.  It is for this reason, and the fact that the TV still works thus ruling out a hardware issue, that I suspect a problem with recent Windows updates and/or updated graphics drivers.

Is there somewhere reputable that I might be able to get older releases with the graphics drivers?  I might be able to see if:

1. An older driver still works and if so...
2. Do a binary chop through the different levels to find where the function stopped working.

Thanks again for your help,
Paul DS.

[n_scott_pearson]

Yea, until my DVI KVM died 6 months ago, I was regularly using mDP-to-DVI, HDMI-to-DVI and USB-C-to-HDMI dongles. The only issue I ran into, one that I have unfortunately seen with regularly since the 4th gen NUCs, is monitors not waking after Sleep. As a result, much of my testing over the years has been done with both Monitor and System Sleep disabled.

From everything I looked at, though they never come out and say it in any of their documents or web pages, I conclude that your TV is likely HDMI 1.2 compliant (1080p@60Hz is best it can do).

Do the monitors work if you go back to the Lenovo-supplied package (build 6999, available here: https://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles/iry60aaf089b.exe)?

For this kind of experimenting, there are lots of different driver releases available in the Intel Download Center. Start here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/30079/Intel-Graphics-Windows-10-DCH-Drivers. Then, use the links in the Other Versions section of this page (lower left section) to get to the older releases.

Hope this helps,

...S

[papadeltasierra]

Scott,

Thanks for the suggestions and pointer to the older drivers.  I'll try and do some digging tomorrow.  Having to work around my daughter using the laptop - sadly Covid means she's not exactly getting the full university experience and is working from home :-(.

Thanks again for your help and suggestions,
Paul DS.

[papadeltasierra]

Scott,

Not tried the other driver versions yet (a Windows update has just eaten up the morning!) but before I started I plugged in the HDMI monitor ready for some testing - and the darned thing was immediately detected.  Whilst it was up I ran the Intel tool again and have attached the output in case this is of use.  This is the same P2317H monitor that resolutely refused to be recognised a couple of days ago :-(.

After the Windows update it was still recognised but the other monitors are still ignored.

When my daughter allows me another window for testing I'll try the driver levels but in the meantime I was wondering are there any registry settings that might allow the driver to log some information about any exchanges between laptop and monitor when I plug in to see if there is anything interesting in their exchanges?

Regards,
Paul DS

[n_scott_pearson]

Other than it includes the EDID report for the second monitor connection, there are essentially no differences between this report and the previous.

After you tried to connect the DVI monitors, did you try reattaching the HDMI monitor? Did it get recognized?

....S

[papadeltasierra]

Scott,

As the old saying goes, 1 step forward, 2 back...  I've been doing some digging and found this:

• Using the original Lenovo driver no longer works i.e. the DVI monitors are not recognised; it certainly used to up until a few weeks ago
• Using a random selection of the latest and some older drivers from the Intel website, doesn't work either
• A different laptop, this one and HP but also with the same Intel 920 UHD drivers and latest Windows software, will also not work with the  DVI monitors (this is a new PC so I never got a chance to test it with older Windows software)

So I can now say that this is probably neither a Lenovo issue not an Intel driver issue.  The finger of suspicion seems to point at a recent Windows update breaking this function somehow.

The last video driver I wrote was for SVGA and DOS 3.30 so a question so this is not my area of expertise - do the Intel drivers sit above any low level Windows drivers that might be affecting the HDMI handshake?  I can tell you that the monitors detect a difference between being plugged into the laptop, or not, but this might just be some fixed voltage line I suppose.  The monitors certainly don't seem to believe that there is a signal and Windows never "pings" to indicate new hardware when the DVI monitors are plugged in.

If this were a new PC and it had never worked, I'd just shrug and leave it but these monitors have worked with this laptop for well over a year and I really don't feel inclined to discard $100s worth of monitors because of a poor windows update :-(.  Do you have any suggestions for what else I might be able to do to try and figure out why this has started happening?

Thanks,
Paul DS

[n_scott_pearson]

Perhaps the 'existing' Lenovo drivers were updated since your original setup? Check to see if there are (or were) multiple versions of the driver offered for download and try the older version if this is the case.

As for a Windows update breaking something, it will be worth asking MS about this.

...S

[papadeltasierra]

Scott,

Success!  I raised the issue on a Microsoft forum and their first response was the standard "try all these clean-up steps, try a clean boot, update the driver".  I was very sceptical as I'd certainly done some of these steps before but did as they asked and it worked.  The DVI monitors now work, albeit only with one of my two cables so I assume the second cable is broken.  However I have been trying both cables throughout "just in case" so it's not just a case of "idiot with dodgy cable" - honest.

The strange thing is, none of the steps I followed indicated any errors at all.  They all completely cleanly and I should have ended up with the laptop exactly at the state it was when I started.  But clearly something was nudged and now things work.

Thanks you very much for your patience and help.

Regards,
Paul DS.

[n_scott_pearson]

Glad you got it going!

It may be helpful to other people if you could document exactly the steps you had to go through to get it to work. Once you have posted this information, mark your post as being the answer for the original question.

...S