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Monitor Refresh Rates - Part 2

Steve_NB
New Contributor I
4,662 Views

Hello again,

 

opening a new topic as my last one was closed - hardware crashes resulted in me sending my system back to the seller.

 

So they ended up refunding me as they had no more systems to send my way. Instead, I purchased the components and assembled the PC myself: -

 

CPU Intel i5 12400F

GPU Intel Arc A750

32Gb DDR4 3200Mhz Ram

Motherboard gigabyte b660m ds3h ddr4

Windows 11

Gigabyte 650W PSU

 

I don't think any of the other components are pertinent, so I'll leave them out.

My existing monitors (copying setup given in earlier topic)- 

I have 3 monitors - 2 identical elderly office style Acer monitors and a more modern Asus Tuf 165Hz gaming monitor. All 3 monitors are 1080p resolution.

I have one of the old monitors hooked up to the HDMI connector, it's set to it's native 60Hz refresh rate in windows (only option available), and it works fine.

The second old monitor is hooked up to one of the DisplayPort connectors via a DisplayPort to HDMI conversion cable, it's set to its native 60Hz refresh rate in windows (only option available), and it works fine.

The third (and most important) monitor is connected to one of the DisplayPort connectors with the DisplayPort cable that came with the monitor, to the DisplayPort connector on the monitor. I initially set this to 165Hz refresh rate.

 

The good news is this system seems stable - no crashes yet.

 

However, when I play my favourite game, Elite Dangerous (DirectX 11), I see the same problem of the gaming monitor going black/blank - either very briefly, or for more extended periods of time, but making the game unplayable. The system does not crash, it seems to be a display issue only.

This seems to happen when I start the game, and the shader compiling process is running.

Given this is a completely separate system to the first system, it seems to not be a coincidence.

I wonder if something in the game startup sequence causes the refresh rate timing signals to go out of sync between the card and the gaming monitor?

It only occurs on my 165Hz monitor - either of the 60Hz monitors sees no issue. I usually play my game in windowed mode - if I move the game to either of the other two monitors the blackouts stop, only to restart when I move it back.

 

Anyway, while trying to do some research around this today, I came across an idea which I thought I would try.

When the blanking starts, I press on my keyboard Ctrl+Shift+WinKey+B

This apparently restarts the graphics drivers.

There is a beep, all the monitors flash on and off a couple of times, then I am back in my game with the blackouts over.

So far this has worked for me on my game and looks to be a promising workaround, although it would be nice to get to the bottom of the root cause. Obviously this would be less useful if something in my game triggered this issue constantly.

If nothing else my workaround may help pinpoint what could be going wrong

 

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17 Replies
Hugo_Intel
Moderator
4,625 Views

Hello Steve_NB


Thank you for posting on the Intel® ARC™ Graphics Communites. I am sorry to hear that you are still experiencing issues when trying to play Elite Dangerous on your Intel® Arc™ A750 Graphics system. Please let us know the following information:


  • If you configure all monitors to 60Hz, Does the same issue happen?
  • If you disconnect the other 2 monitors and use the 165HZ monitor only, Does the same issue happen? Test both 165Hz and 60Hz frequencies.
  • Is the refresh rate on the game configured at 165Hz? And is your 165Hz monitor configured as the main display on Windows?
  • Have you been able to test any other games?
  • Is Resizable BAR enabled on your system?
  • Create a log file with the Intel® System Support Utility and attach it. 


Best Regards,


Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.


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Steve_NB
New Contributor I
4,590 Views

1) Didn't see the issue when all the monitors were set to 60Hz

2) Didn't see the issue when only the gaming monitor was on, when set to either 60 Hz or 165 Hz

3) I always ensure that the OS refresh rate and game refresh rate are set to the same value.

4) Not yet

5) Resizable BAR is enabled

6) Hopefully log file is attached to this post.

 

For what it's worth I'm not seeing the issue right now with 2 x 60Hz monitors plus 1 x 165Hz monitor, so the above monitor test results may be meaningless.

 

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Hugo_Intel
Moderator
4,571 Views

Hello Steve_NB


In this case, since the issue seems to no longer be happening, we will monitor the thread so you can check and use the system to make sure the issue does not return


Best Regards,


Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.


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Steve_NB
New Contributor I
4,553 Views

Hi, Issue is back again. It didn't go away for long. The new computer crashed (while playing Elite) for the first time, and when I restarted the screen going blank issue had started again. Not sure if the crash had any bearing on the issue restarting.

 

In the meantime, I took a short video of the problem as I experience it with a cellphone. Unfortunately, it is 400Mb, and I see there is a 71Mb limit on file uploads

 

At the end of the video I demonstrate shift+ctrl+win+B clearing up the issue.

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Hugo_Intel
Moderator
4,535 Views

Hello Steve_NB


Thank you for letting us know. In this case, please let's try the following:



I will send a private email to the email address registered to your profile, so you can try to attach the video.


Best Regards,


Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.


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Steve_NB
New Contributor I
4,528 Views

Hello again!

 

Replied to your email with hopefully the video attached via a google drive link.

 

I have now updated the Bios to F21 (always nerve wracking) and uninstalled and reinstalled the graphics card drivers as per the instructions.

 

Unfortunately, this did not solve the issue.

 

I am attaching a new SSU file showing the current state of my system; I suspect the only new info will be confirmation of my new BIOS version.

 

Best Regards,

 

Steve

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Hugo_Intel
Moderator
4,513 Views

Hello Steve_NB


Thank you for the information and for sharing the video of the issue we were able to download it. We would need to research this issue internally, however, would like to confirm 2 of the questions that I made in my first post since at the time the issue was not happening on your system:

  • If you configure all monitors to 60Hz, Does the same issue happen?
  • If you disconnect the other 2 monitors and use the 165HZ monitor only, Does the same issue happen? Test both 165Hz and 60Hz frequencies.


Also, there was a recent driver update version 30.0.101.4148, please update and check if the issue persists.


Best Regards,


Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.


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Steve_NB
New Contributor I
4,501 Views

Good evening,

So I updated to the new graphics driver as indicated by your link. I noted there were two downloads, and they seemed identical in terms of description and naming, so to be clear I downloaded the 887.7Mb driver, and not the 885.1Mb driver.

I have included a screenshot of the graphics card profiling section that seems to initiate the issue; interesting that it says 'Timing phase' as I presume a timing issue could cause the symptoms I see.

It also casts some light on why the profiling section that causes the issue doesn't always produce a consistent result - I presume as it states it only runs in full if the graphics card driver is changed, or the game is updated. So by changing the driver presumably I can always force this section to run going forwards.

Finally the results to your query:-

1) Single monitor at 165Hz - Issue reoccurs
2) Single Monitor at 60Hz - No issue noted

3) Three monitors all at 60Hz - Issue reoccurs

Results 1) and 3) were produced using the new driver, while 2) was produced using the Feb 22 WHQL driver. I changed the drivers in between test to force the profiling sections to run.

Best Regards,

Steve

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Hugo_Intel
Moderator
4,439 Views

Hello Steve_NB


Thank you for this information. In this case, I would like to make sure that this issue is exclusive to this game to make sure if the game might need driver optimization from our side or if the issue might be coming from the setup configuration, so Could you please test any other game that you may have or any free game like Fortnite, Apex Legends, Warzone 2.0 and check if the same behavior occurs?


Best regards,


Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.


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Hugo_Intel
Moderator
4,419 Views

Hello Steve_NB


Please let us know if you were able to perform the troubleshooting step advise in my previous post and what were the results.


Best Regards,


Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.


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Steve_NB
New Contributor I
4,397 Views

Hi Hugo,

 

not as much time as usual to dedicate to playing games this week!

 

I have spent perhaps 4 or 5 hours playing Supreme Ruler 2020, a 2008 vintage game which apparently required Direct X 8.1 to run. It ran perfectly, no issues. I'll try and play a couple of other titles over the weekend.

 

One additional thing I would like to bring up with Elite Dangerous is that occasionally it appears that the colours fade, or otherwise degrade. If I had to characterise it I would say that the colour palette goes from the usual high number to a very low number - as low as 256 colours perhaps, completely ruining the visuals, as well as potentially making the screen look very dark if I am in space. This seems to happen at random and is less predictable than the first issue I have with the screen blanking out. I have no idea if it is related to the first issue. It is rectified by restarting the game, or the PC if the game restart was ineffective. Ctrl+Shift+Win+b doesn't fix this one! This happens relatively infrequently.

I've had the game since 2016 (I think), and never had this happen on my previous system, the gpu being a 3Gb GTX 1060.

 

I took a screenshot of the game in this state, which I am attaching to this post. I'll try and take another this weekend of a similar scene without the issue occurring for contrast.

 

Best Regards,

 

Steve

 

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Steve_NB
New Contributor I
4,327 Views

Attaching a non-corrupted screenshot of elite as promised, for comparison purposes. Took a while (lots of reboots) to get back to this non corrupted colour scheme!

 

I also installed and played the free steam game Sims 4.

 

Gameplay was perfect, however I found that I could repeat the monitor blanking issue I see in Elite if I had the Vertical Sync option unselected. Needless to say I played the game with this option selected. By no means a show stopper.

 

Best Regards,

 

Steve

 

 

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Hugo_Intel
Moderator
4,309 Views

Hello Steve_NB


I appreciate that you shared this feedback with us. There was a new driver update that recently came out version 31.0.101.4255. Please update to the new version and let us know if the same issue persists, so we can continue researching this issue.


Also, please create a system report following these instructions. Only use the instructions under Intel Graphics Command Center (Intel GCC):

Report for Intel® Graphics Drivers


Best Regards,


Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.


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Steve_NB
New Contributor I
4,300 Views

Downloaded the new driver; I can confirm that the monitor blanking issue in Elite was not resolved.

 

Attempted to download the Intel Graphics Command Center (Doesn't appear to be installed by the driver package) but the Micrsoft store app would not open for me - got stuck on some splash screen waiting.

 

I wondered if I needed to display the Microsoft store app separately first - found it, attempted to install it, but was told that it was not available in my region - I live in Canada.

 

If you could provide a direct download link, or perhaps clear up any misunderstanding I have with respect to this utility, I will endeavor to install it and provide the report you asked for.

Best Regards,

 

Steve

 

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Hugo_Intel
Moderator
4,249 Views

Hello Steve_NB


In this case, we will skip the report from Intel Graphics Command Center since at the moment it can be only downloaded from the Microsoft Store. We will now continue researching this issue internally and I will post back once I have an update for you. Thank you for your patience.


Best Regards,


Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.


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Hugo_Intel
Moderator
4,224 Views

Hello Steve_NB


Thank you for your patience. After checking this issue we would like to recommend you contact the game developer and check this issue with them since we don't have previous reports of this issue occurring, however, if they determine this is not a game issue and continues to be a driver issue, please open a new thread and reference this one so we can resume troubleshooting.


Best regards,


Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.


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Steve_NB
New Contributor I
4,042 Views

Downloaded the latest beta driver today - 31.0.101.4311

With it Elite Dangerous crashes on startup. Tried this several times, same result every time.

Reverted to the previous driver, good to go again. (With all the previously mentioned issues, of course).

Best regards,

 

Steve

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