Screen flickering and completely shutting down / locking itself.

[steffen255]

Hey everyone,

Whenever my victus is being "stressed" by playing a game or a CPU stresstest in the HP hardware diagnostics program, my screen will randomly start to flicker, sometimes it will throw me back to the lock screen, and sometimes it will even completely shut down, and then I have to wait a couple of minutes before it will turn back on. My pc's error logbook is spammed with "INPUT_SUPPRESS_REQUEST=1" and "INPUT_SUPPRESS_REQUEST=0, the laptop is about a year old now. 

I did a complete rollback of my laptop

Tried testing if theres a difference between being plugged in and being unplugged (it happens less quickly when unplugged) , Tried disconnecting all my USB devices (cooling pad/ mouse) but to no avail.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

[zoey7886]

@steffen255, Welcome to the HP Support Community! 

Thanks for reaching out about your query regarding flickering screen and complete shut down!  
We're thrilled to have the opportunity to assist you and provide a solution. 

Looks like your HP Victus is breaking a sweat under pressure—guess it’s not a fan of stress tests! Don't worry, we have a few troubleshooting steps to help you sort this out.

Possible Causes:

1. Overheating: If your laptop shuts down and won’t turn on immediately, it could be overheating and going into thermal protection mode.
2. Power Supply Issues: If the issue occurs more when plugged in, it might be related to power delivery, a faulty charger, or VRMs (Voltage Regulation Modules).
3. GPU/Driver Issues: Flickering and lock screen reverts could be due to GPU driver crashes.
4. Faulty RAM/Storage: A bad RAM stick or SSD issue could cause instability.
5. BIOS/Firmware Issues: Outdated firmware or a buggy BIOS update may be causing instability.
6. Hardware Fault (Motherboard/PSU/VRM): If the laptop shuts down completely, it could indicate a hardware failure.

Troubleshooting Steps:

1. Check Temperatures

• Use HWMonitor or HWiNFO to monitor CPU and GPU temps.
• If temps exceed 90°C, clean your cooling system, repaste thermal paste, and consider using a cooling pad.

2. Update Drivers & BIOS

• Update your GPU drivers via the official NVIDIA/AMD website.
• Update your chipset drivers from HP’s official support page.
• Check if there’s a BIOS update available for your model.

3. Power Settings & Tests

• Try running the laptop on battery only—if it happens only when plugged in, your power adapter or charging circuit could be faulty.
• Set your power plan to Balanced instead of High Performance.
• Disable fast startup in Windows.

 

[zoey7886]

4. Run Hardware Diagnostics

• Open HP Hardware Diagnostics (F2 at boot) and run extensive CPU, RAM, and SSD tests.
• Run Windows Memory Diagnostic to check for RAM issues.

5. Check Event Viewer Logs

• Open Event Viewer > Windows Logs > System and look for Critical Errors around the time of shutdowns.
• If you see WHEA-Logger errors (WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR), it may indicate a hardware failure.

6. Test in Safe Mode / Clean Boot

• Boot into Safe Mode and run a stress test. If it doesn’t crash, a software conflict could be causing the issue.
• Perform a clean boot (disabling non-Microsoft services) and see if it helps.

7. Check RAM & SSD Connection

• If comfortable, reseat your RAM and SSD. A loose connection can cause system instability.

Note:

Since the issue occurs under stress and improves on battery, overheating or power regulation seems to be the main cause. Try cleaning your laptop’s internals, repasting thermal paste, and using better cooling methods.

Let me know what you find after testing! 🚀

Take care, and have an amazing day! 
 

Did we resolve the issue? If yes, Please consider marking this post as "Accepted Solution" and click "Yes" to give us a helpful vote - your feedback keeps us going! 

Regards, 

[steffen255]

Hey Zoey!

Thank you so much for your help,

It definitely doesn't like to be stressed. 😉

The problem persists even after the troubleshooting steps. No (critical) errors apart from the INPUT_SUPPRESS_REQUEST=0

I do have to say, that the problem got persistently worse.. in the beginning, I could still use the laptop by forcing the fans to spin at 100% via the omen app (which might indicate you're right about the temperature issues), but the most recent days, even that doesn't work anymore.

The only thing that did catch my eye recently is that you can continue to use the laptop while it's hooked up to an external monitor. So the screen of the laptop will flicker and even go completely black,but the external monitor will work fine and you can use the laptop perfectly fine with external devices (mouse & keyboard) 

I really don't wanna open the laptop up, because it's still covered by warranty. And I dont want to void the warranty, especially with the problems I've got going on right now. =/ 

So not sure what to do now... 

Thank you very much!! 🙂

Kind regards,

Steffen

[zoey7886 · Accepted solution]

@steffen255, Welcome to the HP Support Community! 

We're here to help you tackle that screen flickering issue! Don't worry, we've got your back! 

To get you the best assistance, we need to take this conversation to a private chat. We're inviting you to a private message to protect your privacy and ensure that any sensitive information remains confidential. 

To access your private message, just click the little blue envelope icon on the upper right corner of your HP Community profile, next to your profile name. 

We're looking forward to helping you resolve this issue! 

Stay tuned, and thanks for your patience! 

Regards, 

[Braga1544]

Hey @Zoey7886 , you got a Solution for this Problem?

Me and a friend of mine got the same problem. Her PC is from ~4th January 2024 and mine is from ~10th january. She got the same problem as Steffen stated and HP repaired it with warranty. it came back yesterday but problem doesnt seem to be resolved. The laptop got a new motherboard in hungarian repair center. 

I didnt check the mentioned Logs yet, but we did all Driver, Bios etc Updates, tried all combinations of disabling monitors/gpu/igpu and disconnected all usb devices, closed all running programs. Like Steffen stated it got worse from with every day, in the end it was unusable with locking/flickering every 30s.

Mine started with flickering now too. It happened 2 days ago twice in 10h - thats not a problem but if it gets worse as well and the same like my friend and Steffens Notebook, right after free warranty ends when the laptop turns 1 year it would be really strange.

Product ID: 8C4A9EA (s0774ng Victus 16)

[steffen255]

Hey Braga,

I contacted HP support via phone, they're sending a technician over on the 10th of March to repair the laptop, so not sure yet what's going on.

[steffen255]

Hi everyone,

Just an update, 

After calling HP support, they send over a technician, he replaced the screen, which didn't make a difference at all. He then replaced the cable from the motherboard to the screen, which fixed the issue.

Laptop is working just fine again!

Thanks for the help!

Kind regards,

Steffen