Recurring Screen Flickering in Warzone on Victus Laptop – Video Miniport Black Screen Live Dump

[bake-amin]

Hello HP Community,

I am experiencing a severe screen flickering issue that occurs only when I launch Call of Duty: Warzone. The flickering stops immediately when I close the game.

I have performed extensive troubleshooting and captured system-level diagnostic data that points to a display pipeline failure. I am hoping someone here can help me interpret the data or suggest a fix.

The Problem:
When Warzone is launched, the screen begins to flicker. The issue persists even after performing a clean uninstall of the Intel integrated graphics driver using DDU, confirming the problem is isolated to the NVIDIA GPU or the hybrid graphics switching mechanism. The flickering disappears as soon as the game is closed.

Diagnostic Evidence Collected:

1. Windows Kernel Live Dump (BugCheck 0x1B8): A live dump was captured by the Windows watchdog. The bugcheck is VIDEO_MINIPORT_BLACK_SCREEN_LIVEDUMP. Analysis shows the failure bucket is LKD_0x1B8_dxgkrnl!DxgCreateLiveDumpWithDriverBlob, with the faulting process being dwm.exe (Desktop Window Manager) and the module dxgkrnl.sys. This indicates a fundamental display pipeline failure.

Event Viewer – Application Log: The following LiveKernelEvent appears with a timestamp that coincides exactly with the flickering:```txt

Event Name: LiveKernelEvent
P1: 1b8
P2: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
...
Attached files: ...\WATCHDOG4401-20260928-0229.dmp```

1. Intel Graphics Software Error (Prior to Driver Removal): Before I removed the Intel driver, Event ID 159 showed: {"category":"PerformanceMetricsOverlayManager","level":"Error","message":"Overlay process has exited unexpectedly."}

Troubleshooting Already Performed:

• ✅ Clean NVIDIA Driver Reinstall: Used DDU in Safe Mode to completely remove and reinstall the latest NVIDIA driver.

• ✅ Clean Intel Driver Removal: Used DDU to remove the Intel graphics driver entirely (system is running on the basic Microsoft display driver for the iGPU). The flickering still occurs.

• ✅ Disabled All Overlays: Turned off overlays for Discord, Steam, Xbox Game Bar, and the Intel Graphics Software overlay.

• ✅ Forced High-Performance Mode: Set Warzone to use the NVIDIA GPU in Windows Graphics Settings and set NVIDIA Power Management to "Prefer maximum performance."

• ✅ Disabled VRR/G-Sync: Turned off G-Sync in the NVIDIA Control Panel and Variable Refresh Rate in Windows Settings.

Next Steps & Request for Help:
I am currently following a guide to capture a GPUView trace and an NVIDIA driver log during the flickering event. I will upload those files as soon as they are available.

I would appreciate any guidance on:

• Whether this specific 0x1B8 error is a known issue with certain NVIDIA driver versions on HP laptops.

• If there are specific BIOS settings (e.g., "Discrete GPU only" mode) or HP-specific driver packages that I should try.

• If the data I have captured points to a hardware fault (e.g., display cable, panel) or a software/driver conflict.

Thank you for any help you can provide.