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HP Recommended

Wastian - I spoke again with Nitesh @ spectre support - fyi he's taking vacation and will be back on Thursday this week to go to a wedding, but he has notified his spectre x360 support team about this screen freeze issue on the 15t-ch0xx series machines.  He's also escalated this issue.  Meanwhile, I found a work-around fix that STOPS the screen freeze. It's been over 10 hours of constant use and not one instance of freeze, which can take as long as 3 hours to happen, or as quickly as 3 seconds from my experience.

 

Right click on the background.  Pull down to intel graphics settings.  click on power.   For all profiles (Life/balanced/performance) disable everything and apply settings.  Then go back and make sure it accepted your changes and all are disabled.  Turns out the spectre ultrabooks are not the only ones with this issue.   Same thing happened last year with the screen tear issue.

 

As I said, it's a work around, not a solution.  Be sure to enter a bug report into the HP problem tracker and call support so that the issue gets attention and a full resolution.  The downside to this workaround is you won't get the excellent battery life the 15t-ch000 is capable of until they fix the problem in the drivers.  The upside is your screen won't freeze with the cursor dead in its tracks!

 

Let me know if this works for your problem.  

 

Everett

HP Recommended

Hi Everett!

 

Thanks for all the work and information. I've not been able to do much about this over the weekend, but I did one thing that I mentioned to do earlier, to install the stock Intel UHD 620 driver (which required a complete uninstall of the HP version before trying to install Intel version), which is much later:

 

Date: 2018-02-04

Driver version: 23.20.16.4944

 

But I noticed at once after the reboot that the issue was still there right after a couple of seconds.

 

Now I've disabled the items you mentioned and so far it seems the issue is gone. And I also confirm your experience (with default settings), that sometimes you can work for hours without and screen freeze, and sometimes you have freeze all the time (and... you want to throw the latop out of the window... I paid a lot for it).

 

I will also report the issue tomorrow as you wanted me to, via the HP Support Assistant tool.

 

 

BR,

Wastian

HP Recommended

Yea, it's really hard with these random problems to PROVE it's gone.  I use my system all the time, desktop or laptop or on the road, so if there's a problem, I usually notice it pretty quick.  I haven't seen any issue since turning off the power save features, other than draining the battery faster.  

 

The info you found on the 620 suggests intel knows something isn't right.  On my 2017 15-bl000 system, the screen had this random "tear" and "jitter" problem - see my youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D0mRoSAyQo

 

Several people started having the same problem, and posted videos to youtube to show the problem.  It took 3 months because the problem needed custom drivers for HP's implementation of the 620, 940 (nvidia), and synaptics oversize tracpad.  You couldn't just download the FIXED version from intel, nvidia, or synaptics because their drivers on their site were for off the shelf parts, and every laptop vendor used customized parts to make their system unique - which meant their FIX took longer to publish and had to come from Lenovo, HP, dell, etc.  The display tear & jitter meant I exchanaged 3 machines before the driver got fixed thinking it was a hardware problem.  

 

Nitesh told his team by email to have people turn off the power save until the driver is fixed.  He also told me HP's database that kicks upgrades to the blue (?) loader takes time to get updated, so sometimes HP's manual download site has them earlier.   You might ask them to check your version against their repository of softpaq updates.

 

Let me know how it works out.  I'd like to get the long battery life back; it looks like this costs about 3 hours of runtime give or take.

 

Everett

HP Recommended

Wastian -

 

Last night (27 MAR 2018) I got an urgent notice to upgrade the intel 620 graphics driver.  I went ahead and installed it, then afterwards turned off my non-powersave settings on the 620 driver.  I haven't had any problems since doing this.  If it's still freeze-free in a day, it may be that something got fixed.

 

Any new developments on your side?

 

Everett

 

HP Recommended

Hi Everrett,

 

As of today I'm not able to find any updated drivers either at HP's site directly, The HP Support Assistant or even at Intel. Same from Nov 2017 and Feb 2018 respectively. And, now since I turned off the power saving features I've not seen the issues, and I can USE it. But yes, the battery seems to drain quicker, not sure how worse.

 

Strangely, when I try to open a support case at HP web sitewith my serial number, it says my product is not supported any longer by HP, and I am only directed to search...? It shows my Spectre product and 11 month of manufacturer warranty remaining.

 

Where and how did you get the new driver?

 

HP Recommended

Wastian -

 

I got the update as an operating system screen popup one evening - one of the boxes asking to install now or dealy until I'm not using the machine, so I just chose install.  It was specifically for the intel 620 drivers.  I'm not sure if it came from Microsoft or HP (but it wasn't from a browser session nor the HP blue questionmark tool).  My hunch is it was part of the windows system given it didn't have the HP branding.  You might try the gear icon, and update option there to see if you are current.  I check the HP updates daily; none have shown up recently.  This update didn't fix things though.  DEVMGR shows I have 21.20.16.4599 dated 2/1/2017, which I seem to recall was the version date the update was going to install.  If you want to discuss this offline, send an email to info <at> uwave <dot> com then leave me a message here, and I'll go get your message and reply to you with my private email address along with more information about what's being done.  There are some items being watched that both of us can participate in since we know what to look for, but I'm not going to discuss that info publically since they are not front line support people and don't want their contact email & phone numbers published here.  Besides, people need to enter this problem into the HP repair database from the blue question mark logo so that it gets visibility & tracking.  

 

 

Turning off the power save features does have a negative impact on battery life.  I went from slightly over 10 hours out of the box down to 6, sometimes even less if I'm heavily using it for compute intensive tasks..   This is why I want the problem fixed, not work-around(ed)

 

I spoke with Nitesh this morning - he had previously requested me to only kill the display panel update and leave the rest of the intel 620 powersave features turned on.  I did this yesterday, and then went on to do a screen recording.  I got the freeze during that recording (very annoying) so I went back and turned off all the power save features in intel graphics.  It's also possible that the recording session I ran was the cause of the freeze, so I'll switch it back today.

 

I spoke this moring to an HP manager from New Mexico about the problem (the mgr called me since its being escalated).  It's getting visibility now, and they are wanting to know why some people have the issue and others don't.   They really need to know what usage scenarios cause the problem.  It's very important that anyone having the mouse cursor freeze symptoms enter a trouble ticket with the blue questionmark icon and call the toll free number to get it tracked.

 

Since Nitesh is back, I asked him to contact you about your problem so as to get us all on the same boat for a permanent fix.  He can't reach out to you - because he isn't allowed to read or comment in these forums!  HP has a different department for that (the guy who told you the win 10 pro upgrade would be lost when re-installing the recovery).  To me, it would make sense to have the spectre x360 experts reply to the spectre x360 problems, since some people will go to the forums, and others will go to the 800# listed in the blue quesitonmark logo when entering a call ticket.  So, what it means, is you must call him.  If you and I are both talking to the same person, it makes life alot easier.  

 

The unfortunate side effect of us talking about the "work around" solution for this is that people will search on 2018 spectre 15t-ch0xx, read what we've done, and  implement it as a quick fix and not report the problem into HP''s bug tracking database with the blue question mark.   

 

Everett

 

HP Recommended

Hi,

 

Some days ago I installed the new Intel original 620 UHD "23.20.16.4982 (2018-03-08)" that appeared around 2018-03-27 with the 15.65.5.4982 kit. I seemed to work just fine, until today when I was going to write back on this thread, then the screen started to have these 1-2 seconds freezing and froze eventually so I had to put Windows in sleep mode and back. I've noticed that it is at least the "Panel Self-Refresh" option at Enable that triggers this issue, as this is the only option to change with power "Plugged In", and  have power plugged in. 

 

Strangely also Windows Update is now asking for a reboot so that it can install "Intel Corporation - Display - 6/16/2017 12:00:00 AM - 22.20.16.4708", which is like 9 months older driver. So, back to square 1.

HP Recommended

Nitesh had told me how the HP driver update system works - versions you have now are sent to the HP database to be compared against what is current vs what is "only" out of date or in need of urgent update, which determines what type of response you get about routine updates or URGENT apply now - don't wait - updates.

 

Sounds like the HP database didn't like your off the shelf driver being used and wants you to have the current, official HP version installed instead.  That can be turned off, but right now it's probably a good feature.  I make a habbit of checking every day just in case something new came out - I don't want to wait until the next automatic check to download it.

 

Everett

 

 

HP Recommended

Hi guys,

 

I have the exact same issue, and I was wondering - do you perhaps have an update on how things are going for you? Have you managed to make some progress? I have tried so many things, but the issue still persists.

 

Thanks very much.

 

Máté

HP Recommended

Mate - You'll need to get in touch with HP support.  Click the blue questionmark in the system tray then click support.    Be sure to have your serial number for them.  My understanding, which is solely based on other's experiences with this problem, is that the CAUSE is a defective LCD panel which sometimes "forgets" to request an update from the graphics system on the motherboard.  My understanding of the solution is they take your laptop and replace the lid/display with an unaffected unit.  More likely they change the case on your motherboard, since the lid/display part is machined along with the base.   Did you buy your unit from a retail store that didn't sell many x360s?  This problem was found & Fixed back in March 2018, shortly after the first units were shipped.  For it to show up today indicates your machine must have been on the store shelf for many months.  The good news is they fixed the majority of these problems already, and they gained lots of experience doing it - so your machine should be easy and fast to repair.   Bad news is that it takes about a week, maybe 10 days.   Hope that helps!

† The opinions expressed above are the personal opinions of the authors, not of HP. By using this site, you accept the <a href="https://www8.hp.com/us/en/terms-of-use.html" class="udrlinesmall">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="/t5/custom/page/page-id/hp.rulespage" class="udrlinesmall"> Rules of Participation</a>.