57 Posts
0
990
One of two extra monitors suddenly turned black...
XPS 15 9570
As mentioned in another question here in the forum, "Missing drivers after Win 11 install", I made a clear re-install of Windows to try to get rid of an annoying issue.
I had a clean W10 install with all the Dell drivers installed. Based on Dell recommendations I replaced my two old Dell monitors with a pair of Dell U2723QE in May -22. That didn't really work out well since the 9570 couldn't manage to drive two monitors on that resolution (3840x2160). Had many and long support calls which ended with that Dell Support were going to come back to me with a resolution. They never did. In the meantime I managed the situation by driving one screen via USB C (which also feeds power and Ethernet) and the other one via HDMI. I had to set the refresh rate of the HDMI monitor to 30Hz otherwise the screen would flicker. That wasn't an issue since I work with Office stuff and photos.
I bought a tool to calibrate the colors which worked for some time but suddenly, sometime after summer, the monitors started to differ from the 9570. The tow monitors had much warmer colors than the 9570. Recalibrated and so forth. Didn't work. Then I discovered that Display settings suddenly showed 3 monitors, one disconnected. If this extra screen occured before or after having used Intel Update to update Graphics Command Center from the old Dell version a few weeks ago I dare not to say.
Then came the Windows 11 but that update didn't help. On the contrary I got other issues with the PC, stoped to react, died and so forth. Well, the original Windows install was close to 2 years old so during this week I made a clean re-install of Win 11 on a reformatted HD and had Dell update/SupportAssist to complement that. Still 3 monitors but PC worked well.
Today the USB C monitor suddenly turned black and in Display settings I still had 3 monitors, i.e. not the correct 2, but now with 2 monitors disconnected/disabled. Have tried to restart monitors and PC several times with no luck.
So, what's going on here and how to resolve it? Lower the resolution is not the correct answer since then I have no use of these two, rather expensive, monitors. And it worked well enough for several months. Something else is the culprit, not with the screen but with the PC. Another, slightly newer client PC i tested, can drive both of them at this resolution so it's definitely nothing wrong with the monitors.
swehjo
57 Posts
0
November 13th, 2022 06:00
Sorry for a long silence, I've been “enjoying” myself with testing. Instead comes a long text with how I came to what seems to be a perfectly stable environment.
Googling my errors I’ve found out that I’m definitely not alone with these BSODs connected to “Driver_power_state_failure”, especially connected to the Adobe Photoshop family of products. Obviously Windows requires a lot more of your PC and so does the latest updates of the Photoshop products. There are numerous more or less odd and homemade “solutions” that work for some, and not for others. I tend not to go for them since they often create even more problems and are difficult to [remember an] revert. Instead, I stick to standard solutions. This worked this time as well.
None of these settings were necessary with Windows 10 and/or the earlier versions of the Adobe products.
Initial size: 3072
Maximum: 12288
It can also be noted that before I started with HWMonitor I couldn't let the laptop go into sleep mode. That resulted in a rebooted PC when I woke it up again. That behaviour seems also to have disappeared.
So, in short, make sure you have all the latest drivers, increase memory, give the GPU full power and make sure to cool the computer. New Windows and Adobe products seem to need it. Hopefully this will be a stable solution, if not I’ll post here on the forum.
Running the PC on the Dell U2723QE's USB 90W power supply instead of the correct 130W doesn't seem to be an issue.
swehjo
57 Posts
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October 21st, 2022 13:00
The issue around the color of the two monitors vs the 9570 screen is not to be discussed and solved in this post. When I have the PC and screens working as they should I will install the calibration software and redo the calibration. If the problem then still is there, it will be a new post.
My current -assumption- is that the update of Graphics Command Center did something to the color profiles. Who knows...
d5123101
457 Posts
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October 21st, 2022 19:00
Why don't you just do another clean install of Windows 10 for the time being? Windows 10 is supported until Oct 14, 2025.
swehjo
57 Posts
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October 22nd, 2022 03:00
To go back to W10 would of course be an option but it seems odd to go backwards on such new equipment. And I am not sure that I didn't have these "extra" monitors also on Win 10.
But actually the problem disappeard this morning. Wanted to see if lowering the refresh rate on the USBC monitor would help. To see if I could get it to work, access it, I removed the HDMI cable to the 2nd screen so that the 9570 only had to "drive" one screen. At that moment all screens turned black, flickered and then came on again. Also the deattached HDMI screen!!!? I'm 110% sure input source was set HDMI and how that could have changed to DP I do not understand (the screens are connected via DP since I use the normal setup with a client PC, i.e. I have to switch input source everytime I switch PC).
Now I have a working setup of my Dell U2723QE monitors, connected as they should; 1st screen via USBC and 2nd via DP from the 1st. I have no extra screens in "Display settings", both monitors have the correct, high resolution and refresh rate and there's no flickering. I.e. everything is working as it was supposed to from the beginning but which I never achieved. No idea what has happened here.
We'll see if this issue now is sorted out, by itself, or if the problems will come back.
d5123101
457 Posts
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October 22nd, 2022 09:00
Okay keep us updated, if the issue does not persist feel free to mark your reply as the solution.
swehjo
57 Posts
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October 27th, 2022 00:00
In short, I can only run the setup with one screen via USB C and the other one connected via DP. And with this I get BSOD with Photoshop from time to time. Haven't been able to identify why, errors are above my knowledge.
I've been fiddling around with the HDMI connection, since that earlier didn't give me problems with Photoshop, but then either the HDMI connected screen works, or the USB C-screen, or none. And I get the ghost monitors.
Have installed the latest video drivers from Dell as well as the new drivers for the screens.
Don't really know where to go next. The root cause and solution which I talked to Dell support around before summer is probably the right way. But even though I have premium support I cannot get phone support. Spent hours in the phone trying. Long story short, I'm extremelly tired of this and all the time it takes.
swehjo
57 Posts
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October 30th, 2022 12:00
As mentioned in my previous response, this error still persists and I don't know how to proceed. The problem is obviously related to graphics intensive applications like Photoshop, Photoshop Express, Brigde, Lightroom, training app Zwift etc.
As mentioned, I have tried to go back to my original solution, one screen on HDMI and one on USB C. But I can't make that work any longer. Since Dell Premium support never called me back and I can't get hold of them outside business hours any longer even though I have 24x7 support I don't have a better solution (can't call during office hours since I have to work with my clients then, hence I bought the Premium support). They were going to investigate if an external docking station would be able to help my 9570 to support the monitors at full resolution. What came out of that I don't know...
I have started to use the power adaptor (not only the USB C power supply from the screen) to ensure that the PC get necessary power, turned the NVIDIA settings to High performance and Prefer maximum performance to maximase their performance and set both U2723QE monitors to running with 30,01Hz to save bandwidth. All drivers for monitors and the Dell laptop's graphics are new, after an uninstall of the "old" ones according to Dells support documents for ghosts screens. All Windows updates are applied and no HW errors according to analysis.
Can only run one photo editing app per session (session = until I get a BSOD). Running more than one directly generates issues with the applications and/or a BSOD. Running one photo editing app can work for 5 minutes or 2h. BSOD always give message "Driver_power_state_failure". I've been trying to find the crash logs to get any hint from them but I am not technical enough and I really don't have the time...
The graphics processor is in accordance to Photoshop's Compatibility check. But when it fails it says (note, all these are green/ok until the problems start but maybe these errors can guide you):
When Zwift fails, and that without any external monitor connected, that is after the graphics has failed in some way, it says "Zwift requires Open GL 3.1 or higher to run. Your may just need to update your graphics drivers".
The solution is not to buy another PC, have enough, and it worked before. Zwift has never ever failed me like this until now. There ought to be a solution where one can tweak the settings of the laptop's graphics.
swehjo
57 Posts
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October 31st, 2022 01:00
Maybe I should emphasize that the issue with Zwift happened once.
Normally, if I run the laptop without the two monitors I can do photo and video editing, with several opened Adobe products open in parallel without any problems. At least so far....
swehjo
57 Posts
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October 31st, 2022 05:00
Obviously it was stupid to say that I don't have problems running Adobe products on the laptop without the two monitors. Now I have
Have also tried to use Nvidia's Studio graphics drivers, and not the game dito, since that was recommended by them and Adobe. Doesn't help.
d5123101
457 Posts
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October 31st, 2022 23:00
Yes it seems backwards but maybe try reverting back to a clean install of W10 (and back up your current installation). You seem to be having driver related issues that might be remedied by a clean install.
swehjo
57 Posts
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November 13th, 2022 07:00
And no, I haven't had time to see what happens if I go back to work without HWMonitor. Now, when everything seems to work I need to get some work done
swehjo
57 Posts
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November 15th, 2022 12:00
Made one test of running Bridge and Photoshop with the PC on the stand (i.e. free airflow) but not with HWMonitor running. Nvidia soon gave up, even without working in Photoshop, only open two RAW-files. I had to restart the PC to be able to continue my work.
I noted that the fan didn't work as hard as it does with HWMonitor. I really can't understand what HWMonitor is doing, which the PC cannot do without it running....
d5123101
457 Posts
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November 19th, 2022 00:00
So does the issue persist? If not please mark your reply as the solution
swehjo
57 Posts
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November 19th, 2022 02:00
I'll mark it as solution even though it's not the complete solution. Running HWMonitor to avoid overheating (?)/BSOD/appication or driver crashes/etc is not a solution, it's a work around. By mistake I've forgotten to start HWMonitor a few times and every time I run into problems with the Adobe Photoshop products. Do I start a new thread regarding that? In such a case, what forum?
d5123101
457 Posts
0
November 19th, 2022 04:00
Can you send a link to the HWMonitor program you are using? The system should automatically be able to monitor its fans, so you should not need to use a third party software to override.