Question about laptop screen problems possibly?
Question about laptop screen problems possibly?
Hello,
I've been using this custom laptop for more than a year without any problems. It comes with Intel UHD graphics, which were turned off during BIOS setup at the time of purchase. The GeForce RTX 4080 was functioning perfectly. Around three weeks ago, I began noticing horizontal lines appearing in clusters, mostly at the bottom of the screen. The content behind these lines would freeze. This issue started with Windows 11 24H2 around the September update and has also been seen during the grub boot menu, in BIOS, and in Ubuntu 24.04 (though it can take up to 30 minutes to manifest, whereas Windows does it in under 5 minutes).
Turning on the built-in Intel UHD graphics in BIOS didn’t resolve the problem. The issue persists regardless of which graphics card is active.
I have updated the NVIDIA drivers and tried switching to four different drivers over the past six months, but there’s no improvement.
The problem only occurs on the laptop screen itself. When connected to an external monitor (a 23-inch Dell from my workplace), everything looks normal.
Using Windows commands like WIN+CTRL+SHIFT+B to reset graphics temporarily fixes it for a short time, but not permanently. Disabling either graphics card also stops the issue for a few minutes at most.
I ran benchmarks for GPU, CPU, and RAM, and all scores remained solid.
When the laptop screen runs at 240Hz, the flickering is intermittent. At 60Hz it causes a pulsing glow across the entire bottom half of the screen, with permanent grey horizontal lines—similar to thick scanlines.
Yesterday I turned off the laptop for the whole day. After that, I booted into Ubuntu and the issue reappeared after about 30 minutes. The horizontal lines appeared in groups scattered across the screen, flickering in and out. It’s not entirely unexpected, but there’s a faint trace of my Windows 11 taskbar lingering, possibly due to residual image data from the last session. After being off for over 24 hours?
Regardless, there’s now a semi-permanent horizontal line across the display. It starts very dark grey on the left (not black, visible even on a black screen), lightens toward the right, and seems to fade in and out randomly. It appears to be gradually dimming and brightening, though it never completely disappears.
My guess is that the screen connector cable or the display itself might be faulty, as this affects everything and is intermittent.
The company I bought it from suggested sending it away after 4-6 weeks, possibly charging if there were signs of misuse or overuse. I only replaced a second NVMe drive shortly after purchase, and it’s been functioning well ever since. I haven’t overclocked it, and I intended to use it for academic purposes, so I’ve never pushed it beyond normal limits.
Any suggestions or support would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Welcome to the forums, newcomer!
This began in Windows 11 24H2 during the September update phase, yet this problem also shows up on the grub boot menu, BIOS, and Ubuntu 24.04 (though it may take up to 30 minutes to manifest, whereas Windows does so in under 5 minutes).
In Windows 11, open GPU-Z and check for any entries with zero values, marking N/A as greyed out. Then verify if the Device Manager lists a discrete GPU with error code 43. If you notice BIOS-related artifacts, your GPU might be malfunctioning.
It would be wise to confirm whether your laptop is awaiting any BIOS updates.
I have updated the NVIDIA graphics drivers, but switching between four different NVIDIA drivers over the past six months hasn’t helped.
Best practice is to use DDU in Safe Mode to strip all GPU drivers (intel, AMD, Nvidia), reboot, and then install the newest driver from Nvidia’s support site via an elevated command—right-click the installer and select Run as Administrator.
Thank you very much for your quick reply, Lutfij.
I don’t have any pending BIOS updates. GPU-Z isn’t displaying any 0 or N/A values, and there’s no error 43 for either graphics card.
I also tried booting into safe mode and removing both graphics drivers using DDU this time, reinstalling them from admin elevation with the latest drivers on the 4080. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. It seems the issue is quite serious, so I’ll need to discuss replacing something with the company.
Appreciate your time again.
👍