Octane III (980M) screen goes black since last two Nvidia driver updates

[deanparkr]

Since I did an update for Nvidia graphics drives in December I have been facing an issue where if I let the screen turn off (screen timeout) or I put laptop to sleep when it resumes or screen is woken up I am presented with a black screen. The backlight is on, but nothing on the screen, no cursor. The only way to get the screen back to is to close and open the laptop lid about three or four time, then the display comes back.

I also randomly get this same black screen when using Windows. Just seems totally random. I don't get any black screens however when playing games. Other than this issue graphics hardware is working perfectly fine for 3D games. I am pretty sure this is software issue with drivers. Also because if I open GeForce Experience I instantly get a black screen every single time. Also if I minimize and restore the GeForce Experience window, instant black screen. But it all comes back and works if I close the lid a few times.

I am wondering if any one else has been seeing any similar issues? I had a look on Nvidia forums but it is hard to see the wood through the trees on their forum software and website design, and also just so many complaints about all sorts of problems. :/

There was a brand new driver update just recently released, I tried that and its the same issue. So now getting worried this might be a long term issue :/. I also tried turning off G-SYNC, but that did not make a difference. There doesnt seem to be any issues when an External monitor is used. With External monitor plugged in, both laptop panel and external screen have no issues.

But yeah, any PCS peeps having any of these kind of issues?

 

[Martinr36]

Can you post your full specs from your orders page

 

[deanparkr]

Sure thing:

Chassis & Display
Octane Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor i7-6700 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 980M - 8.0GB DDR5 Video RAM, DirectX® 12, G-SYNC
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2150MB/R, 1550MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 330W AC Adaptor (GTX 980M only)
Battery
Octane Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (82WH)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ WIRELESS-AC 1535 M.2 GAMING 802.11AC + BLUETOOTH 4.1
USB/Thunderbolt Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS (1 x POWERED) + 1 e-SATA/USB 3.0 PORT COMBINED
Keyboard Language
OCTANE SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 (64-bit) Professional DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MP FULL HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Delivery
SATURDAY DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (BEFORE 2PM)
Build Time
FAST TRACK 3 WORKING DAY DISPATCH

 

[Martinr36]

Ok first thing i'd suggest you do is download the latest driver from Nvidia website (make sure it is the notebook version, uninstall your existing driver using DDU (full instructions & download link on the link below), then install the latest driver.

DDU makes sure all traces of the previous driver are removed, so when you install the new driver it is a total clean install

Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) – Best Graphics Driver Removal Tool

Display Driver Uninstaller or DDU is a free graphics card driver removal tool for Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. DDU can completely remove video drivers if you cannot remove it from the windows uninstaller. Download Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) for Windows. DDU is an effective and...

graphicscardhub.com

 

[FerrariVie]

No issues for me on the current version, but it could be something specific for your series of GPU. I had issues with the previous version, where windows night mode would not get activated after returning from sleep, so I needed to go in the config manually and turn it off and back on again.

Just one suggestion: If you have a driver version that is working for you, then stick with that until you can find a new version that fixes your problem. You should not feel any difference at all by keeping the outdated driver and I did keep the same version for about 2 months in November/December because I was having issues with the new drivers.

 

[deanparkr]

Have tried the DDU and while at first I thought the problem was solved it has now come back after a few hours and behaves exactly the same. I cant remember for sure what my last working driver was, I just accepted the Geforce Experience recommendation to update and now I am full of regret!

Will try going back a few versions and see if I can work out whats good.

 

[Scott]

I would disable fast startup if you have it enabled. It always causes me issues, often unrelated

 

[SpyderTracks]

Someone posted today that they'd had issues with the last 2 nvidia driver updates. It wasn't the graphics driver itself, but the HDAudio conflicting with their on board audio.

The advice was to uninstall with DDU, then do a clean installation of the graphics driver, excluding HDAudio.

The symptoms were black screen and random restarts.

 

[deanparkr]

Oke-doke. Got it! The highest working driver version is 457.51. Thanks for the help PCS forum peeps.

Going to any driver after that, anything 460.xx and higher its the black screen issue. It takes a while to manifest itself and doesn't happen immediately but could eventually confirm the fault on all 460.xx drivers.

No issues with 457.51 and it also seems some of the games I'm playing seem to run a bit better too. Think i'll pass on future advice about driver upgrades, thanks, GeForce Experience!

It doesn't seem like this is a problem with other owners, but hope this thread helps someone in case it is!

 

[SpyderTracks]

Oke-doke. Got it! The highest working driver version is 457.51. Thanks for the help PCS forum peeps.

Going to any driver after that, anything 460.xx and higher its the black screen issue. It takes a while to manifest itself and doesn't happen immediately but could eventually confirm the fault on all 460.xx drivers.

No issues with 457.51 and it also seems some of the games I'm playing seem to run a bit better too. Think i'll pass on future advice about driver upgrades, thanks, GeForce Experience!

It doesn't seem like this is a problem with other owners, but hope this thread helps someone in case it is!

Excellent, well done, that's useful information for the forum as well, we've had quite a few driver related issues recently, this should help narrow down working driver sets and the hardware it may impact.

 

[Scott]

@deanparkr .... Out of curiosity, did you try the suggestion with regards to the HDAudio? Just in case there are multiple options for the fix

 

[deanparkr]

@Scott I didnt try HDAudio changes.. I was going to try that if I couldnt get a working display driver. I am a bit worried about making any more changes now that it is working so think I will leave it all alone for the moment!

I am currently running the "latest" HD Audio driver 1.3.38.40 and all seems well on that front.