How to play games (e.g., Fortnite [Unreal Engine]) on my Predator G9-591 without displayport monitor

I have been using computers seriously since I was 11 (1986) - programming, building, troubleshooting, etc. Worked as a Linux Systems Analyst. I have yet to encounter a problem worse than the one I have been facing for a while now (so the solution is probably super simple

). Maybe because my technical expertise is more with Linux than Windows.

I cannot play certain games (mainly Fortnite - I say Unreal Engine because that is what shows up with the crash screen) unless I have an external monitor plugged into the display port adapter. If I plug the monitor into the HDMI port, it crashes. If I have no monitor at all plugged in - using the laptop's display - it crashes.

Any ideas on what is happening? I have an nVidia 970m and Intel i7 6700 HQ. I have tried everything I can think of or find online. I have played with the GeForce/nVidia control panel settings (including PhysX - but not limited to that), including reverting to defaults. All drivers are up to date. I have played with the display settings. I have made sure to set my laptop's display back to the main display before unplugging the external monitor. I have done many others things - including reinstalling Windows 10 completely from scratch 3 times. (but again, I'm a Linux guy more than Windows)

Nothing is working. I can't remember which games work and which don't; it isn't just Fortnite that doesn't work. (I like to play Fortnite Save the World with my son) I know Witcher 3 works without an external display, but I believe Fallout 4 will not.

It SEEMS as if the graphics card is somehow bound to the displayport and unless something is plugged into that, certain games crash. But Witcher 3 works so...

Any ideas would be great. It's difficult to use the laptop as a laptop when it has to have a monitor lugged around with it to play any given game.

Thanks for any suggestions!

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xapim

@Duluk there is someone here with the same issue and exact same laptop same gpu and cpu and i said in that thread im my view its the gpu it wont support it you would need a better gpu for unreal engine and most of the games (i was told i didn't knew what i was talking about so i just ignored the thread completely as the OP seemed to be smarter than everyone else and wouldn't accespt any opinions he had to be right period) but it runs pretty fine on my 1050ti so again i would say its the gpu the 970m its completely outaded now even my 1050ti can be said outated minimum 1060 these days but i can still play anything that i throw at mine even latest aaa games on ultra with no issues saying this im not saying i have 60 fps thats a 1060 (and not always) but im pretty happy with 30 to 40 in some of the newest games on ultra of course if i lower the settings and disable vsync i will get more and yes all dedicated gpu's are connected directly to the hdmi port its dedicated to it you cannot change that also check minimum requirements for the games you are trying to play

Duluk

@xapim - Thank you for taking the time to answer. I don't want to sound like I know more than you; I most likely don't. However, I'm not entirely sure I agree simply because the game runs perfectly fine with an external monitor attached to the laptop (even a UHD monitor). Granted, it does require lowering the settings quite a bit (unlike the 1070ti I have in my desktop). But the graphics card is still driving that, right?

xapim

Duluk said:

@xapim - Thank you for taking the time to answer. I don't want to sound like I know more than you; I most likely don't. However, I'm not entirely sure I agree simply because the game runs perfectly fine with an external monitor attached to the laptop (even a UHD monitor). Granted, it does require lowering the settings quite a bit (unlike the 1070ti I have in my desktop). But the graphics card is still driving that, right?

@Duluk not at all i haven't neither was trying to say that i just stated what happened nothing else

but anyway just wondering if the game is running in the intel gpu instead of the gtx just give a check on your nvidiacp as i said earlier the only ones who had reported this issue have the exact same modles with same specs can't be a coincidence this is really becoming a weird issue give it a try and set the app/game to use the gtx on nvcp if you haven't already might work might not bt bare in mind that games like fortnite/pubg are really poorly optimized games and there will always be issues with it because the devs will not fix it also try to use only the acer stock drivers as those were customized for your hardware best performance

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