Screen flickering on brand new Acer Predator G9-791

I just bought a brand new Acer Predator G9-791.

I installed it the default way, that is, it did it itself. It has Windows 10 Home. I upgraded to Pro.

I have added a few softwares I need for development, Visual Studio and SQL Server.

Alrready from the start I noticed that the screen turns black and then comes back very quickly, seemingly at random times. The "blink" lasts only a fraction of a second - like if the GPU resets something.

The problem sometimes happens rapidly in succession, making it hard to use the laptop. Sometimes a full day passes with nothing happening.

I noticed that when it happens, moving the mouse over something that reacts on hover by painting a small region seems to halt the problem.

Am I having a hardware issue here? Did I buy a faulty laptop?

It was almost the most expensive out there, so I'd like it to work.

Accepted answers

IronFly

Can you try to install this driver from the Acer suppor website?

http://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/Driver/VGA/VGA_Intel_20.19.15.4331_W10x64_A.zip?acerid=635882647091517953&Step1=NOTEBOOK&Step2=PREDATOR&Step3=PREDATOR%20G9-791&OS=ALL&LC=en&BC=ACER&SC=PA_6

All comments

beststevie

Do you have any errors in the windows system events like "Dislplay"?

steve

SorenFog

Hi Steve

Actually yes, only one and it came earlier today (after I posted the first message).

Furthermore it is a warning, not an error.

I have been experimenting a bit, and it seems it happens only when there's no activity on the screen. Meaning, no pixels gets buffered or written to the Intel built-in graphics adapter (there are two, the other is an NVidia high end adapter). Blinking happens at no particular intervals, random, sometimes a lot in a short time. If I move the cursor (circle it around) or play a video or watch a webpage with an animation, it doesn't happen.

I wonder if it is a display driver issue with the "Intel(R) HD Graphics 530" driver. In Device Manager all devices are happily serviced (no errors or unknown drivers). The Intel display driver is "working properly" on "PCI bus 0, device 2, function 0". Checking driver details yields a long list of device drivers (DLLs), some listed as "Unknown provider" others as "Intel Corporation" and a few from "Kronos Group", every and all with Digital Signer listed as "Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility".

The driver version is listed as 10.18.15.4279 dated 24-Aug-2015, so relatively new.

Copy/paste of the event logged (there is only that single event from the Display source):

Log Name:      System
Source:        Display
Date:          15-Feb-16 16:27:00
Event ID:      4101
Task Category: None
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      AcerPredator
Description:
Display driver igfx stopped responding and has successfully recovered.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Display" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">4101</EventID>
    <Level>3</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2016-02-15T15:27:00.605124700Z" />
    <EventRecordID>2941</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>AcerPredator</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>igfx</Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

Following the link in the event message (to Microsoft) yields: Page not found Smiley Tongue

Does this help?

IronFly

Can you try to install this driver from the Acer suppor website?

http://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/Driver/VGA/VGA_Intel_20.19.15.4331_W10x64_A.zip?acerid=635882647091517953&Step1=NOTEBOOK&Step2=PREDATOR&Step3=PREDATOR%20G9-791&OS=ALL&LC=en&BC=ACER&SC=PA_6

SorenFog

Hi IronFly

Thanks, I have installed it, everything seems normal. So far no flickering just after rebooting.

Give me up to a few days to see if the problem reappears. I will feed back here if it does or doesn't.

Cheers

IronFly

good to hear it.

SorenFog

No more flickering. The driver update seems to have solved it.

Thanks Smiley Happy

IronFly

you welcome. Smiley Happy

SorenFog

Well, the old issue is solved, but another arose with the new driver. Instead of blinking, now the display freezes for a few hundred milliseconds once in a (long) while. This happens only when the Intel display driver is engaged, I have not noticed it when using the NVidia GPU.

The symptoms are that the display freezes for a split second, but enough to notice. For example the mouse will stop moving on screen while you actually move the mouse, and then when the display "comes back" the mouse jumps. This has annoying effects when scrolling pages with graphical content (such as web pages), it renders whatching video useless, and gave me quite some headache when I moved a folder in File Explorer using drag-n-drop in the tree view, and this problem appeared doing a quick swipe with a folder hanging in the curser. The result: The folder ended up as subfolder somewhere else, and it took me a while to actually find it. The freezes are a constant annoyance, but doesn't seem to have any other impact on the system.

My guess is a hardware interrupt from the Intel GPU or surrounding hardware isn't serviced fast enough and blocks the CPU for several hundred milliseconds. It seems the Intel driver needs more work. Where can I see when an update appears? The maintenence software that came with the Acer keeps telling me everything is up to date (even it didn't know about the driver update I already used). Do I need to manually follow driver updates here on the Acer website? Or on Intel's website? And if so, where? (I have tried to look but found nothing).

Thanks again and sorry to bring this issue up again.

IronFly

Check using task manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc), click on performance; if CPU or HDD usage go to 100% during that freezes.

you can also try the latest Intel drivers 4300, they are better than the old you tried and gives you flickering:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25489/Intel-Graphics-Driver-for-Windows-10-15-40-4th-Gen-?v=t

uninstall your previous drivers before installing this.

DragonBharg

I have a similar problem with my Predator 17. Screen gets pixelated and flickers for a moment before it goes back to normal. Usually happens when not in use and never while playing a game.

Should I download the same driver? If so could you reattach that link. It is not working anymore.

Thanks

Alien69

Hello Dragonbharg,

you can try to update drivers with Intel's tool:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24345/Intel-Driver-Update-Utility

Stoyan_Tch

I have the same problem on my Predator 17 G9-793. The screen just has black flickers at random moments.

I read the thread, but the driver links are no longer active. Also Intel's tool only suggests an Intel chipset device software but I did not dare install it as it waned me that this would actually be a downgrade from the version I currently have. Could you please reactivate the driver links again or is there another solution?

BrownSwagger

Have same issue with new G9-793.

Have updated BIOS, and installed VGA driver. Issue still happens.

Driver installed is:

https://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/Driver/VGA/VGA_nVidia_21.21.13.6949_W10x64_A.zip

This driver is awfully old. Surely there is a new reference driver provided by Intel... Acer please update your driver.

DragonBharg

Hey,

The problem has persisted and the driver from intel's tool doesn't really help. My current drivers are also up to date.

The screen starts flickering after being on for a while and then the graphics card crashes giving me a blurred out screen or even worse.

Could you please solve this issue. It is definitely not an overheating issue because I am monitoring the temperatures.

SorenFog

I am the one who originally posted this problem, and also marked one answer as a solution.

Unfortunately you cannot unmark it, and here's why.

At some point updating a driver worked. The problem dissapeared. Then software got auto-updated and the problem reappeared. Reinstalling the old didn't work. I wonder if the built in Acer updater changed some firmware.

The point is thus...

When I bought this laptop some years ago, I needed to try if that would be the model we would buy for our core developers (about 60 laptops). I never bought another Acer. I still use the old one with this issue for running virtual OSs (connecting via RPC and ignoring the screen). I gave up a long time ago getting Acer to assist and solve this issue.

I have kept monitoring this topic over the years, seeing one after the other having the problem and no solution. My guess is that there is a hardware issue swithcing between or combining viewports from the two graphics cards inside. It's either hardware near (a driver problem) or an actual hardware problem that cannot be fixed (and thus no solution nor answer from Acer).

Things like Facebook and standard Windows 10 news also creates this problem, i.e. whenever there is an animated (video) frame. Acer has never helped solve this, nor even seemed remotely interested in servicing affected customers. As I'm an old editor for Computerworld, this will get out at some point. Also, we bought Dells for the core team in my company instead, and although not entirely happy with them, Dell at least responds to service request.

I am very with Acer, and would recomment not to buy their hardware.

chili_red

I'm having the same issue with my G9-791, the display in mine has G-Sync so I cannot install the Intel video drivers as Optimus is not used with the G-Sync monitors.

The flicker I see happens randomly, just a quick flicker, sometimes just once and other times a couple quick flicks. It's very random and I cannot nail it down to any one thing causing it.

My CPU / GPU and system temps are well within the normal ranges and there aren't any overheating problems.

I switched from a Acer Nitro, "which does not have the problem" to this for the larger screen and a cooler running platform while gaming. Unfortunately my Amazon return window has passed and I cannot return it otherwise I would have returned and just stuck to using the Nitro.

Acer needs to mark this problem as "unsolved" and get back to work trying to figure out what's going on with these laptops.

C3real

Hey guys. i had this exact same problem on my Predator... after playing with various graphics settings etc, the thing that fixed it for me turned out to be power settings. I noticed that when I removed the power adapter from the laptop the flickering stopped so possibly power related, when changing my power settings from 'Performance' back to 'Balanced'... the flickering stopped and hasn't returned. Hope this helps someone

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