Source
r/thinkpad•
jpp91

Video Driver question

Question / Problem

I recently purchased a used T480s via eBay. It arrived in fine shape and appears to be a good machine. I had no problems for the first day or so. A couple of days ago I decided to run some Windows updates to make sure everything was up-to-date, and also because I was told that Windows 11 could be installed. After running these updates I began to have a screen flickering issue.

Every few seconds the screen will freeze and go black for a second or so. This happens fairly inconsistently - sometimes it's every ten seconds, sometimes multiple instances back-to-back.

I reached out to the eBay seller and was informed that the Windows updates had overwritten the Lenovo video driver, replacing it with the OEM video driver. The flickering I am seeing is the screen attempting to adjust the resolution continuously. He sent me this link and told me to uninstall the video driver currently installed and reinstall the Lenovo driver:

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-t-series-laptops/thinkpad-t480s-type-20l7-20l8/downloads/driver-list/component?name=Graphics%20Processing%20Units%20%28GPU%29%20and%20Server-AI%20Accelerators

I have uninstalled the Intel UHD Graphics 620 driver via the Device Manager multiple times and have installed both the ThinkPad Video Features Driver and the Intel HD Graphics Driver multiple times. When I remove or disable the Intel UHD Graphics 620 driver in the Device Manager, the flickering stops and the machine works beautifully - but for some reason the driver reappears, often with a machine restart or the installation of some other update, be it Windows or Lenovo.

The laptop is fully up-to-date with Windows 11 and all other Windows updates, and I have run ThinkBridge to ensure that all other drivers are updated as well.

Can someone explain to me what is happening and how to fix it? Why does the Intel UHD Graphics 620 driver keep coming back? Why did the manual driver updates I did from the Lenovo website work? In short, what am I doing wrong, and how can I fix this annoying issue?

Thanks in advance!

Posted Aug 3, 2022, 2:07 PM UTC

37
KasaneTeto_•

Not a windows user but I'm fairly certain you can blacklist that driver from getting updated. You might get better support by asking generically how to blacklist a driver from getting installed via normal windows support forum channels.

1
MagicBoyUKP50, T480, P50s, T590, T540p•

Does it work fine connected to an external display?

1
Mummdad•

I bought and set up a T480s pretty recently and initially had what I guess is the same thing, with the screen often flashing black momentarily. Luckily I'm pretty sensitive to refresh rates so I also noticed the screen was more flickery than it should've been - it'd been set to 50hz by Windows so the black screen was happening all the time when going to an application that demanded 60hz, such as a game or whatever, since it was having to switch modes.

I'd just install the latest UHD 620 drivers from the Intel site rather than through Vantage and make sure Windows has your screen set to 60hz. IIRC I installed the horrendous Intel Command Centre to be able to do it but the setting stuck even after removing it, thankfully. I didn't know at that point that you can still install the old Intel Graphics Control Panel via the Microsoft Store though, so I'd advise trying to do it through that instead once you've updated the driver.

1
jpp91OP•

Thanks for the comment. Refresh rate is set to 60hz. I updated the driver manually like you suggested, directly from the Intel website. Did this a couple of times, actually...at any rate, the issue still persists. I'm at my wits' end trying to figure this out! I've followed about three guides online to try to resolve the issue, but nothing seems to be working.

At this point I may just have to exchange the laptop for a new one from the seller, but if I get another T480s I will likely run into the same issue. I wonder why this didn't occur for the first few days? Why would Windows updates cause this issue? From my internet sleuthing, it seems to be a common enough issue for this model that Lenovo, Intel, and Windows all have help articles written about it. So why won't reinstalling the damn driver fix the issue???

I will try one more factory reset to see if that will resolve things. Thanks again.

1
Mummdad•

Damn, sorry that wasn't the issue.

Wild card suggestion and something I forgot to mention: mine was doing this A LOT at first and part of it was down to the pins on the charger's USB-C connector being shot, with that usual symptom of being picky about positioning in the port. Whenever it got moved the wrong way the laptop would stop charging and go into battery mode, which also changed the screen mode causing the brief black screen. Sometimes it'd do this quite a bit in quick succession. A new charger totally sorted that.

Probably not your issue from what you've written but I guess it's still possible the problem lies somewhere unexpected.

1
t_Lancer730TE, 4x 760XL, T42, X61T, X61s, T410, T430s w/ FHD•

I believe it has to do with intel adaptive refresh rate. you need to go through the setting and turn that off. had the same issue with an X260

1
jpp91OP•

Thanks for the suggestion, but this doesn't do it :(

1