[SOLVED] Laptop HDMI won't work at 4K60 after Nvidia update

realnoize

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Jan 5, 2015
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This is really a strange one.
I have this ASUS Laptop ROG Zephyrus m15 with a GTX 1660 Ti in it. The default driver it comes with is quite old (430.58), but it works fine. (Although Adobe Premiere says it's too old and unsupported - which can be quite an inconvenience).

So of course I want to update the driver.

But when I update the driver to a newer version, the HDMI port doesn't work properly anymore at 4k60. Which is problematic since I use an external ASUS VP28UQG 4K monitor.

Windows act like the display is connected and working. It shows up in the display control panel. The Nvidia control panel can see the monitor just fine too. But the monitor acts like no signal is detected.

Things I noted:
  • If I change the refresh rate, let's say to 30hz and back again to 60hz, then the monitor starts working again. But once I reboot, it reverts to its non-working state, and I have to change refresh rate again for it to start working.
  • If I turn monitor completely off and back on, it work sometimes.
  • If I set up a lower resolution, or if I use 4K30, then no problem at all. It displays fine after a reboot and work perfectly as it should. Problem only happens if monitor is set to 4K60
  • If I reinstall the ASUS-provided driver (430.58) through their setup program, it starts working again normally at 4k60. But if I re-install the same version directly from the Nvidia install program (instead of using their setup.bat), it doesn't work and have the same problems.
Things I tried:
  • Checked with different HDMI cables. No difference.
  • Checked with different inputs on monitor. No difference.
  • Did a clean install of the newer driver. No difference.
  • Tried installing new drivers without HDMI monitor plugged in. No difference when I plug it back in.

Does anyone experienced something similar to this? Obviously, there is something happening on the software front because it works fine when setting it up from the Asus provided driver (using their setup.bat file). The problem is that this driver is quite old and I'd like to update it.

Am I stuck with this old driver? Or stuck using my 4K monitor in 1440p or 4K30?
 
Solution
In the end, I solved my problem myself.

ASUS folks actually sent me an updated driver, but after installing it, the same problem remained. 4K60 didn't work anymore unless I "forced" it by changing refresh rate to something else and back to 60 again.

So I started investigating things about the video signal. And my first stop was the color space setting, that you could set in the Nvidia control panel. I kept the resolution at 4K60, but changed the setting from "Use default" to manually set the color space to YCbCr420, and now my monitor properly wake up every time I reboot or wake it from sleep mode.

Apparently, either the laptop wasn't sending a proper signal on the default setting, or the monitor had trouble with the signal. But in...
"I have this ASUS Laptop ROG Zephyrus m15 with a GTX 1660 Ti in it. The default driver it comes with is quite old (430.58), but it works fine"

There you have it, stick with the driver from the laptop manufacturer even if GeForce/Nvidia have a newer one. Only Asus have the correct drivers for full compatibility with your Asus laptop.

Why do you suppose Asus has gone to the trouble of providing drivers if you could download them from the device manufacturer?
 

realnoize

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Jan 5, 2015
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Well, you really think it is normal for a brand new laptop to come with outdated drivers that causes problems with modern software (Adobe Premiere, hardly an obscure piece of software) )because they're labelled as not supported anymore (too old)?

So basically, what you're telling people is to "stick with the driver that comes with your laptop or video card and never update or use the ones from Nvidia".

I've reached to Asus about it, but I'm interested in finding a solution in the meantime, and to see if anyone has a clue about what could cause this issue. Is it something in the install script? is there something in the setup.cfg file in the driver install folder I'd need to replicate in a newer install package for this to work? Is it something Nvidia changed at the driver level at some point that brought some incompatibilities with some hardware/monitors? Has this anything to do with using a DCH driver version or standard one (unlikely)? Are new drivers having a different way to handle the HDMI handshake?

I'm only asking if anyone else had a similar issue, and if they ever got it resolved. What you're telling me is to stop investigating the issue and just live with it. Which may be an option, I admit, only I wouldn't have posted this on Tom's Hardware if that was an option I could live with.

So, let me reformulate my question: Has anyone ever investigated a similar issue either on a laptop with an Nvidia card or a with a desktop Nvidia card? And if so, did you find anything that could help getting this solved?
 

realnoize

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Jan 5, 2015
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In the end, I solved my problem myself.

ASUS folks actually sent me an updated driver, but after installing it, the same problem remained. 4K60 didn't work anymore unless I "forced" it by changing refresh rate to something else and back to 60 again.

So I started investigating things about the video signal. And my first stop was the color space setting, that you could set in the Nvidia control panel. I kept the resolution at 4K60, but changed the setting from "Use default" to manually set the color space to YCbCr420, and now my monitor properly wake up every time I reboot or wake it from sleep mode.

Apparently, either the laptop wasn't sending a proper signal on the default setting, or the monitor had trouble with the signal. But in any case, changing the color space manually was the thing to do.

So if anyone has a similar issue about a 4K monitor showing "no signal" when output is set to 4K60 (and Windows still showing the monitor as if it was connected and active) then note that this may be a possible solution.
 
Solution