HDMI output issue with my laptop

mettall · 2023-04-15 15:44:48

The issue:

When I connect external monitor to my laptop via HDMI, that monitor does not really work. The screen is blank - no output. Just from time to time it blinks with the correct content for a less than a second and then goes blank again. When I set the resolution to 800x600 or below it works correctly. Anything above this resolution does not work correctly.

The setup:

So this is an Asus laptop with Intel Skylake APU where the video is Mesa Intel® HD Graphics 530 (SKL GT2). There is also dedicated graphics with NVidia GeForce 960m with the propriatary nvidia driver and BBSwitch for turning it off right after boot. On Linux i don't really need high performance graphics unless working with Blender but i can start the nvidia gpu manually for that. The HDMI output is wired to the Intel video card, so this is not supposed to be the issue...
I have Gnome desktop with Wayland.
There is nothing special with the monitor, the max refresh rate is 60hz.

What I've tried:

- I have tried to connect the laptop to the TV and the same error occurs. The TV is with FullHD resolution with 50hz refresh rate.
- I have tried different HDMI cables - still having the issue.
- I have tried Ubuntu 22.10 LiveUSB with XOrg server, i915 and Nouveau drivers - still having the same issue.
- I have tried Fedora 38 Beta on live usb with Gnome/wayland with the mesa and nouveau drivers - still having the same issue.
- I have tried Linux Lite (latest) live usb with Xfce and xf86-intel-video driver and nouveau - still the same issue.
- I have asked ChatGPT for suggestions. ChatGPT suggested that this could be a bug in the intel i915 drivers. It suggested to add some kernel boot parameters like "i915.enable_psr=0" or "i915.enable_guc=0" or "i915.enable_fbc=0". It didn't work.
- ChatGPT also suggested to try with older kernel and OS like Ubuntu 18.04. I haven't tried that yet but i doubt it will work...

- On windows this set-up works perfectly fine. No issues there. The same monitor, the same HDMI cable and the same HDMI port works as it should. Also I've connected it to the TV with different cable and it works fine.

mettall · 2023-04-19 08:34:54

Okay, it turns out that this issue is related specifically to this laptop model. The laptop is ASUS GL552VW.
On windows i have downloaded the intel's GPU drivers from the intel's website and after that the same issue appears. Then I downloaded the Intel's GPU drivers from the Asus website and the problem was fixed. So to fix the issue for windows I need to use the Intel's gpu drivers from the Asus website. The drivers from the asus website are so old... and moreover, they do not offer drivers for linux.

So probably Asus did something wrong when connecting the HDMI stuff to the intel's GPU and then they "fixed" it by applying some custom patches to the intel's drivers. And as a result of that i'm stuck with this old driver for windows and no working driver for linux (only the HDMI part). I have already updated my bios to the latest version.

I cannot express my frustration. Probably my next laptop is not going to be Asus.

seth · 2023-04-19 16:04:25

Just from time to time it blinks with the correct content for a less than a second and then goes blank again. When I set the resolution to 800x600 or below it works correctly.

Smells signal rate, please post the output of

xrandr --verbose

Also try

i915.enable_dc=0

as kernel parameter (power saving stuff)

mettall · 2023-04-19 22:05:56

Hello, Thank you for your replay.
I have just tried the i915.enable_dc=0 parameter but it does not work.

Here is the output of the xrandr command:

https://pastebin.mozilla.org/dm10QAR4

It looks like the external monitor has a refresh rate of 59.85Hz where windows detects it as 59.883Hz. In Gnome display settings the refresh rate is shown as 59.88Hz

I can try to export the Edid file from windows and load it in the linux. The Edid file should contain some refresh rate settings and stuff... But i'm not sure if this will help because when I installed the intel's driver from the intel's website the refresh rate in windows was also detected as 58.883Hz and the issue was still there...

seth · 2023-04-20 06:31:36

windows detects it as 59.883Hz

cvt12 1680 1050 60 -r
# 1680x1050 @ 60.000 Hz Reduced Blank (CVT) field rate 59.883 Hz; hsync: 64.674 kHz; pclk: 119.00 MHz
Modeline "1680x1050_60.00_rb1"  119.00  1680 1728 1760 1840  1050 1053 1059 1080 +hsync -vsync

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xrandr … esolutions

You may want to play w/ the polarity (h/vsync signage)

Did you try any other monitor?

Does the internal panel really have a 1536x864 resolution?
59.88 would be the 1368x768 modeline.

mettall · 2023-04-22 10:08:45

Okay, I tried this thing with xrandr but i had no success. I tried changing the polarity of the hsync and vsync. I also tried more than 80 different combinations of the numbers that are related to the vsync and hsync. But it didn't work. Honestly, getting the right numbers to work would feel like winning from the lottery.

Also I exported the Edid file from windows and loaded it with this command:

# cat correct-edid.bin > /sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/HDMI-A-2/edid_override

It also didn't work. The guide is from this documentation:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/kernel … s_and_EDID

I connected the laptop to my TV. The TV is with FullHD resolution at 50Hz refresh rate. But I still have the same situation there. It works on windows with the video drivers from asus but it does not work on linux. The only difference on linux is that it does not flicker like the monitor does. It is just a permanent black screen.

The internal panel on the laptop is with resolution of 1920x1080 at 60.02Hz. But I have applied UI scaling by 125% for better readability of texts.

I'm expecting a new and better HDMI cable to arrive at some point in the future. I doubt it will work but i need it anyways.
Thank you for the suggestions. Probably it is a different problem related to the drivers or the wiring of the motherboard, I don't know...

seth · 2023-04-22 14:28:37

fire on all cylinders…

intel_idle.max_cstate=1 i915.enable_dc=0 ahci.mobile_lpm_policy=1

But I have applied UI scaling by 125% for better readability of texts.

Do you think/did you test whether that's relevant?

mettall · 2023-04-22 18:08:13

Even with this settings I had no luck. All the cylinders were blazing fire but the engine was still not running property and the external monitor was "throttling".

I don't think the UI scaling will cause any effect. I tested with various LiveCD distributions mounted on a flash drive. On those distributions I didn't had UI scaling but the problem was persistent. I tried Ubuntu with nouveau driver and Xorg, Fedora with nouveau and Wayland, Linux Lite with Xfce and xorg, and now i have Manjaro linux with KDE. The manjaro livecd have grub options to boot with the open source driver or to boot with the proprietary Nvidia (or radeon if available) drivers. On my archlinux I have gnome with wayland.

Probably it is a different issue related to the intel's driver. It was strange when I downloaded the latest Intel's driver from Intel's website and the same behavior of the external monitor appeared on windows.
Probably this issue is not fixable. Maybe I should use USB3 to HDMI converter or usb hub to plug in the external display. Until I decide to buy such thing, my self-relief is that by not using external monitor I'm more eco-friendly. Today is the International Earth Day

seth · 2023-04-22 19:47:00

Last (kinda) guess: have you tried *only* the HDMI output?

Edit:
2nd last guesses,

snd-hda-codec-hdmi.enable_silent_stream=true

or

module_blacklist=snd-hda-codec-hdmi

Last edited by seth (2023-04-22 19:49:59)

mettall · 2023-04-23 11:48:33

Unfortunately those solutions didn't work either.
Man, I'm amazed how many cards you have under your sleeve. I haven't thought in the direction of the hdmi sound.

This topic has so many solutions that it could be used for future reference if somebody else has issues with the HDMI.

Anyways, Thank you for your help. Cheers!

Arch Linux

#1 2023-04-15 15:44:48