Graphics
Intel® graphics drivers and software, compatibility, troubleshooting, performance, and optimization
20495 Discussions

Need help with Iris 540 driver continually crashing on Surface Pro 4 i7/16/256

MLand6
Novice
8,279 Views

I have a brand new Microsoft Surface Pro 4, with an i7 CPU, 256GB SSD, and 16GB RAM. The Iris 540 driver crashes within a couple minutes of bootup, ever single time. I'm not the only one with this issue, acording to the Microsoft support boards. (I know that others are experiencing an issue where the Intel display driver will crash when trying to resume from sleep, but this is not that problem.)

Any of the four Intel Iris 540 display drivers I have found will crash within a couple minutes of bootup during use. To be more clear, the screen goes black and has to be powered off by holding the power button; there is no recovery or error message. The only stable driver I've managed to use is the Microsoft Generic Display Driver, which seems to be doing everything in software, avoiding the Iris chipset altogether.

Is anyone else having this problem, or just me? Did I get bad hardware? My SP4 is an i7/256/16, the model just released on 11/25/2015. Here are the drivers I have tried:

Build Driver date

 

--------------------

 

4236 11/20/2015

 

4236 11/18/2015

 

4308 10/27/2015

 

4256 07/17/2015

Here is the output from DXDIAG when the driver is installed, but has not yet crashed: http://pasted.co/98e68195 http://pasted.co/98e68195

I have a thread open on Microsoft's support forums as well, but all they've done so far is to confirm that this is not expected behavior. (Duh!)

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfpro4-surfdrivers/sp4-iris-540-display-driver-keeps-crashing-not-the/315f627e-79c3-4853-9994-d6cb8d7efdf5 http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfpro4-surfdrivers/sp4-iris-540-display-driver-keeps-crashing-not-the

Any help would be appreciated!!

Thanks,

Mick

39 Replies
MLand6
Novice
2,661 Views

Anyone have any advice? There are multiple threads about this problem, but nobody seems to have any answers...

Thanks,

Mick

0 Kudos
Allan_J_Intel1
Employee
2,661 Views

This driver crashing issue has been escalated to our engineering team, we are just waiting for any update on this matter. I still do not have an estimate time of resolution but I will come back as soon as possible.

Allan.

0 Kudos
MLand6
Novice
2,661 Views

Hi Allan - thanks for the message. Since nobody asked me for more info, I'm assuming this is a known issue and you don't need further info from me?

Thanks, appreciate any updates you might get...

Mick

0 Kudos
Allan_J_Intel1
Employee
2,661 Views

No problem, I will update this thread as soon as I get any information from engineering team.

Allan.

0 Kudos
idata
Employee
2,661 Views

I also am a Surface Pro 4 i7 owner. (16GB 512GB SSD) i7-6650U Iris 540 Graphics

My entire computer crashes on certain games, GTA5 and Ark: Survival Evolved. The computer gives a WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR bluescreen and then shuts down. It happens a few seconds after gameplay starts. It is frustrating because the Iris 540 Graphics actually plays these titles well at 720P during the first few moments before bluescreening.

0 Kudos
Bryce__Intel
Employee
2,530 Views

Hi cbutters,

Have you retested with the Beta's yet? The Developer said this is resolved using 4380 or 4404.

I also am a Surface Pro 4 i7 owner. (16GB 512GB SSD) i7-6650U Iris 540 Graphics

My entire computer crashes on certain games, GTA5 and Ark: Survival Evolved. The computer gives a WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR bluescreen and then shuts down. It happens a few seconds after gameplay starts. It is frustrating because the Iris 540 Graphics actually plays these titles well at 720P during the first few moments before bluescreening.

0 Kudos
FRoma2
Beginner
2,661 Views

I am also a Surface Pro 4 i7 owner. (16GB 256GB SSD) i7-6650U Iris 540 Graphics. and same issue here, please help!

0 Kudos
RGigo
Beginner
2,661 Views

I am also having the same problem mentioned above. My I7/512/16gb is also crashing right out of the box. Works for about 10min before going to black screen. Requires a hard reset each time which last about 10min before another crash. I added no apps or anything. Microsoft didn't have a clue. Would not offer to replace sp4 and only wanted me to return it... I'm still waiting for a solution.

0 Kudos
RIwaz
Beginner
2,661 Views

I am as well a Surface Pro 4 i7 user (16/256) and am having specific issues with the graphics driver, even with the latest 20.19.15.4352 manually installed. At least the Maps streets are now showing up with this latest 12/15/2015 driver, so that is an improvement.

 

However, I observe the following issues that have not improved from the Microsoft-sanctioned driver.

1. GfxBench 4.0 still crashes/freezes when it gets to the Car Chase test. It starts to load and then the screen freezes with no further input possible, requiring a hard shutdown. The other tests before Car Chase work fine.

2. MSI Kombustor 3 freezes from the get-go in a similar way to GfxBench 4 Car Chase.

 

3. Davinci Resolve 12.2 (released 12/23) renders the video playback/preview with strange flashing red/yellow/green herringbone-like corruptions, often completely freezes or crashes the driver once a video is loaded to the timeline, or gives a BSOD. This is very disappointing since I was intending to use the SP4 for lightweight video editing, coloring, and rendering.

Meanwhile, Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, Furmark, 3DMark Demo, and FootageStudio 4K (a video format conversion and rendering program with OpenCL support) work totally fine.

From the situation, I would hypothesize it is a driver problem and not a hardware problem, but if it is a hardware problem, I would like to work toward getting a replacement SP4.

 

Is there some full diagnostic that would simply confirm whether or not there is a hardware issue with the Iris 540?
0 Kudos
Stefan3D
Honored Contributor II
2,661 Views

At unkiray

Kombustor and FurMark have been written by the same developer, http://www.geeks3d.com/ Geeks3D

You should tell him about this discrepancy.

Just out of interest:

Surface 4 OEM driver comes with a custom 10 bit gamma table.

Do you see any visual difference with 8 bit gamma used by generic driver v4352?

0 Kudos
RIwaz
Beginner
2,661 Views

Hi Stefan3D,

No, I don't notice any notable visual difference. Maybe if I could get to the color grading screen in Resolve without crashing or video corruption, there could be a way to notice a difference. . .

Thanks for the tidbit though, I will be on the lookout if and when MS releases their next Surface-specific version.

0 Kudos
JLeon15
Beginner
2,661 Views

Running into the same problem. I can make it happen on command when running Witcher 3, lowest resolution.

0 Kudos
Bryce__Intel
Employee
2,661 Views

Could you someone provide a dump file of the crash? I'll bring this to investigation team. Thanks.

0 Kudos
JLeon15
Beginner
2,661 Views

I can assist if you can pass me some instructions and location on where to send the dump.

0 Kudos
RIwaz
Beginner
2,661 Views

Hello Bryce

Here too, I'd be happy to help.

Here is a link to the dump on Dec. 26 that I got when Davinci Resolve 12.2 crashed on me with the latest Intel driver.

I hope this is what you're looking for.

http://1drv.ms/1PfyzZm http://1drv.ms/1PfyzZm

In the case of the freeze in GFxBench 4 and Kombustor 3, however, there's not even a BSOD - it simply freezes with no input possible by screen, keyboard, or mouse - so I don't know how to get/find the dump for it.

0 Kudos
Bryce__Intel
Employee
2,661 Views

Thanks unkiray

What Gfx driver is this dump with?

Gfx Driver:

Brand of laptop:

Model of laptop:

0 Kudos
RIwaz
Beginner
2,661 Views

Hello Bryce,

The Gfx driver active in that dump is: Intel Iris Graphics 540 | 20.19.15.4352 | 12/15/2015

Device is: Microsoft Surface Pro 4 i7 / 16GB RAM / 256GB SSD

Looking forward to improvements.

0 Kudos
GAlli
Beginner
2,661 Views

We have 2 x Surface Pro 4 I7 512gb with Iris Graphics 540 and they have both been replaced under warranty and they still have driver crashes!!!

We have tried the new Intel drivers (4352) and they are better but still we get some intermittent black screens that always recover. This is with a setup using the docking station and a Dell 4K monitor connected via the DP socket. Tried Surface Pro 3 dock and new Surface Pro 4 dock - same results.

The issue is that using the Intel generic drivers means that the undocking and docking function no longer works correctly and also that the driver restart messages do not show up in the action center (and are not reported to Microsoft). To recover this functionality I have had to revert to the previous Microsoft drivers version 4326 and they are worse.

The issue seems to happen much more with Microsoft Edge browsing!

This is a really awful situation and must be fixed, definitely not hardware in our case!

0 Kudos
RIwaz
Beginner
2,530 Views

Hello Bryce,

Do we have any update here?

I am actually on my second Surface Pro 4 (i7/16/256) [the first one later got swapped out at a Microsoft Store without quibble for a battery issue], and I can tell you that the graphics driver behavior is exactly the same with my newer replacement.

Again, this is with the 15.40.14.5342 driver provided only by Intel.

Incidentally, the driver download page now says "1/28/2016" for the driver date even though clicking through shows that it is still the driver from December 22.

I am still able to produce a graphics driver BSOD practically on-demand with DaVinci Resolve 12.2, and GFXBench OpenGL 4.0 still freezes my SP4 completely when it gets to the Car Chase test.

I would be happy to provide any number of crash dumps for the DaVinci Resolve BSOD.

Since all other programs that I have seem to work fine, it's almost making me wonder if Intel is trying to help Adobe by sabotaging Blackmagic Design in this way.

I cannot speak for others, but after waiting patiently for an entire month for some kind of update, the courtesy of at least an acknowledgment would be appreciated.

0 Kudos
RIwaz
Beginner
2,530 Views

Hello Bryce,

Just wanted to leave feedback that with the new beta 15.40.18.4380 driver released today, paired with the updated DaVinci Resolve 12.3 that was released last Thursday, the issues I've experienced with Resolve crashing seemed to be solved. I can also make it through to the end of the GFXBench test, including the Car Chase now.

The only remaining problem in Resolve is that depending on the video format, I still have video decoding problems with flashing stripes and solid colors showing up in the video.

This doesn't happen with the same video if it is transcoded to ProRes 442 HQ, so as long as I transcode to that format, at least now, I can get some work done.

Also, I understand that this video corruption may be a problem with Resolve itself, but the things is, I don't see this happening on my other computers with Resolve opening the same video file, so I have to imagine there is still some kind of compatibility issue with the video driver. But at least, I'm not getting a BSOD any more.

Again, the machine, as is the topic of this thread, is a Surface Pro 4 (i7/16/256).

Hope things continue to improve.

But at least, it looks like, with the beta driver, I'm at a place where I can figure out a way to do some work.

Thank you.

0 Kudos
Reply