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spegelius · ‎02-01-2020

So my G701VI been working fine after the messed up BIOS update forcefed by M$ few months ago. I mostly run my laptop 24/7 on my desk connected to a MSI 144Hz monitor and it works fine, playing games, 3D modeling, surfing etc.
At some point during January I updated my NVIDIA drivers to 441.66. Everything worked fine, games played fine, but noticed occasionally that after turning my external monitor off and returning to the computer after few hours, the laptops own display would be messed up, like the backlight wasn't on but still showing a bit on the center.
Didn't think much of it because rebooting the laptop shows the Asus logo just fine. However now that I'm not at home and I need to use the laptop display without the external display, the problem is still here.
So the symptoms:
- during boot, the initial Asus logo shows fine
- after that, everything is almost black (login, desktop). In the center I can see a bit of things and that everything there like login screen, but very faintly, I can login and I see faintly a tiny bit of the center of desktop, but it seems that there's no backlight
- I removed NVIDIA drivers in safe mode and now the display is working fine. Installing different NVIDIA drivers (tried two399.x and newest) result in same problem as soon as the driver finishes installing, meaning the screen goes to 'unlighted' mode immediately.
- Linux works the same. As soon as NVIDIA drivers kick in, screen goes to the unlighted mode.

So I'm now left wondering WTH? It kinda seems like hw problem, but it's only limited to modes where NVIDIA drivers are running the show. With generic M$ driver the display works fine and is crisp as ever. Also the Windows recovery mode views show correctly as they aren't using any NVIDIA drivers.
Have NVIDIA drivers somehow turned off the backlight or WTF? With external display gaming and everything works fine, no graphics problems or hanging.

jdfrench3 · ‎02-01-2020

Are you using GEFORCE Experience software to update the NVIDIA drivers?

Are you unplugging all external monitors while updating NVIDIA drivers?

Is the version of GEFORCE Experience you have been updated? (3.20.2.34 12/24/2019 is current)

Check Settings/System/Display/Advanced Display Settings. Are you using Display 1?

G752VSK, G75VW-3D, G51J, G1S
Homebuilt Windows Server

spegelius · ‎02-01-2020

jdfrench3 wrote:
Are you using GEFORCE Experience software to update the NVIDIA drivers?

Are you unplugging all external monitors while updating NVIDIA drivers?

Is the version of GEFORCE Experience you have been updated? (3.20.2.34 12/24/2019 is current)

Check Settings/System/Display/Advanced Display Settings. Are you using Display 1?

Thansk for the reply.
No Geforce Experience used, I download the drivers and install from the installation package.
I do have it installed though and it was the latest that came with the installer package.
Currently the display is 1 since there's no other displays connected.
I just upgraded Windows 10 to 1909, I'll try reinstalling NVIDIA drivers again.

Here's a video of the display while playing a video from youtube, you can see small part of it but it's mostly dark. The yellow orb is a light bulb reflection...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vHNbBaY0rH-fgFu_GV_ndAwSCUViQJsS/view?usp=sharing

spegelius · ‎02-01-2020

Here's a video of the installation when the drivers kick in and screen goes dark: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vYcSDEjkxVkyp58bPD6Z-W0XEIu_moIs/view?usp=sharing

jdfrench3 · ‎02-01-2020

In Safe Mode, look in Device Manager. Are there any problems with the Display Adapter NIVIDIA drivers. Example below:

G752VSK, G75VW-3D, G51J, G1S
Homebuilt Windows Server

spegelius · ‎02-01-2020

Nope, can't get status in safe mode:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wDYxdS8in58IS9xqY3wX_JkQ-97fih9V/view?usp=sharing

jdfrench3 · ‎02-01-2020

Plug in an external monitor and check the Display Adapter driver?

G752VSK, G75VW-3D, G51J, G1S
Homebuilt Windows Server

spegelius · ‎02-02-2020

jdfrench3 wrote:
Plug in an external monitor and check the Display Adapter driver?

Yeah will try that once I get back home. I suspect there isn't going to be any errors since everything works fine with external monitor (I don't use laptop monitor when using external monitor), but best to check anyways.

spegelius · ‎02-02-2020

Ok I plugged in external monitor and installed newest NVIDIA drivers. I didn't install Gefore Experience, but I don't think it has anything to do with this. After install, the active display changed to the external display. Looking at the Device Manager, everything is ok, no issues.
If I enable multi-monitor mode, i.e. extend desktop between the monitors, the laptop display wakes up and shows small portions of desktop as seen in the videos I posted, but most of the display is dark.
As this happens in Linux too after the Xorg starts and NVIDIA drivers kick in, I don't really know what is happening. It's not a driver problem per se, but something about NVIDIA chipset starting to control the display...

jdfrench3 · ‎02-02-2020

There are no Yellow Triangles with Explanation Points on any items in your Device Manager? (Monitor)

I think you have a problem with your Display (Monitor). Take a look at an earlier picture you posted:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wDYxdS8in58IS9xqY3wX_JkQ-97fih9V/view?usp=sharing

G752VSK, G75VW-3D, G51J, G1S
Homebuilt Windows Server

G701VI backlight issue... or not?