Flickering screen on HP SpectreX360 Notebook

gregbradley · #1 11-05-2020, 05:14 PM

Hi,

My 2 year old HP Spectre X360 laptop has developed a very bad flickering screen.

It doesn't always do it and it goes in waves where it flickers up and down about 10 times a second so the screen is largely unreadable and other times it can be normal for several hours.

I checked on the net and the usual recommendation is to install the latest drivers. I used the HP assistant to do that and its been done and no difference.

I also tried system restore as its only been happening now for about a week.

Any suggestions?

I am not assuming it is a hardware failure rather than a software glitch but who knows with auto updating.

The last program I installed just before this was the Images Plus 6.5 that is now free which surprised me. It used to cost a few hundred US dollars.

I have since deleted that program in case it was bugged/corrupted but no change.

I checked HP warranty. Boy are they a scam. Its warranteed for 3 months from the day it was produced rather than when I bought it. So the warranty expired 9 months before it was even sold - how pathetic is that??

After having several HP laptops I think this is the point HP and I part company. They seem to be bang for your buck but don't go the distance. Another HP laptop keyboard failed after a few years.

It cost $2464 so it wasn't cheap.

Open to advice.

iborg (Philip) · #2 11-05-2020, 06:44 PM

Hi

I suggest talking to the ACCC, for that price there are reasonable expectations for the computer to last beyond the written warranty.
https://www.accc.gov.au/contact-us

Good luck

Philip

redbeard (Damien) · #3 11-05-2020, 07:45 PM

Hi Greg, may be one of a few things:

Drivers:
There are hundreds of reports on the web about this issue you have with that model. The fact that this laptop was fine for a couple of years, and assuming it's not a hardware issue, might mean the latest drivers are causing this from a recent update. Downgrading to a driver older than the one you have may fix it. That is one explanation of maybe why your laptop was working fine.

BIOS:
Try updating the BIOS as this may work with the latest drivers. (Fixed someone else's laptop with same issue). Perhaps when HP tested the latest drivers, they only tested on the latest firmware.

EDID:
Some people with this error reported that if they change their screen frequency to 30hz from 60 hz, that also helps. Not a fix though but may point to an incorrect EDID.

You can download an EDID manager for the laptop and check that the EDID of your laptop screen matches or is compatible with the graphics card.

Cheers,
Damien.

gregbradley · #4 11-05-2020, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redbeard

Hi Greg, may be one of a few things:

Drivers:
There are hundreds of reports on the web about this issue you have with that model. The fact that this laptop was fine for a couple of years, and assuming it's not a hardware issue, might mean the latest drivers are causing this from a recent update. Downgrading to a driver older than the one you have may fix it. That is one explanation of maybe why your laptop was working fine.

BIOS:
Try updating the BIOS as this may work with the latest drivers. (Fixed someone else's laptop with same issue). Perhaps when HP tested the latest drivers, they only tested on the latest firmware.

EDID:
Some people with this error reported that if they change their screen frequency to 30hz from 60 hz, that also helps. Not a fix though but may point to an incorrect EDID.

You can download an EDID manager for the laptop and check that the EDID of your laptop screen matches or is compatible with the graphics card.

Cheers,
Damien.

Thanks Damien,

You've given me some options to explore there.

Greg.

gregbradley · #5 13-05-2020, 09:13 AM

An update.

It got worse before I got on top of it. I updated all the drivers (couldn't see an option to download an older version of the driver).

I lowered the refresh rate of the screen. I downloaded and ran a HP Assistant and it did some updates but that didn't work at first.

Not sure if an auto update did something. But its now working and seems stable (touch wood). I also had 2 slight horizontal bars in the display as well. Now they are gone.

Greg.