External monitor freezes when using dedicated GPU

Graphics / Linux Linux
1

Hello,
I have a Acer PH18-71 with Intel and RTX4070. When i have an external monitor connected through HDMI and start using the dedicated GPU there is a high chance that the external monitor freezes, everything else is supposedly working since the sound is continuing.

I then have to change over to a TTY and then back to the graphical interface. It will then work for an arbitrary time and then freeze.

EDIT: I’ve tried three different HDMI cables aswell.

Here is the log.
nvidia-bug-report.log.gz (1.2 MB)

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Having same issue at least since 530.41.03 (and then 535.86.05, 535.98, 535.104.05) with integrated intel UHD 630 (i915 driver) & GTX1660Ti on laptop with debian-12/xfce-4.18.
When external screen is frozen, I can move my mouse back to laptop display, disable/enable external screen, and it starts working again. It starts freezing for a short period of time, like “lagging”, then freezes screen completely.
Best way to reproduce (takes about 1 minute to poke around) - when one of apps is offloaded like:
__NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia vlc
(Confirmed with glxgears, firefox, openarena, vlc) and actively work with non-offloaded app, let’s say Gimp/thunar/mousepad on external screen. Apps don’t give any error in console.
Can be reproduced with HDMI and USB-C outputs.
This can also be reproduced, but less consistently, with 530.41.03 (haven’t retried since then) when doing so on a single laptop display, when external monitor is not physically connected.
Can’t reproduce with nouveau driver.
This could be a related info.
nvidia-bug-report.log.gz (300.8 KB)
nvidia-installer.log.txt (39.2 KB)

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Tested latest 535.113.01 driver release - same issue.
Attaching 2 logs - first one is made right after a short freeze, second one made during full freeze.
Please help!
nvidia-bug-report-short-freeze.log.gz (321.6 KB)
nvidia-bug-report-full-freeze.log.gz (336.2 KB)

P.S. I had Windows 10 and now 11 as a secondary system on this laptop - wasn’t able to reproduce this issue, so this is not a hardware issue for sure.

2 Likes
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We have a bug filed 4322356 internally for tracking purpose, shall keep updated on the same.

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Thank you!

I tested latest betta driver 545.23.06 and found that bug can be reproduced even easier: only run
__NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia glxgears
on laptop display without running any other apps on second monitor. Now hold right bottom corner of the gears window and start resizing it by moving mouse in circles quickly. After 3-5 circles main laptop display freezes for a second, then unfreezes. At this point laptop display usable again, but second monitor (that didn’t have any apps on it) gets permanently frozen.
nvidia-bug-report.log.gz (332.6 KB)

This also can be reproduced with Release driver 535.113.01
nvidia-bug-report.log.gz (302.6 KB)

One more thing I forgot to mention - no matter what driver it is, when I start up and login into desktop, only laptop display works and external display is frozen - if I move mouse to the second screen, it doesn’t appear there. Once I open any app on laptop display and move window to external display - it unfreezes and function normally, so most users would probably never note that it was frozen.

1 Like
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I got the same when i did what ursom suggested. The second monitor froze until i used xrandr to enable it again. Im using 535.113.01

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Affects me too. Happens several times a day. Can be reproduced via glxgears easily.
I am using driver 545.23.06 on an RTX 3060 Laptop GPU with monitors connected via USB-C.

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Same here with RTX 4080 (MSI laptop) on Linux. Makes the second monitor unusable.
It used to work fine a few weeks ago… so I’m trying to revert back to previous drivers without messing up…

Details in this post.

3 Likes
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I have the same problem, and my external screen freezes constantly, sometimes within the same minute, while my laptop is not frozen, if I (e.g.) open a Terminal nothing happens to my external screen, but if I remove the HDMI cable the laptop screen takes over, I can see that the Terminal did indeed open. If I’m in extended view, I can blindly try to move the cursor toward my laptop, and with a bit of movement, the cursor shows up there showing that the laptop display is active.

Because of this, my laptop is completely useless, I don’t like working on it directly I always connect it to an external screen, mouse, and keyboard. I am able to reproduce this with three different monitors. It happens both in extended view and in “external screen only” mode.

I am able to un-freeze it by running

xrandr --output HDMI-1-0 --off --output eDP-1 --auto
xrandr --output eDP-1 --off --output HDMI-1-0 --preferred

Most times I have to run these two commands more than once, but seldom more than five times to get a responsive external screen. On some rare occasions (1/50) I have to remove the HDMI cable and plug it back in to un-freeze the monitor.

My laptop is the MSI Katana 15 B13V, I am running Ubuntu 22.04.
Originally the laptop came with 2x8Gb RAM, I have removed these and replaced them with 2x32Gb RAM. It has a 4070 RTX GPU.

I have installed the

nvidia-driver-535/jammy-updates,jammy-security,jammy,now 535.113.01-0ubuntu0.22.04.3 amd64

driver.

If you need more information about my laptop I have attached

lscpu
sudo lshw
hwinfo

lscpu_json.txt (4.0 KB)
lshw_json.txt (54.5 KB)
hwinfo.txt (637.6 KB)

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Hello, @generix
I will stick to this thread now, other readers might want to have a look at this thread too.

So I did your recommendation of

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-535

And now I’m back to my fault statue.
I have attached a bug report from earlier today, and just now after re-installing 535.
I will now attempt to install 525 according to your suggestions.

nvidia-bug-report_535.log.gz (526.4 KB)
nvidia-bug-report_535_after_reinstall.log.gz (440.1 KB)

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@j22gim @generix
I installed nvidia-driver-525

apt list --installed | grep nvidia-driver
nvidia-driver-525/jammy-updates,jammy-security,jammy,now 525.125.06-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 amd64 [installed]

The problems are just as bad as before, the external monitor freezes within minutes after boot.
nvidia-bug-report_525.log.gz (404.8 KB)

For installing 525 I went through this step:

Screenshot from 2023-10-25 11-30-43
Screenshot from 2023-10-25 11-30-43973×787 103 KB

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The 525 driver is installed correctly and working now but obviously has the same bug so you can return to the current 535 driver as well.

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I see 545 is in the list, should I give it a try?

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@ursom already tried:
https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/external-monitor-freezes-when-using-dedicated-gpu/265406/5?u=generix
so upgrading doesn’t help either.

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I agree, I tried and the bug is still there.
nvidia-bug-report_545.log.gz (504.3 KB)

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@generix Do you think I will eventually find a version that works, if I keep installing an older release? 520 has the same bug
nvidia-bug-report_520.log.gz (469.6 KB)

@j22gim is 525 still working for you?

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@Spange I have rebooted like 5 times now and for the last few hours, the 2nd monitor did not freeze.
With the newer drivers I was not able to work more than 3-5 minutes without the problem… so I would say yes, it seems to be gone…

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happily, yes. Cross my fingers

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@j22gim I’m genuinely happy that your issue has been resolved. I hope that I find a version that fixes my problem.

Do you think there is anything to gain by changing this setting, or any other tweak in NVIDIA settings?

image
image845×222 53.7 KB

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I honestly don’t know. I would not take my advice, this is the first time I have an NVIDIA card. Two other similarities between your case and mine are

  1. MSI laptop computers
  2. we both changed the default RAM (I also removed the original RAM and added two new chips to reach 64GB).

Also, please note my system might not be correctly configured, as I don’t see anything in the NVIDIA-settings inspector after coming back to 525. However, as long as I don’t get errors I will stick to this (I can not afford to lose my external monitor for my work!)

Good luck, let’s keep posting our cases.

1 Like