Dell Vostro strange iGPU behaviour

Hardware Hub Laptops & Netbooks
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A while back I’ve helped my neighbor with her bookkeeping business and we picked up two Dell Vostro 3501 laptops. They both started acting a bit wonky after Windows updated Intel graphics drivers.

Configuration is identical on both:

10th gen Core i3
8GB RAM
250GB SSD
Windows 10 Pro

One is working standalone and the other one is connected to external 1440p monitor via HDMI. After updating from Intel driver version 30.0.101.1338 (Jan 2022.) to 30.0.101.3111 (Jun 2022.) monitor stops working at 1440p@75Hz and highest option becomes 1080p@60Hz.

Why Windows decided to update the driver now instead of 6 months ago when it was out - I have no idea.

What I’ve done so far:

  • Updated Windows 10 Pro to latest 22H something…
  • Updated Dell firmware manually to latest
  • Checked UEFI settings if it maybe drops GPU memory below threshold required for 1440p operation - couldn’t find where allocating memory to GPU is
  • Updated GPU driver via Windows update
  • Updated GPU driver from Dell website
  • Updated GPU driver from Intel website
  • Tried different HDMI cable
  • Tried the other (identical) laptop in case something is funky with this one - both behave exactly the same
  • Tried another 1440p monitor (albeit at 60Hz), same behavior
  • looked at Lenovo website to check for monitor firmware updates - nothing there other than ICC profiles
  • Contacted Dell support and was told to contact local distributor
  • Contacted local distributor and was told to send the laptops over for testing

I’m still planning on trying:
* 4K monitor
* Dell OptiPlex desktop with 10th gen i5 we can borrow tomorrow

Since there is nothing obviously wrong, other than 1080p looking blurry on a 1440p monitor I suspect we will waste two or three weeks on local service center diagnosing that everything is fine and sending the laptops back.

For the time I’ve disabled Windows update from updating drivers via group policy but it will prevent it from updating any drivers so it’s not really a long term solution.

Any ideas other than waiting for the next driver release and trying then?

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Tested on a 4K monitor - same thing, one with previous driver works, one with new driver is limited to 1080p60.

Desktop 10500 works fine, but that is apparently different iGPU.

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Hey, am suprised you haven’t just rolled back the driver - you’ve prevented it being updated again - issue only appeared with the update to that version - for sure downgrade that driver.

Hmm sorry just realised how old that post is - nm.