This problem is so odd and specific that I thought maybe
someone might recognize it: Twice now, for no apparent reason,
the screen has blacked out momentarily and come back with
shadows (3D effects) on the desktop font used for labels
under icons. (Yes, I have those settings disabled.) I reboot
and it's fine again, with plain white font. No crash. No sign of
weird programs running. Though this time I start Task Manager
and briefly got a screen that said "preparing security options".

I haven't had any display problems and I've got the latest
dipsplay driver.

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On 4/24/2024 1:27 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:

> I've seen similar some time ago. It was solved by tinkering with

Performance Options

Windows key + R, SystemPropertiesPerformance.exe.
Do you have "Let Windows choose ......." ticked?

No. I think those settings are uninvolved. I double-checked
both the setting for drop shadows on icon labels (currently
unchecked) and the Registry setting that corresponds, the
first time this happened. I've never used those drop shadows.

That's why I specifically said that
I have those settings disabled -- suspecting the obscure
performance settings would naturally be the first inclination.

This is also a sudden change that comes after the brief
monitor blackout, and clears up after rebooting. I also doubt
the display driver comes into it. As I mentioned, I have the
latest. But I also don't see any way that a funky display
driver might have a bug that changes a specific display
setting.

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On 4/24/2024 2:00 PM, Newyana2 wrote:

On 4/24/2024 1:27 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:

I've seen similar some time ago. It was solved by tinkering with
Performance Options

Windows key + R, SystemPropertiesPerformance.exe.
Do you have "Let Windows choose ......." ticked?

  No. I think those settings are uninvolved. I double-checked
both the setting for drop shadows on icon labels (currently
unchecked) and the Registry setting that corresponds, the
first time this happened. I've never used those drop shadows.

    That's why I specifically said that
I have those settings disabled -- suspecting the obscure
performance settings would naturally be the first inclination.

  This is also a sudden change that comes after the brief
monitor blackout, and clears up after rebooting. I also doubt
the display driver comes into it. As I mentioned, I have the
latest. But I also don't see any way that a funky display
driver might have a bug that changes a specific display
setting.

The short black blanking, is a VPU Recover, but as for
the rest of it, just make up an excuse :-)

Remember, I'm the guy that had dancing icons on my taskbar,
and that's traceable to some subsystem running out of RAM.
The icons dance so fast, you cannot reliably use your task bar
and your only choice is shutdown (alt-f4 method).

You know, some day, they're going to make an architectural diagram
for these OSes... Some day.

Paul

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On 4/24/2024 2:35 PM, Paul wrote:

The short black blanking, is a VPU Recover, but as for
the rest of it, just make up an excuse :-)

Thanks. You seem pretty sure of that. I've never heard
of a VPU Recover before. That means the graphics chip
crashed?

I just had browser and email open. Nothing special. In
a cold room, so not heating up. (HWMonitor says 86F
for CPU and 108F for PCH.)

I went for years on XP with no glitches. On Win10 I seem
to have a glitch every two days. Do you think it makes sense
to get a separate graphics card? I've used onboard graphics
for years with no problems, but this is the first Intel board
I've ever bought.

Remember, I'm the guy that had dancing icons on my taskbar,
and that's traceable to some subsystem running out of RAM.

Dancing icons? Is that what I have to look forward to with
Win10?... Things going batty because they're starving on
32 GB RAM?

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The hardware, by the way:

MSI Pro B760M-P motherboard with onboard
"Intel UHD 730" graphics.

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On 4/24/2024 6:38 PM, Newyana2 wrote:

The hardware, by the way:

MSI Pro B760M-P motherboard with onboard
"Intel UHD 730" graphics.

I don't think you will see these in a Reliability Monitor.
Yes, it could be a graphics crash.

perfmon /rel

Things like graphics can have "watchdog timers". Any time
a command sits in queue for several seconds, and the GPU does
not respond, the watchdog trips and indicates to the other
software that the graphics should have a "mini-reset" so that
the command queue will become responsive again.

A watchdog method, is intended to cover off more than one fault
type as a root cause. And it works the way it does, to make
the hardware "seem more reliable". Only the giveaway black period
is supposed to tell you something is amiss.

The video card in my other machine, cost $600-$700 or so. Every
time that stupid thing starts during boot, it does not respond
properly. This seems to be a hardware bug (perhaps every identical
chip like it, does the same thing). The NVidia driver burps a few times (watchdog, and during boot), and starts OK. The Linux Nouveau driver
did not have a provision for the behavior, and I got "stuck" a
number of times. But over the years, the card today "mostly starts". Manufacturers never admit to bumbling and they're not about to
replace things like this that were released in a hurry. During
runtime there is not a problem -- it's just cold start that
has some weird issue.

You could see if the Intel site has an update for the driver.
Normally, the WU versions of drivers should be working for this.
But if you want to fiddle with it, you can try your hand.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000093577/graphics.html

"How to Install an Intel Graphics Driver in Windows 10 & Windows 11"

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005629/graphics/processor-graphics.html

Paul

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On 4/24/2024 8:44 PM, Paul wrote:

The video card in my other machine, cost $600-$700 or so. Every
time that stupid thing starts during boot, it does not respond
properly. This seems to be a hardware bug (perhaps every identical
chip like it, does the same thing). The NVidia driver burps a few times (watchdog, and during boot), and starts OK. The Linux Nouveau driver
did not have a provision for the behavior, and I got "stuck" a
number of times. But over the years, the card today "mostly starts". Manufacturers never admit to bumbling and they're not about to
replace things like this that were released in a hurry. During
runtime there is not a problem -- it's just cold start that
has some weird issue.

You could see if the Intel site has an update for the driver.
Normally, the WU versions of drivers should be working for this.
But if you want to fiddle with it, you can try your hand.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000093577/graphics.html

"How to Install an Intel Graphics Driver in Windows 10 & Windows 11"

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005629/graphics/processor-graphics.html

Thanks. The driver is the latest. I don't deal with Windows
Update. I go direct. In this case I got the latest from Intel
recently and it seems fine except for this quirk. And the problem
doesn't manifestat boot. Both times it's seemed random,
after running for some time.

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In message <v0baud$2dl9e$1@dont-email.me>, Newyana2
<mayayana@invalid.nospam> writes

This problem is so odd and specific that I thought maybe
someone might recognize it: Twice now, for no apparent reason,
the screen has blacked out momentarily and come back with
shadows (3D effects) on the desktop font used for labels
under icons. (Yes, I have those settings disabled.) I reboot
and it's fine again, with plain white font. No crash. No sign of
weird programs running. Though this time I start Task Manager
and briefly got a screen that said "preparing security options".

I haven't had any display problems and I've got the latest
dipsplay driver.

I've had the same problem for years. It's disconcerting when it happens,
but doesn't seem to have any ill-effects apart from putting the shadows
on the desktop icon labels, so I don't bother to reboot afterwards. It
was happening under Windows 7 as well, before I got Windows 10. My
monitor is an Acer V173 and the graphics card is an Intel HD Graphics
4400, running at 60Hz.
--
John Hall
"Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people
from coughing."
Sir Ralph Richardson (1902-83)

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On 4/25/2024 4:56 AM, John Hall wrote:

I've had the same problem for years. It's disconcerting when it happens,
but doesn't seem to have any ill-effects apart from putting the shadows
on the desktop icon labels, so I don't bother to reboot afterwards. It
was happening under Windows 7 as well, before I got Windows 10. My
monitor is an Acer V173 and the graphics card is an Intel HD Graphics
4400, running at 60Hz.

Thanks for that info. It's very odd and seems to be
increasing in frequency. The errors seem to mention
DWM and the Intel driver. (In my case it's the UHD 730,
coming from the CPU.)

But this didn't happen for the past 2 months. It's only
in the past few days. I'm wondering about my UPS. I just
downloaded the latest driver -- though I get the sense that
Intel just adds a number to the driver version each day. I
just updated it not long ago.

If it keeps up or increases I may just go and buy an
NVidia card. I wonder now what possessed me to switch
to Intel after 20+ years of good luck with AMD.

And the icons... How strange. I've found similar reports
of the same symptoms online, but none with that exact
oddity.

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