Broken graphics driver, HP laptops, Windows 10/11 intel i5-1155G7 with Intel UHD / Arc Iris Xe graphics

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Just a heads up, it seems there is something wrong with the
graphics driver for the on board graphics of mobile
i5-1155G7 cpu's, in particular, HP windows 11 laptops;  in
the 15s-fq40011tu   series that run Kioxia m.2 SSD's.

Impacted onboard graphics device id string is
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_9A49&SUBSYS_89BC103C&REV_03

Both the 26/4/2023 version from HPs graphic drivers for it,
the one available on windows update, and the 15/8/2023
version available direct from Intels own website will all fail.

Presumably a much older version did still work, but I have
been unable to locate one.

The only way the computer will even boot is if you only use
the generic windows driver it uses when it cant find a video
driver - so clearly it is /possible/ for a working driver to
be made.   The driver crashes the laptop so effectively the
only way to even get in again is to REINSTALL windows EACH
TIME!   because recovery mode cant see the hard disk. What a
pain! (well there is some hacks you can use to force disk
drivers in recovery mode but really how many of us even know
that is possible let alone go to the effort!)

I did notice this laptop was not running the latest official
HP firmware (F.31 Rev A) it appears to have found some
unreleased alpha firmware (F.32 / 00) possibly installed
from windows update, as this laptop was until a recent
windows update still able to boot its original windows
image.  I suspect HP knows about the bad firmware, but their
bios tool refuses to allow you to downgrade to the official
firmware.. which i suspect will fix the issue.

In fact the HP 15sfq4000 series laptops in total seems to be
garbage.  out of the box it comes with windows 11..   except
it is /literally/  hardware incompatible with windows 11. 
If you try to even install it off a windows 11 setup disk,
it will flat out tell you the pc can't run windows 11.  Even
with all the secure boot junk enabled. If you try to do a
system reset/fresh, it is unable to recognise its /OWN/ hard
disk in recovery mode and will fail too..     Talk about
user unfriendly.

It will allow you to install windows 10, which is
interesting as these never shipped with it, and it will even
activate.  But you need to get the intel rapid storage
driver, and extract the "F6" folder from the exe file onto
your install disk then point to that as the disk driver in
windows 10 setup to even allow windows 10 to even /see/ a
hard disk.   Even more interesting, all the drivers HP
insist on their support portal only support windows 11, are
actually all windows 10 drivers when you actually launch
them. Something shady there between HP and MS i expect.

Incidentally it appears the have disk option is removed in
the latest windows 11 install, possibly the source of the
"your pc cannot run windows 11" error since it cant see any
hard disks.  I expect a work around would be some hack where
you install into the PCB where the sata chipset is and use a
SATA drive instead, or drop into repair mode force a driver
then launch setup from recovery mode.  yuk!

Given it activates to 10, but never shipped with it, I
suspect HP was installing 10 on these, then doing an
internal upgrade to 11 on the factory image before shipping
them to distributors.  But that is pure opinion.   (But then
again even the factory restore system cannot see its own
harddisk!  what a crap laptop! broken factory image, broken
drivers, broken firmware, broken windows 11 support! Yikes!)

It might run ok in Linux,  I'll have to discuss the option
with the owner before I try it, since short of hacking in a
deliberately broken video driver and blocking windows update
from trying to update it, this laptop can never be safely
used for windows again.

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[Jason Xiros]

Thank you for taking time to post an interesting analysis.

The signal to noise ratio in here has been depressingly low of late.

Kind regards,

Jason

> On 24 Aug 2023, at 20:02, ad...@reviews.wox.org wrote:
>
> Just a heads up, it seems there is something wrong with the graphics driver for the on board graphics of mobile i5-1155G7 cpu's, in particular, HP windows 11 laptops; in the 15s-fq40011tu series that run Kioxia m.2 SSD's.

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