Schenker XMG Neo 15 external screen lag

Good evening all!

Last week I received my new Schenker Neo 15 which includes an 8750h 6 core CPU, 16GB DDR4 2666 memory, a Samsung 970 Pro SSD, a GTX1060 6GB as well as 1080p 144HZ IPS screen (no Gsync).

When connecting an 1440p 60HZ external monitor using an HDMI cable and closing the lid of my laptop (allowing the 1440p monitor to be my main screen), Windows 10 Home 64bit suddenly becomes very laggy. Especially during scrolling.

A restart fixes this issue immediately.
If I connect the external monitor before booting my laptop I don't have any issues either.

Why does this happen? Is this something that happens due to the switch from 144HZ to 60HZ?

Please note that I am running the latest Nvidia drivers.

Thanks!

 

Try this:
1) Plug your screen into your laptop and make sure that your screen is turned on.
2) Type project into the program search bar and select "Project to a second screen"
3) Select the "Second screen only" option



This will turn off your laptop screen and turn on your external monitor. DO NOT CLOSE THE LID OF YOUR LAPTOP!!!

 

Many thanks for your feedback! Will try this this morning. What is the difference between closing the lid and the above?

 

Just tried out the steps you described.
Unfortunately, this doesn't fix my issue. As soon as I select "second screen only" my external display lags "A LOT".

Only a restart fixes this issue.

Remarkable is that the lag doesn't occur when I am using both screens...

 

Please find attached.

Image 1. was taken before connecting my external display.
Image 2. was taken after connecting my external display and closing the lid.
Image 3. was taken after a restart with the lid remaining closed

Something I am especially noticing is the little spikes on image 2
The GTX 1060 seems to be switched off in image 1 when the external screen is not yet attached to the laptop

 

That's because the HDMI port is directly connected to the GTX 1060 and not the iGPU. When you connect a monitor, the gtx 1060 needs to be switched on to drive the display. Most laptop seem to connect the HDMI port to the iGPU. Whenever you run a game or any 3D application, the GTX 1060 renders a frame, then passes that frame to the iGPU which in turn passes it on through the HDMI port to your external monitor. This is basically how Optimus works.

First try to replicate the scenario where you get spikes in GPU usage. After that, open up task manager, go to the processes tab and click on the GPU usage tab so that it shows GPU usage in descending order, with the most GPU intensive processes at the top. Try to see if you can identify the process that is causing the spikes in GPU usage. Make sure that you have no programs open and that your system is idling.

 

Many thanks for your feedback! Please find attached 2 images of my task manager.

The first one (named "1. without scrolling") was made while the external display was connected through HDMI and "second screen only" was selected under the project menu.

The second one (named "2. scrolling") was made under the same circumstances as the first one, however, I was scrolling through the "start" -> "All programs" menu.

I also checked the taskbar without connecting the external display, however, the GPU tasks shown in screenshot 1 and 2 are also appearing, hence it seems from a task manager perspective, connecting the HDMI doesn't trigger something special.

The lag and some of the spikes within GPU-Z again occurred as soon as "second screen only" was selected or the lid was closed, hence, there must be something happening which is causing this effect.

I also ordered a Mini Display Port to Display Port (v1.2) as my monitor also supports Display Port. Could this solve my issue? Or is there something else I can do to fix the lag?

Using a large external display is crucial for me, hence, if my laptop cannot cope with this due to the way the HDMI is connected to the GPU, I will probably return it to Schenker and look for another model which doesn't have this issue (I am still within the 14 day return period). Nevertheless, I prefer not to as the laptop overall is amazing!

 

Those are the same image.

Anyway, I think this is a limitation under Windows 10 when the external output is dGPU-only while the internal is Optimus. I have had zero issues with external displays under Windows 7 on non-Optimus single GPU/SLI systems and Optimus systems in which all display outputs were connected to the iGPU.

I recently talked to a Dell 7577 owner that would get a huge 50% performance drop in gaming with an HDMI TV connected, but normal performance after switching to just the internal or just the external. The Dell 7577 is like yours, internal is Optimus but external are dGPU.

 

I have also had zero issues connecting to a 1440p 60 Hz panel through HDMI on my Clevo P950HP6. The HDMI port is connected directly to the GPU on my laptop.

@XMG @Meaker@Sager

 

Apologies. Just replaced the second screenshot with the right one.

 

Did you also try "second screen only" or closing the lid?
The lag is to severe to ignore. Especially when scrolling. I can make a video if you want to see exactly what I mean.

A restart will fix the issue, but still, this shouldn't happen at all.

 

You might want to post in owner's thread for this laptop to see if any other users are encountering the same issues as you.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/tongfang-gk5cn5z-and-tongfang-gk5cn6z.815943/

 

Many thanks. Just posted within the Tongfang forum you linked and already received a reply explaining this is caused by an Optimus.

Unfortunately, it seems the only way to fix this is by restarting explorer.exe or dwm.exe every time I connect my external display. Or of course a restart.

It's a real shame. Can this damage the laptop in the long run or is it just a bothering bug that might be fixed with a patch in the future?

 

The fact that you don't have this issue, does it mean that your laptop uses another structure?

 

So, this evening I did some more searching and found dozens of topics and articles. Knowing what to search for helped a lot.

Apparently this issue has been existing for several years and impacting MANY models and brands.

E.g. the following 2 year Reddit topic is describing exactly the same issue:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/4sathe/aw_15_r2_strange_behaviour_on_external_monitor/

Another topic regarding lags and freezes can be found on the website from Microsoft: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...-problem/93e7004a-62b1-4211-8e37-4c136608865e

I read on one of the forums that using an USB C to HDMI could work. Did anyone who is experiencing the same issues try this?

@XMG any other recommendations that might solve this would be amazing as using a large external display is crucial during e.g. photo and video editing.

Many thanks for everyone's support!

 

@Robertjan88 - to be honest, troubleshooting these types of problems isn't my forte because I don't spend every day dealing with laptops (might sound counter intuitive as I am the rep on nbr!!!!!) - but anyway you should definitely contact our support and ask then. They have access to the product resources and there might be a logged problem and resolution from TongFang in our internal support system.

 

@XMG Many thanks fo your reply and no worries. It's fully understandable one cannot know everything.
Will contact support for sure.
In case there isn't a solution I will probably make use of your 14 day return policy as using an external screen is just too important for me.
Nevertheless, it would be a shame and I would definitely look for another Schenker as so far your company has delivered the best support I have seen in a VERY long time.

 

That isn't what's happening in your case. Your external monitor is being driven by the gtx 1060 all of the time; there is no switching going on between the iGPU and the 1060. What seems to be the problem is that the your card is increasing its clock speed presumably to complete a task, but the memory bus has been shut off meaning the GPU cannot process anything as it can't fetch data from the memory. This is either caused by by buggy software or buggy firmware.

Contact XMG support to see if they can replicate the issue. If restarting explorer.exe seems to fix the problem, you could probably write a script that will do this for you when run, saving you the hassle of using Task manager to do it manually.