HP Victus 15-fb0000 (598V0AV) BSoD/Blackscreen Issues - Fairy Tales of "the Installer"

[nhlm]

Hello HP Community,

I've issues with my HP Victus Gaming Notebook. I'll try to describe the steps i have done as detailed as possible:

After getting my notebook i did remove McAffee to rely on Windows Defender instead of McAffee. After that i  installed everything the HP Support Assistant had to offer (including the bios update to F.19. Then i did run Windows Update to get the latest updates for Windows 11 and then the Odyssey starts:

After Hours of usage (a mix of gaming, watching videos and browsing) the notebook BSoD with Driver Power State Failure, so i started inspecting the problem using WinDbg which pointed me to ACPI.SYS related to AMD Hardware. So, i downloaded the AMD GPU Driver from the HP Support Website of my Notebook and tried to install it using the AMD Software Installer served with this package. The Setup of the downloaded package (after extracting it using the self-extractor) did not work due to manifest issues. I downloaded the AMD Software Installer from the AMD Website and let the install decide which drivers to install and uninstalling the previous drivers. That solved the BSoD, but i got another BSoD this time pointing to ACPI.SYS and Realtek Drivers, again Driver Power State Failure. I fetched all Realtek related drivers and installed them to replace the drivers Windows obviously installed when i did run Windows Update. This solved the second BSoD and i got no more BSoD so far. But that wasn't the end of the odyssey:

After playing some hours (Astral Tale), the game (? or a driver) crashed and freezed the entire system blacking out everything at the display from below the title bar of the game window to the bottom of the taskbar. I restarted the notebook and everything worked fine until i played for some time: again partially black screen. So, i guessed that the installation armageddon of those drivers is probably the reason for this: i did a reset of windows 11 back to factory defaults with nothing kept. This time after the first boot to the Desktop, i disabled Driver Updates using the Windows Registry to prevent getting drivers overwritten by Windows anytime soon. Then i installed all updates using the HP Support Assistant first and then installed all Windows Updates (this time without any driver update). But, obviously Windows did install the Nvidia GPU Drivers when preparing the notebook after the reset. Which is what got "newer" drivers than what i listed at the HP Support Website for my Notebook. All other drivers, according to the Displayed Hardware Specifications at the HP Support Assistant, are the drivers from the HP Support Website installed by the HP Support Assistant. I did start gaming again. No Bluescreens but the partial black screen remains.

So, my questions are: did i miss something? What went wrong? Theoretically speaking: blocking drivers from windows updates isn't what a technically noobish user will ever do, so - someone with zero experience in windows, a person who just want to play would jail himself into BSoDs just after using the system for a while. Is something unstable at this notebooks or is the software unstably orchestrated by HP or Microsoft?

My wildest guess is that the BIOS update might be the problem, or the Nvidia Driver. I ran the Stresstests of the HP Support Assistant to figure out what exactly does trigger the BSoD back then. But none of them failed or pushed the system into a BSoD at that time. A glitch i did observe is: There are Drivers listed for Windows 11, Windows 11 21H2 and Windows 11 22H2, but none for Windows 11 23H2. The system is 23H2 after resetting it. But i guess the drivers of 22H2 may work for 23H2 as well.

I personally would prefer to solve it by myself if it is a software problem. So, all hints, tips or solutions are welcome. I really like the Notebook if there wouldn't be so much trouble in the last days.

Specs and current Versions of the System:

- Victus by HP 15.6 inch Gaming Laptop 15-fb0000 (598V0AV) with Windows 11 Home, 16 GB RAM, GeForce RTX 3050 Ti, Ryzen 5 5600H, 500 GB SSD

- Windows 11 23H2

- All Updates installed by HP Support Assistant

- BIOS patched to F.19 by the HP Support Assistant

- As far as i can see all Drivers from HP the HP Support Page are installed at the system, except Nvidia Display Drivers

- Nvidia Display Drivers Version: 31.0.15.4680 (2.22.2024) - obviously installed by Windows - Driver Version at the HP Support Website is: 31.0.15.2892 Rev.D (12.05.2023).

- Temperatures are usually around 50 °C at idle, 65 °C while gaming and peak up to 85 °C while gaming or 72-76 °C while doing moderate stuff. That's okay for a Ryzen Notebook i guess. The HP Omen intel based was ~5 °C lower in all of those temperatures. Temperatures are observed with HWINFO64.

Thank you for your help.

[Elohi_NR · Accepted solution]

Hi @nhlm,

Welcome to the HP Support Community. 

I'd be happy to help you! 

I understand that you are facing issues with the BSoD/Black screen

  Fabulous analysis. Spectacular diagnosis of the issue before posting. Kudos to you for that.

Since you have done a splendid job by performing all the steps,  This might require one-on-one interaction to fix the issue via remote assistance.  

I've sent you a private message with further instructions. In order to access your private messages, click the private message icon on the upper right corner of your HP Support Community profile, next to your profile Name or simply click on this link.

Please mark this post as “Accepted Solution” if the issue is resolved and if you feel this reply was helpful click “Yes”.

[nhlm]

hi Elohi,

i will contact the customer support through facebook next week. I did that a few days before but since i did not have any private phone number (i do not really need one), the customer support denied helping me until i get one. I fixed that.

I did some other steps too:

- Installed BIOS update F20 (today)

- Downgraded the Nividia Display Drivers to the Drivers from the Support Website

But no significant changes. The blackscreen arrives a bit later than usual, that's all.

I figured out that an more ore less easy reproduction of the blackscreen thing is achieveable by simply watching Facebook Reels for 30-45 Minutes. The frequent prefetching and change of video streams brings the system earlier or sooner in a state that results in that blackscreen something.

I personally would like to know at least why this happens. But i understand that it isn't that easy to fix for a end-user, so the customer support should take hands on it.

Since i need the notebook also for projects: should i directly ask for a replacement? how long will it take to replace it?

kindest regards,

nhlm