Constant stutter with DisplayPort card connected

I received my batch 8 framework last week, and it has been running great so far (although I do miss some physical trackpad buttons) until today. This morning I started experiencing periodic stutter (every 1s or so the screen freezes for a fraction of a second), mostly while on YouTube or while playing a lightweight videogame (in this case Factorio).

At first I thought it might be due to the RF stickers, but the problem persists with the stickers removed (I tried rearranging them but accidentally ripped a couple). I have since narrowed it down to the DisplayPort expansion card: the stutter appears whenever the DisplayPort card is connected (even without connecting any display to it), regardless on which port it is on (tried rear right and front left ports with same results) and what is connected in the remaining ports. As soon as I disconnect the DisplayPort card, the stutter goes away.

The DisplayPort has been connected since day 1 and has worked perfectly until now. In case it is relevant at all, I am running Void Linux with kernel 5.16.11 (although the issue persists with 5.15.26), and Sway (Wayland) as a window manager.

Any suggestions on how to proceed? Should I contact support for this?

Cheers.

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Contacting support is not a bad idea, although it would also be a good idea to boot a live USB of one of Framework’s officially supported linux distros to see if the issue occurs on those as well.

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Hi @Manuel, CC @Framework

did you hear back from support, yet? I have exactly the same issue. I worked with the DisplayPort card plugged-in all day yesterday and I had no problems at all.
This morning the computer started lagging exactly like you described, even across reboots, and it only stopped when I removed the DisplayPort card. Interestingly, the issue didn’t seem to reappear right away when I reconnected the card :thinking:

There is nothing really explaining this in the logs, except maybe the following messages about the port where they card was inserted. However, they seem to have already appeared yesterday throughout the day when there were no apparent lags.

framework kernel: usb usb2-port2: Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?
framework kernel: usb usb2-port2: Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?
framework kernel: usb usb2-port2: unable to enumerate USB device
framework kernel: usb usb2-port2: Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?
framework kernel: usb usb2-port2: Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?
framework kernel: usb usb2-port2: attempt power cycle
framework kernel: usb usb2-port2: Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?

This message only appears for the slot where the DisplatPort Card is inserted, though - regardless of the slot I plug it into. So maybe the card is defect? Could you maybe check your logs for these messages, too?

I’m on Fedora Silverblue 36 (pre-Release), Kernel 5.17.0-0.rc7.116.fc36.x86_64.
Unfortunately, I don’t have time to check for other OS’s at the moment.

Best regards.

I’d like to chime in and say I also experience this.

With the DisplayPort expansion card in, I get a constant CPU throttle down to 200Mhz. I can watch this by doing:

watch -n.1 "cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep \"^[c]pu MHz\""

With the DP card in, this will drop to 200MHz every few seconds for about 100ms, then go back up, then drop, etc. I was stumped at what was causing it, and tried removing all cards. Magically the problem was gone! Then I put each card in one by one, and the DP card was the one that causes this. It doesn’t matter which slot I put it in, nor which other cards are in - it seems to just be the DP card.

I also get the same errors @Quaephe8 pasted, and also the card just doesn’t work at all (my DP monitor doesn’t pick up any connection). It did work a few weeks ago, but I haven’t got it to work since.

Interestingly, the issue didn’t seem to reappear right away when I reconnected the card :thinking:

Unfortunately this is not the case for me - the issue appears almost instantly when I insert the card (and simultaneously goes away just as quickly).

Unfortunately, I don’t have time to check for other OS’s at the moment.

I don’t think this is OS related, because just holding up or down in the BIOS to scroll shows the same type of lag (my cursor will periodically freeze at an entry, then skip up or down).

I’m running F35.

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I wonder if there is some kind of intermittent short on these Displayport expansion cards or a bad design causing it to draw too much power and trip something in the system. Other similar threads reference flakiness like this. (for example DisplayPort expansion module died - Community Support - Framework Community) .

TL;DR
Batch 9 Win 11 Chrome - same issue

I’ve had this problem since day one. Youtube 60fps is unwatchable, dropping itself to 360p (and still stuttering / dropping frames). As soon as the DisplayPort expansion is removed the problem vanishes and performance is great

I was pulling my hair out over this issue til I removed the DisplayPort expansion as 99% of my usage is Youtube @ 60fps.

Without the DisplayPort expansion, this machine now runs like the snappy new lappy I expected when I purchased it.

Should we all be speaking to Framework about a replacement DisplayPort expansion, or there more investigation we could be doing?

Configuration:
i7-1165G7 Batch #9
(2 x 16GB) RAM
Windows 11 Enterprise

Issue exists in Browsers:
Chrome (latest)
Edge (Latest)
Firefox (Latest)

I’ve had issues with video playback in YouTube, but not related to the DisplayPort expansion card.

I suspect Intel driver weirdness, but in Chrome there is a workaround.

  1. Go to chrome://flags
  2. Find “Choose ANGLE graphics backend”
  3. Select OpenGL

I tested with this set to “D3D11on12” and whilst it did restore video smooth playback, it would cause black screen flashes as embedded videos were scrolled into view on e.g. Twitter.

I haven’t tested the other options in this setting.

Been having same stuttering issue myself just started recently; I figured it was a problem with Ubuntu / GNOME, but then I had the same issues as @Oliver_Charles in BIOS. Thankfully I came across this thread today and have temporarily fixed the issue by removing the card, because it was driving me crazy.

I agree that this doesn’t seem like an OS issue. I tried the HDMI expansion card and found the same issues with the HDMI expansion card as well. I’m on 5.15.0-40 (Ubuntu 22.04), but given that the stuttering happens in BIOS, I don’t think that has anything to do with it. It feels like an interaction between the kernel and firmware. CC: @Framework - Any ideas?

Oh my god, I’m so glad I found this post. I’ve been struggling with this for MONTHS intermittently, 1/20 boots there would be no lag, so I just wouldn’t restart my machine. Last night I forgot to charge my laptop and it died overnight, so was struggling with lag issues this morning with multiple boots. Found this thread, and immediately after removing the DP card (OS already booted) the lag disappeared! I’m on Arch 5.18.6 and BIOS 3.07.

Has @Framework said they would offer free replacements for these faulty cards? (Or substitues)

Edit: Holy Moly, this also fixed my intermittent touchpad click registration issue to.

Sike, it didn’t completely fix my touchpad click issues, but it looks like it helped some. CPU performance has been great since removing the DP card though, did some testing (because FW support asked me to) and inserting the card while watching the CPU clock speeds and a video causes instant stutters and 200mhz throttles.

Hopefully support takes care of it. :crossed_fingers: