W10: FIX for Chrome/Chromium based browsers black screen after switch to discrete graphics in BIOS

[calypso]

Hi all,

just solved a big problem with my Lenovo P51 so decided to share my findings as I couldn't find anything similar on the web (been browsing for the past few days).

Problem
Chrome or Chromium based browsers (eg. Opera) might start with black screen after you disable onboard graphics in BIOS (switch from hybrid to discrete mode). Browsers will react to right click and show the menu, but nothing will be visible on the screen. If you run the browser with HW acceleration disabled, everything works fine, but Youtube videos become laggy.

Reason why this is happening
Frankly said - I have no idea, but I suspect it has something to do with which GPU is used when you start Chromium based browsers for the first time as they seem to store this data somewhere and then make problems if you disable the original graphics card. When I browser internet and forums, I found that lots of people had this problem when they simply switched graphics cards, even on desktop computers.

Solution (for Google Chrome)
1. Go to C:\Users\<YOUR USER ACCOUNT>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data
2. Rename folder 'ShaderCache' to something else (eg. $ShaderCache, _ShaderCache)
3. Inside the same Google Chrome User Data Go to profile folder (usually called 'Profile 1', 'Profile 2', etc)
4. Rename folder 'GPUCache' to something else (eg. $GPUCache, _GPUCache)
5. Start the browser (remember to remove --disable-gpu switch in case you used it)

Solution (for Opera)
1. Go to C:\Users\<YOUR USER ACCOUNT>\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software\Opera Stable
2. Rename folder 'ShaderCache' to something else (eg. $ShaderCache, _ShaderCache)
3. Rename folder 'GPUCache' to something else (eg. $GPUCache, _GPUCache)
4. Rename folder 'VideoDecodeStats' to something else (eg. $VideoDecodeStats, _VideoDecodeStats)
5. Start the browser (remember to remove --disable-gpu switch in case you used it)


I hope this will help Thinkpad users. Note that this solved the problem I had on my P51 after I disabled hybrid graphics in BIOS.



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