HP OMEN 16 external monitor treated as primary "PC screen" instead of laptop screen when connected at 180Hz

Question

I have an HP OMEN 16 laptop (i9-12900H, RTX 3060, Windows 11 25H2, BIOS F.27) connected to an MSI G274QPF E2 monitor via USB-C/DisplayPort (to Intel Iris Xe iGPU).

Issue: When the monitor is set to 180Hz and the laptop boots, Windows treats the external monitor as the primary display (the OMEN logo appears on the monitor instead of the laptop screen). After boot, the laptop screen brightness is locked to minimum — the brightness slider in Settings is completely non-functional.

Additionally, the display roles are inverted in the Win+P projection menu. When selecting "PC screen only", Windows turns off the laptop screen and keeps the external monitor active — which is the opposite of the expected behavior. The external monitor should be the secondary display, but Windows is treating it as the primary/main screen.

What I've tried:

• Updating Intel Iris Xe graphics drivers
• Disabling automatic driver installation via sysdm.cpl
• Setting the monitor to 144Hz before shutdown as a workaround (this prevents the issue but is not acceptable as a permanent fix)

At 144Hz the issue does not occur. It is specific to 180Hz and appears to be related to how Windows incorrectly assigns the external monitor as the primary display at boot when connected at that refresh rate.

Is there a known fix or registry/display setting that correctly assigns the laptop screen as primary at boot regardless of the connected monitor's refresh rate? A BIOS-level primary display setting does not exist on this HP model.

System: HP OMEN 16, Intel Iris Xe (iGPU) + NVIDIA RTX 3060, Windows 11 25H2, BIOS F.27

Answer 1

Hi eddy,

Thank you for the detailed description, your observations are accurate and help narrow this down.

When an external monitor is connected over USB‑C/DisplayPort, the system determines display roles very early during startup. At higher refresh rates (such as 180 Hz), the external monitor may be detected earlier than the built‑in laptop panel. In this situation, Windows may temporarily treat the external display as the main screen, which can also affect brightness control and projection behavior after login.

At lower refresh rates (like 144 Hz - the built-in laptop panel by default), the displays are detected in a different order, which is why the issue does not appear. Here are some practical workarounds that you can try this situation:

Option 1: Adjust connection method

• If available, connect the monitor using HDMI instead of USB‑C/DP.
• Alternatively, use a USB‑C to DisplayPort adapter rather than a direct USB‑C cable.

Option 2: Refresh‑rate sequencing

• Set the external monitor to 144 Hz before shutdown, then switch back to 180 Hz after Windows loads.

Option 3: Disable Fast Startup

• Control Panel > Power Options
• Choose what the power buttons do
• Turn off Fast startup
• Restart the system

Option 4: Use OEM graphics drivers

• Install the HP‑provided Intel graphics driver for your OMEN model rather than a generic Intel package.

Unfortunately, there is currently no supported Windows or BIOS setting that permanently forces the internal laptop display to remain primary at boot in all configurations. The options above focus on minimizing or avoiding the conditions that trigger the behavior.

Let me know if you need further assistance, feel free to ask me by clicking "Add Comment" or "Add Answer" if you cannot add comment so your response will be visible. Thanks for your effort.

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Answer 2

Windows does not provide a supported registry or policy setting to force the internal laptop panel to remain primary at boot in all hardware configurations and refresh rates. The behavior described is tied to how the firmware, GPUs, and display stack enumerate and switch displays, and it can differ by OEM implementation.

From the available information, the closest relevant behavior is:

• USB/USB‑attached or late‑enumerating displays can be treated as newly connected after the OS display stack initializes, which can cause Windows to automatically enable or favor them as active displays or change the configuration unexpectedly. This is documented for USB‑attached displays where Windows reverts to Extend/Duplicate after reboot instead of retaining “PC screen only.”
• Windows’ automatic display switching and refresh‑rate handling rely on what the firmware and GPUs report as supported modes. For features like dynamic refresh rate and automatic switching between GPUs (iGPU/dGPU), Windows expects both GPUs and the panel to support the necessary ranges and capabilities; otherwise, the OS may choose different targets or modes to satisfy what the hardware reports.
• For external multi‑monitor setups, if the configuration stops behaving as expected after updates or driver changes, the supported remediation is to:
  • Verify and adjust the configuration in Settings and Win+P.
  • Update, roll back, or reinstall display drivers via Device Manager.
  • If issues persist and no documented fix exists, file feedback/bug reports through Feedback Hub with full repro details.

In this context:

• There is no documented Windows registry tweak to override the OEM/firmware decision about which panel is treated as primary at POST/boot or how a specific refresh rate (180 Hz vs 144 Hz) affects that choice.
• There is no documented Windows setting that guarantees the internal panel will always be primary regardless of external monitor refresh rate.
• Because the issue appears only at 180 Hz and not at 144 Hz, and involves POST/firmware logo routing and brightness control, it is likely dependent on the HP firmware and GPU/firmware interaction rather than a configurable Windows option.

Supported actions within Windows:

1. Confirm external‑monitor behavior and basic troubleshooting
   • Use Windows logo key + P to verify and switch between PC screen only, Duplicate, and Extend after boot, then re‑test at different refresh rates.
   • Use the standard external‑monitor troubleshooting steps (cable/port checks, different ports, etc.) to rule out basic issues.
2. Driver remediation
   • In Device Manager → Display adapters, use Roll Back Driver if the issue started after a driver update, or uninstall and reinstall the display drivers as documented.
3. If the behavior persists
   • Use Feedback Hub to file a detailed bug, including:
     • Exact hardware (HP OMEN 16, Intel Iris Xe + RTX 3060, MSI G274QPF E2).
     • Windows 11 25H2 build, BIOS version, and the 180 Hz vs 144 Hz difference.
     • Steps to reproduce (connect monitor at 180 Hz, reboot, observe POST logo and brightness behavior, Win+P inversion).
   • This is the documented path when external display behavior cannot be resolved with existing troubleshooting steps.

Any BIOS‑level primary display or mux control, or firmware fix for how the 180 Hz mode is exposed, would need to come from HP. Windows does not expose a supported registry or UI mechanism to override that at boot.

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References:

• When using USB-attached monitor, display configuration may not be retained after reboot
• Troubleshoot external monitor connections in Windows
• Automatic display switch
• Display