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Hello,
Recently I bought a new Surface Pro (2017) tablet. And while I’m happy with it I have one problem, the profile that I created with DisplayCAL gets unloaded (like the video card gamma table gets reset). The profile loader does reload it after it gets reset but it is really annoying to see the display switch back and forth. I thought that the i1Profiler software that came with my i1 Display Pro was the problem, so I started using DisplayCAL. But it seems that Windows 10 is the problem. I don’t have this problem on my desktop PC, with i1Profiler of DisplayCAL.
The Surface pro comes with two profiles out of the box, a sRGB profile and an Enhanced profile, and a quick toggle in the Action center to switch between them. When I pick one of the built-in profiles the profile doesn’t get unloaded. So I think that this has something to do with my problem. Though I’m not sure about that. I already turned off the “SurfaceColorService” in the Windows Task manager -> Services, but that didn’t help. There is also a SurfaceColorTracker.exe active in Task manager -> Details, but turning that off also doesn’t help. Though this does keep turning on by itself after I reboot.
I have a few examples when it always happens, besides the unexpected unloads:
- When I turn Bluetooth on or off
- When I attach or detach the Type Cover keyboard
- After I wake the Surface Pro from sleep or hibernation (though this isn’t a real problem since the profile loads quickly after waking it up)
The Surface Pro comes with a Core i5-7300U with an integrated Intel GPU (Intel HD Graphics 620) and 8 GB of RAM. I created a Single Curve + Matrix profile, but creating a XYZ LUT + Matrix profile gives the same problem. But a XYZ LUT profile gives problems in my preferred RAW editor, DxO PhotoLab.
When it happens I aren’t doing anything intensive, like gaming or photo editing. So it shouldn’t unload because the integrated GPU is taxed or is out of memory or something like that.
I hope that someone can help me. While I do know my way around PC’s, this is something I can’t fix myself.
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when something like this happens (calibration gets unloaded), it’s usually a 3rd party utility that is the culprit (hopefully it’s not the graphics driver itself). See if you can find that and disable it.
Hello Florian,
Thanks for the quick reply.
Do you know how I can find out what’s causing the unloading? I have barely installed anything on my Surface Pro tablet, so I highly doubt that there is a program that is causing this behavior. Is there a way to log this?
I also hope that it isn’t the graphics driver. I know that Microsoft has different versions of the Intel drivers specifically for the Surface Pro, so that means that the Intel Control panel is also missing from my system. But I read reports online that people updated the Intel drivers so they can access the Intel Control panel, but this causes BSOD’s (blue screens) so I wouldn’t call that better than display profiles unloading.
Only 2 programs automatically start at system boot, OneDrive and Windows Defender, so that shouldn’t be a problem.
In the Windows Task Scheduler there is a Microsoft folder with in it a Surface folder with a task named Color Profile Listener Task (see screenshot). This is starts the SurfaceColorTracker. exe. Could that be the problem? And do you know if I can just turn it off (there is an option to switch off the task in the right click menu) without breaking my Windows 10 on my Surface Pro?
I’m sorry that the screenshot is in Dutch, but I hope you can at least see what I mean.
I don’t know if it will help with your problem since this task apparently only runs at startup (unless there are additional triggers defined), but I am positive that disabling it will not break your system.
You were right. I turned it off without a problem, but it sadly didn’t help.
Do you have any other ideas on how to figure this out? There must be a way to see what causes the unloading of the calibration.
I’m pretty sure your problem is related to the Surface color profile tracking. You’ve probably missed a component.
You’re probably right. But I’ve looked around in the Task Manager and the only other thing related to display profiles I could find is the profile loader from DisplayCAL.
Though I may have another solution. In the Color Management settings of Windows under the Advanced tab I changed the system settings to “use Windows display calibration”. You are probably against using that over the profile loader of DisplayCAL, but since changing that the profile hasn’t unloaded (yet) during normal use, like web browsing or watching videos on YouTube. It still unloads when I turn on / off bluetooth or when I attach or detach the Type Cover keyboard, but it reloads the profile a lot quicker than the profile loader from DisplayCAL. So maybe it does unload during normal use but it reloads so quickly that I haven’t noticed it.
I know that this isn’t a real fix, but for now it is at least less annoying. But isn’t there a way to log what the system and the GPU are doing? Something must be causing the unloading.
Maybe I have the same problem… On my New Surface Pro it is also could not load the calibrated profile… Both Displaycal and the i1Profiler…
Maybe I have the same problem… On my New Surface Pro it is also could not load the calibrated profile… Both Displaycal and the i1Profiler…
What do you mean by “could not load the calibrated profile”?
Because I can load the profile fine, it’s just that it unloads during the day. When you use DisplayCAL it should load the profile when it detects that it is unloaded, this takes about a second. If you go to Color Management in Windows you can choose to let Windows handle the color calibration. The profile still gets unloaded but it reloads it almost instantly, which sometimes isn’t noticeable but can look like flickering.
On Reddit I’m currently looking into it with someone else. My username is Tbo-art. It has probably something to do with the hardware refresh in Windows, for example when you turn on Bluetooth it will refresh the hardware list.
Maybe I have the same problem… On my New Surface Pro it is also could not load the calibrated profile… Both Displaycal and the i1Profiler…
What do you mean by “could not load the calibrated profile”?
Because I can load the profile fine, it’s just that it unloads during the day. When you use DisplayCAL it should load the profile when it detects that it is unloaded, this takes about a second. If you go to Color Management in Windows you can choose to let Windows handle the color calibration. The profile still gets unloaded but it reloads it almost instantly, which sometimes isn’t noticeable but can look like flickering.
On Reddit I’m currently looking into it with someone else. It has probably something to do with the hardware refresh in Windows, for example when you turn on Bluetooth it will refresh the hardware list. I can’t post links here so just search for “Random flickering of custom ICC color profile”. My username is Tbo-art.
My just could not load the profile anyway.. But after I reinstalled Win10, the profile can be loaded now. But it also flicker like yours. Sorry for bad English.
