HEVC Not Working on a Dell or HP Laptop? How to Check and Still Play Your Videos

Some recent Dell and HP laptops ship with their HEVC video decoder switched off, so H.265 files that should play smoothly stall, stutter or show a black box instead.

The chip inside can still decode HEVC, but the maker has hidden that ability from Windows to avoid paying a licence fee.

Your files are fine, and most of them will play again within a few minutes.

This guide shows how to check whether your laptop is affected, and what still works when it is.

What Dell and HP Actually Changed

Every Intel and AMD laptop chip from the last several years has a built-in HEVC decoder. In November 2025, HP and Dell confirmed that they had disabled it on some business laptops.

The decoder is not removed. According to the IT administrator who first raised the problem, the laptop's firmware tells Windows the decoder is not there, so every app that asks for it is told no.

Neither company gave a reason. Reporting points to HEVC patent royalties, which makers pay per device, and our news piece on the HEVC cutbacks covers the licensing side.

Is Your Laptop One of Them?

Neither maker has published a full list, so treat these as the confirmed examples rather than the whole picture.

• HP: HP named its 600 Series G11, 400 Series G11 and 200 Series G9 laptops, and its spec sheets flag models such as the ProBook 460 G11, ProBook 465 G11 and EliteBook 665 G11.
• Dell: Dell said HEVC hardware decoding stays only on systems with a built-in 4K screen, a separate graphics card, Dolby Vision or CyberLink Blu-ray software. TechSpot lists the Dell Pro 14, Dell Pro 16 Plus and Latitude 7350 among the affected models.
• Others: Lenovo has been mentioned in some reports, but no Lenovo model has been confirmed.

A laptop with a separate NVIDIA or AMD graphics card is usually not affected, because that card has its own decoder.

How to Check in Two Minutes

You do not need to guess. These checks show whether Windows can see a hardware HEVC decoder at all.

1. Look in Edge or Chrome. Open edge://gpu or chrome://gpu and check Video Acceleration Information - no HEVC decode line means the decoder is hidden.
2. Run DXVA Checker. The free DXVA Checker lists every decoder Windows can use, and an affected laptop shows H.264 entries but no HEVC ones.
3. Watch Task Manager. Play an HEVC file, then open Task Manager, Performance, GPU - if Video Decode stays flat while the processor climbs, decoding is in software.
4. Test the browser. Our Codec Checker shows which video formats your browser can decode in hardware.

For the wider question of whether your processor and graphics chip support HEVC in the first place, see whether your PC can play H.265.

What Still Plays HEVC, and What Does Not

The Fixes, in Order

Install the free HEVC extension first. Microsoft says its HEVC extension falls back to software decoding when there is no hardware support, which is exactly what Photos and Media Player need here.

Get HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer, which is Microsoft's own package at no cost. On Windows 10, take version 2.4.109.0 from the same download list.

Then use a player with its own decoder. VLC and MPC-BE carry their own HEVC decoders and play these files without any help from Windows.

If VLC still stalls, our VLC HEVC setup guide shows how to switch its hardware decoding off.

Play one clip without installing anything. The online HEVC player checks the file in your browser and converts it to H.264 on your own machine if the browser cannot decode it.

If a website video hangs, try turning off browser hardware acceleration. Some owners report this gets stuck videos playing again, at the cost of battery life and features such as background blur in video calls.

Convert files you keep. HandBrake can convert an HEVC library to H.264, which this laptop still decodes in hardware, or to AV1, which the free AV1 Video Extension plays on Windows 11.

What Will Not Come Back

Software decoding works, but it is heavier. A 4K HEVC clip that used to barely touch the processor can now keep the fan busy and shorten battery life.

Protected 4K streams are the one thing no download fixes, because those services insist on hardware decoding. If 4K streaming matters, check the spec sheet for HEVC before you buy your next laptop, or pick a model with a separate graphics card.

If your files still will not play after all this, the cause is probably something else, and our HEVC troubleshooting guide works through the rest.

Quick questions