W10 Pro flickering / flashing / refreshing bug

Saturn_V

Saturn_V

2[H]4U
Joined
Sep 24, 2008
Messages
2,297
This bastard reared its ugly head after Patch Tuesday. I was running an overnight Adobe Media Encoder job that may have made things worse when the OS tried to update. Desktop is constantly refreshing icons and task bar programs. Can’t select/launch anything from desktop/Start outside of Task Manager- which shows a 25-30% constant drag on the CPU, plus some seesaw network activity. (pulling Ethernet had no effect) And none of the usual start-ups (Steam, Asus MB monitor, Onedrive, Dropbox) are launching.

Google says this bug usually involves either app or graphic driver incompatibility.

http://www.windowscentral.com/how-fix-screen-flickering-windows-10

Here’s what I’ve tried.
  • Check for incompatible apps, or recent app installs.
  • Launched msconfig and disabled Windows Error Reporting & Problems Report and Solutions
  • Tried to restore to previous System Restore Points. (two pre Patch Tuesday, one post) All failed.
  • Reboot to safe mode + networking. (no flickering/refresh) Ran Display Driver Uninstaller and blew away Nvidia drivers and GFE. Removed GPU from Device Manager.
60/40 certain it’s not malware/virus, but the seesaw network activity is troubling. The base install is five years old, upg from Win 7: Asus Z77 Sabertooth, i7 3730k, 32GB, GTX 970, 256 GB SSD + 3-4 HDDs, Xonar sound card.

What should I do next?

  • Pull the OS SSD and run AV + Mbytes docked to another machine. (suspect malware/virus)
  • Reset the PC reinstall W10, remove apps/drivers, keep files/docs on second HDDs (suspect OS FUBAR)
  • Reset the PC remove everything (nuke site from orbit)
Any insight, sympathy or needless mockery would be appreciated.
 
Does it go away with a reboot? I've had it where my computer will come out of sleep and I'll get weird flickering and the like, but it adjusts with a reboot.
 
The only time it goes away is in safe mode. Multiple reboots, still flickers, refreshes.
 
I'm on the insider preview and have been having an issue with the connected user/telemetry bs going nuts. I disabled it in services and cpu usage is back to normal. maybe that's screwing with you too?! also, ive had the flicker happen on my 280x and had to up the power limit in afterburner to get it to go away. but I haven't heard of nv cards doing it...
any ways, not sure if those will help but tis something to try.
 
pendragon1 said:
ive had the flicker happen on my 280x and had to up the power limit in afterburner to get it to go away. but I haven't heard of nv cards doing it...
any ways, not sure if those will help but tis something to try.
Click to expand...

I hate to think it's a problem with the video card. It was RMAd last year, and would think the flicker/refresh would occur in Safe Mode if the H/W was at fault. (It even flickers across a RDP connect) But I'll try swapping it out with an older card and see if the fixes the problem.
 
Use a system restore point if available. Then reinstall the updates to see if it still occurs.
 
First thing tried. All three restore points failed. (two prior to update, and one after)
 
Saturn_V said:
I hate to think it's a problem with the video card. It was RMAd last year, and would think the flicker/refresh would occur in Safe Mode if the H/W was at fault. (It even flickers across a RDP connect) But I'll try swapping it out with an older card and see if the fixes the problem.
Click to expand...
doesn't mean its faulty. my issue is it changing power states, the voltages drops and causes a flicker. if I up the power limit the voltage stays higher and there is no flicker.
and I agree, try ddu if you haven't yet.
 
My 7970 does the random flicker. In games and everywhere else. Doesn't matter what driver I use. My 1070 doesn't.
 
Well, it wasn't the video card. Swapping it out made no difference. DDU was also run- screen is still constantly refreshing. Tried uninstalling other programs/drivers, (sound card, last WinUpdates) no effect.

Pulling the SSD and running A/V & MBytes tonight.
 
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