Welcome back, in today’s video we’ll be looking at ways to fix a flickering screen
in Windows 10. I have plenty of possible solutions that will hopefully help. Before we get into
the first potential fix, it’s important to mention the likely causes of this problem.
It could be one of three things and the solutions you will be able to try will differ depending
on the cause. The first reason your screen is flickering could be due to the monitor
being faulty, the second reason is faulty cables and connections and the third reason
is software or hardware problems in your PC. Unfortunately, if the cause is something physical
like the monitor, cables, connections or hardware then it’s unlikely that any of the fixes
will help, however at least we might be able to focus in on the exact problem. Depending
on your exact situation, you may not be able to carry out all of the fixes, so just try
the ones that you are able to. Remember to leave a like and feel free to subscribe if
the video helps, let’s get into the fixes. We may need to be starting in safe mode quite
often to check some of the possible solutions if the flickering is preventing you from being
able to use your PC correctly and I have a video which will show you how to do that – even
from a screen that you cannot see correctly and the link will be in the description. You’ll
need to skip to 1 minute 58 in that video for the correct method. If the screen doesn’t
flicker in safe mode, then we can probably guess that it is a software issue.
If the flickering screen appeared whilst you were working on a document, you can press
Control and the S key at the same time to save your work if you are unable to navigate
to the save button. We’ll start by focusing on the monitor.
There aren’t many ways to check this is the problem, but if the flickering appears
no matter what is connected to it, then that is definitely at fault. If you can, try connecting
something else to it using a different port and if the flickering persists its either
the port on the monitor or the monitor itself. You could also try changing some of the monitor’s
settings, using the buttons on the monitor. Next, we’ll look at the cables and connections.
Again, if you can, try replacing or changing the ports and cables used, either in the monitor
or on the PC. Try all combinations and narrow down on what works and what doesn’t work.
You could try a different monitor as well if you can. The only real solution for these
is to replace the faulty cables, use a different port or try cleaning the port and the cable
connectors safely. If you’re using a laptop, it might be worth taking it to a repair shop
to check for any internal connection faults if none of the tips help.
If the problem persists when using different ports, cables and monitors, then its much
more likely that the cause of the problem is on your PC. So, we will now move onto to
some of the potential fixes within Windows 10.
As I mentioned earlier, you could try starting in safe mode if the screen is flickering so
bad that you cannot use it. If you can still use the screen, then you can follow the next
possible solutions without starting in safe mode.
Firstly, we can test whether or not the problem is caused by a certain app or if it is linked
to our device drivers. To test this, press Control, Shift and Escape to open the task
manager. When the task manager opens, if that is not flickering like the rest of the screen,
then the problem is due to the software or an app you are running. If the task manager
does flicker, then the issue could be caused by either hardware or your display drivers.
We’re now going to try uninstalling any software if that may have caused the problem.
You’ll need to think about any recent software changes that may have caused the screen to
start flickering. This is unlikely, and it would probably be software that affects your
graphics card. To uninstall software, go to settings which can be accessed from the start
menu and then to apps. Find the programs from the list and select them and click uninstall.
Restart your PC to check if these solutions have wordeked at any time if you are within
safe mode. It may be worth waiting though for a few more solutions, but feel free to
try it now if you think software could be the cause. If you use any third-party anti-virus
software, that could be causing the flickering screen so you could try disabling that to
see if it helps. We’ll now focus on our display drivers.
This is the most likely cause, if hardware is not the problem. We’re going to check
if we can roll back our drivers first, and to do this you’ll want to go to the device
manager. You can search for it in the search bar. In the device manager, find the option
named display adapters and click on it. Then right click on your graphics card and select
properties and then go to the driver tab. Now look for where it says rollback driver
and click on it if you can. If it’s greyed out, we can also try updating our graphics
card drivers. You can do that from within here too by clicking on update driver and
then choosing the automatic option. Alternatively and probably more likely to help, you can
search for a driver update and download and install it from the manufacturer’s website.
Use the info of your graphics card in the device manager to download the correct driver
for your device. You could also try uninstalling your device driver if you believe this to
be the problem. You may then need to reinstall it after restarting.
We’ll now try changing the refresh rate of the display within Windows 10. To do this,
go to the main settings page by clicking on the cog icon within the start menu. In settings,
choose system and then click on display from the options on the left side although you
may already be in it by default. In the display settings, look for the blue link called advanced
display settings and click on that. Now look for the display with the problem and click
on where it says display adapter properties. In the new window, go to the monitor tab and
now look for the screen refresh rate setting. Change this to a different value and see if
that fixes it. It might be worth changing it to all of the available values. If a value
doesn’t work or makes the problem worse, it will revert back if you don’t press anything.
It’s worth restarting your PC now if you haven’t already to check if any of the fixes
so far have worked. Next, think about any additional hardware
that you have connected to your PC. Try unplugging every device from your computer, to see if
anything makes a difference. This is very unlikely to be the cause, but at least we
can rule it out. If the problem has only just occurred since
a recent Windows update, we can uninstall that update to check if that fixes the problem.
To uninstall a Windows update, firstly go to the control panel. You can get there by
searching for it. Then select programs and then view installed updates which is in blue.
Find the most recent Windows update that may have caused the issue and right click on it,
then select uninstall and follow the steps. Only do this if you are 100% sure the update
caused the flickering screen. Next, we can try restoring Windows to a recent
point. Again, you only need to do this though if you know that a recent change caused the
problem. This will not affect any of your personal files, however recent software installations
and updates may be removed. To do this, search for recovery in the search bar, open it and
then click on open system restore. Then click next and find the most recent restore point
that is before the screen problem first appeared. Select it and click next, then finish.
Unfortunately, those are all the tips I have. As always I will keep the description updated
with any new solutions I find and if any of you find a fix in the future then it would
be great if you could return to the video and post it in the comments to help others.
If you have any questions, then let me know. Click the card on screen now to watch a video
of mine showing you ten easy ways you can speed up your Windows 10 PC. If you did find
today’s video helpful remember to leave a like and feel free to subscribe for more
tips in the future. Be sure to stick around to see some of my other videos that you might
be interested in. Thanks so much for watching and I will see you in another video!