What to do if your computer monitor flickers

The monitor is an important element of the computer. The comfort and efficiency of working with a PC largely depends on its quality. A fairly common display malfunction is its flickering.

The main causes of screen flickering

There are many reasons why a PC or laptop monitor flickers while working. Most often, the problem is caused by factors such as the need for degaussing, incorrect refresh rate settings, inappropriate or damaged drivers, exposure to computer viruses, or a malfunctioning video card and/or monitor.

What to do if your monitor flickers

Since it may not be possible to immediately determine exactly what caused the problem, it makes sense to act by the method of elimination, that is, by searching through the options listed below. The algorithm of actions to resolve the problem is as follows:

1. When using some types of monitors, it is periodically necessary to demagnetize them. The problem is solved using a button located on the device body or by selecting an option in the display menu.
2. The operating system settings have selected a refresh rate that is not supported by this monitor.For the purpose of reconfiguration, load the operating system in safe mode and set the refresh rate supported by the device in the screen settings.
3. The video card or monitor drivers are installed incorrectly. You must download and install the appropriate software.
4. The program currently running is configured to operate in an operating mode that is not supported by the monitor or video card. You should adjust its image parameters so that they correspond to the modes supported by the equipment.
5. Exposure to malicious software, including computer viruses. To solve the problem, you should use a fresh antivirus program, run a deep scan on your computer, and then remove the detected malware.
6. Hardware malfunctions - both video card and monitor. In this case, if you have no experience in troubleshooting such faults, you should contact a computer repair company or a specialist.

Below are more detailed recommendations to solve the problem.

Checking the screen refresh rate

If you do not make out any inscriptions, you will not be able to do without loading the operating system in safe mode. To do this, during initial boot, immediately after turning on, press F8 or Shift+F8, depending on the system, and select safe boot mode from the menu that appears.

If the inscriptions can be made out when the display flickers, you can immediately proceed with the settings. To do this, by right-clicking, call up the context menu and select “Screen”, then “Screen resolution”.

In the window that appears, select “Advanced options”.Then, in the “Adapter” tab, you can change the image mode to the same one with a lower refresh rate or with a lower resolution and frequency. Another option is to raise the selected screen refresh rate to the maximum in the “Monitor” tab – 60, 70, 75 Hz and so on. When you click the “Apply” button, the settings take effect.

Identifying problems with drivers

To install drivers correctly, you need to know the model of the video card and monitor you are using. It is strongly recommended to download driver packages from the official websites of equipment manufacturers or install them from the disks supplied with the equipment (if available). Third-party sources, in addition to the drivers themselves, may contain viruses built into them, which will soon appear.

ATTENTION! As a rule, driver installation packages are self-extracting archives. In this case, the installation process occurs automatically. The main difficulty is to find suitable drivers for your existing equipment on the Internet, and then run the corresponding exe file in the supplied package.

Application errors

In this case, the symptom looks like this - the operating system behaves correctly until a certain program is launched, there are no problems with the image. But when you launch any program or, for example, a game, the image on the screen is distorted, begins to flicker, or there are horizontal stripes. If it is possible to change its settings without leaving the application, you should do so by going to the corresponding menu in the program.

If this is not possible, the program may have a separate exe file that allows you to configure it before launching the main application.It is also possible to change the screen resolution and refresh rate in the so-called application config files. This requires some experience, or in some cases, you can find step-by-step instructions for changing the settings in this program on the Internet.

technical issues

The first sign that the problem is in the hardware is that flickering often begins even before the operating system has loaded, that is, immediately after turning on the power. First, you need to check the reliability of the cable connection to the video card. If it doesn’t help, you can check the version with faulty devices if you have a spare or old video card or another monitor. One by one, you should first connect another monitor, then change the video card.

If you have no experience with such manipulations, and the equipment is expensive, in order not to permanently damage your computer, you should move on to plan “B” - that is, immediately contact specialists.