Question A black box flashes on the screen ?

[joseph glowseph]

A couple days ago I noticed every now and then a black box would flash on my computer screen for a fraction of a second, and I'd get tabbed out of any application I have open. It usually flashes about twice, and there seems to be no consistency on how often it flashes (anywhere from every 20-60 minutes). I've done everything I can think of at this point to try and fix it,

• checking my graphics driver
• resetting the lockapp.exe program
• changing my brightness
• running a DISM scan
• running an SFC scan
• updating my bios
• running virus scans
• checking the task scheduler

but none of it has worked. Some other forums say microsoft office is the culprit but I dont have office installed on my computer.

Since it tabs me out I'm pretty sure its some background application doing it, but I have no idea what in task manager to be looking at because nothing seems out of the ordinary. I originally thought it was steam because the box is similar size to the updating steam window, but killing all steam processes doesnt fix it. I was able to catch a screenshot of it by recording my screen with obs while scrolling through youtube https://streamable.com/ofws7z (sorry the screenshot is a video, I dont have an imgur account). My pc specs are:

ASUS Z390-A
GTX 1070
i5-9600k.
16 gigs of corsair vengeance pro
1TB 970 Evo SSD
two KG241Q monitors
running Windows 10 Home

If anyone has any clue where to continue my search please let me know because I'm short on options.

 

[rgd1101]

brand and model of the psu?
test with just 1 monitor?

 

[joseph glowseph]

brand and model of the psu?
test with just 1 monitor?

corsair RM750 80+ gold, still happens with one monitor plugged in. Should probably have mentioned the black box only appears on my main monitor, but switches to my second monitor if the main one is off.

 

[Colif]

A couple days ago I noticed every now and then a black box would flash on my computer screen for a fraction of a second, and I'd get tabbed out of any application I have open. It usually flashes about twice, and there seems to be no consistency on how often it flashes (anywhere from every 20-60 minutes). I've done everything I can think of at this point to try and fix it,

it sounds like a command prompt window.

Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

It doesn’t delete anything, it just stops non Microsoft programs running with start. Easy to reverse.

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

You could use process monitor to track cmd.exe but its going to find a lot of hits, as cmd.exe is used a lot

Process Monitor - Sysinternals

Monitor file system, Registry, process, thread and DLL activity in real-time.

learn.microsoft.com

 

[joseph glowseph]

it sounds like a command prompt window.

Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

It doesn’t delete anything, it just stops non Microsoft programs running with start. Easy to reverse.

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

You could use process monitor to track cmd.exe but its going to find a lot of hits, as cmd.exe is used a lot

Process Monitor - Sysinternals

Monitor file system, Registry, process, thread and DLL activity in real-time.

learn.microsoft.com

Bit of a late update but after a clean boot the box has stopped showing up, thank you for the suggestion. I still haven't pinned the culprit application but will update once I do.

 

[anotthatgreatdane]

Had this problem.
Seems steam was the culprit