Question constant need to restart windows explorer-start menu issue, strange "blip" on the bottom half of screen, audio crackling

[DougEFresh333]

a few things:

1. the start menu fails every so often, requiring me to restart windows explorer in order for it to work again
2. my screensaver settings window often displays "an error is preventing this slideshow from playing" ONLY IN THE SETTINGS WINDOW. the actual screensaver seems to work fine, but it is strange that this error continues to appear

1. the major issue i am having, is that the bottom half of my screen "blips" white/static looking horizontal lines across my screen every few minutes/seconds. i have all my component sensors monitored, and i cannot locate anything that looks like it would cause this issue (no voltage/wattage spikes, no CPU/GPU spikes, nothing that would indicate why this is happening). i have an i7 8700k with an EVGA GTX 1080ti FTW3 , and an ASUS PG279Q monitor (144hz). i have tried various things to see if it would fix the issue including but not limited to: replacing the displayport cable, unplugging the ethernet cable to see if there is interference, sfc/scannow for windows errors which got fixed but is still "blipping", updated nvidia drivers to latest versions, updated windows 10 to latest version, ETC ETC ETC ETC. this only started occuring recently, and i wasn't sure if it was a windows update or nvidia driver update that started making it happen, but it is driving me mad! also, the screen tearing DOES NOT occur while playing PC or PS4 games (PC games - Horizon Zero Dawn, Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, etc, nor on my PS4 Pro connected to monitor via HDMI, and no screen tearing when playing games there either) it is only when i'm in windows, with various windows open (internet, steam, gog galaxy, and monitoring software (CPUID, EVGA XOC, Speccy, Core Temp, etc).
2. i also have this "audio crackling" happening in any speaker/headphones i use. it seems to be mostly "background" type of sounds. no matter what i watch/listen to (mp3 music, gaming, streaming videos, etc) it still happens. i am going to switch out my PSU today, because i bought a new one in the hopes that i can snag an RTX 3080 at some point, so i'm hoping that the new PSU and cables will fix the audio crackling, and hopefully also the "blipping" that is occuring.

does anyone have ANY IDEA about what else i might be able to try for these several issues? i know that these are all kind of separate issues, but they also might be related in some way. do i not have enough power from the outlet i am connecting my system to? i have a battery backup plugged into the wall, and all my PC items (desktop, monitor, surround sound speakers, modem and wifi router, etc) plugged into it, and i also have a surge protector in the other slot, which has my external hard drive, a fire stick 4k, and an ethernet network switch connected to it, which does have several ethernet connections attached to it. i know that my wifi router is too close to my PC, which MAY be why the audio crackling is occuring, but i can't really move it anywhere else. i have several things connected via wired ethernet, and can't really move it elsewhere. any suggestions?

i don't know how to post pics, but i have a pic of the screen saver settings window showing the error i am seeing....

Thanks!!!!!

 

[Colif]

Does the blip thing happen in safe mode?

You could remove GPU from PC and run off the Intel HD graphics on CPU just to test if Blip still happens. One way to see if it is GPU or not.

what are full specs of the PC?