Question Faint screen "blinking" and "stuttery" mouse while running certain programs...

[Soul Sojourner]

The background info:
-I built this computer in late January 2020. Since day one pretty much it has had some of these oddities with certain programs.

The Specs:
-CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X Matisse (16 Cores 32 Threads) /// Cooler: Corsair H150i Pro RGB AIO Liquid Cooler
-RAM: 32GB (4x 8GB) Dual-Channel G-Skill TridentZ RGB 3200MHz (16-18-18-38) 1.35v DDR4
-Motherboard: MSI Prestige X570 Creation (AM4)
-Graphics Card: Asus ROG Strix Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 Super 8GB GDDR6
-Storage: 1TB Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus (M.2 NVMe (V-NAND)) - System Install Here /// 2TB Samsung SSD 860 EVO (SATA) - Extra Storage
-OS: Windows 10 Home 64-Bit
-PSU: EVGA 1000 GQ 1000W Semi-Modular 80+ Gold
-Screen: Display Port - Acer Z321Q (32" Curved) G-Sync

Overclocking:
-XMP is enabled.
-CPU is set to Offset Mode and Voltage is offset to -0.0500 V
-These are the only changes.

The problem:
-When running certain programs, particularly upon opening them, the screen seems to do this faint blinking. The mouse movement also goes from fluid to kind of jittery or stuttery. Sometimes the problem can be "resolved" by minimizing the program and then bringing it back up. Sometimes doing it again will cause it to come back, make it worse, make it better, or make it only happen when doing certain things within the program. It does seem to "slow" things down a bit while using the program, but not by much. If the program is not the focused on window or is minimized, the problem usually subsides while I'm in the other window or on the desktop with everything minimized.

The programs:
-This was always worst in Adobe Photoshop 2020, but it also affects a program called Wonderdraft which is used for creating fantasy maps. The issue never used to affect, CCleaner, but it does now, and also now affects Dungeondraft which is also used for creating fantasy maps of a different type. It can also affect other programs I just don't know about yet. I have since learned that the problem does not affect Photoshop, Wonderdraft, or Dungeondraft, as long as Google Chrome is not running. If Google Chrome is running, then they are impacted somehow. CCleaner seems to be affected whether chrome is running or not.

-Recently the issue seems to have affected gameplay in No Man's Sky as well, under certain circumstances. If I go through the center of the galaxy and the game loads a new galaxy, and then loads the planet, once I'm in control of my character again the game is "stuttery" when looking around. If I minimize the game and bring it back up, the problem ceases.

-Recently I have had a few of crashes while playing the game when I did not a couple of months ago.

Things I have tried:
-I have updated all of the device drivers I can find updates for.
-I have updated my graphics driver many many times and it is currently up to date.
-I have updated and flashed my BIOS to the latest version available.
-I have removed and re-enabled XMP.
-I have enabled and disabled SVM Mode.
-I have tried tweaking graphics card settings.
-I have cleaned all my dust filters and blown out the tower of dust.
-I have removed, rearranged, and reseated my RAM.
-I have removed and reseated my graphics card (quite awhile ago, though)
-I have tried a number of other things as well, I can't remember everything I've done at this point.

Other Information:
-This is a weird issue, I'm really not sure what to make of it, but this is also my first AMD machine. I have mostly just tried to ignore or just deal with the problem for awhile now, but it seems to be affecting more and more programs with time, whereas in the past, it was mostly just Photoshop, now I deal with it when running CCleaner, and my map creation software, and it seems to be beginning to affect games too.

-I might be spacing out some information, I'll likely remember if I am if it becomes relevant.

-I'm hoping it's a really easy fix and someone already knows exactly what the cause of this behavior is, but if not any suggestions, any information, ideas, or solutions would be a great help. Thank you.

 

[Ralston18]

Have you tried reinstalling Google Chrome?

Boot drive: make, model, capacity, how full?

Use Task Manager and Resource Monitor to observe system performance when running those "certain programs" etc..

Use both but only one at a time.

Do it comparatively: meaning first observe while doing nothing, then while doing light browsing or work, and then while running those "certain programs" or doing those "certain things".

Key is to discover what resources are being used, to what extent ( %), and what is using any given resource.

Especially if you can discover some correlation between resource usage and the "blinking" and "stuttering".

 

[Soul Sojourner]

I have not tried reinstalling Google Chrome, though the issue seems to extend beyond just chrome anyway. One map making program has this issue even if Chrome isn't open. The other has it only if Chrome is open, Photoshop is only while Chrome is open, CCleaner has it even when it's the first thing opened without Chrome open. And now, for some reason one of the mapmaking programs that used to only do it when Chrome was open, no longer does it at all. Likewise, CCleaner never used to do it at all, now it does.

Boot drive is listed above "Storage: 1TB Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus (M.2 NVMe (V-NAND)"
It is currently 440 of 830.

I have done that in the past with task manager, everything looks fine, nothing is maxed out or acting out of the ordinary. I will try it with resource manager and get back to you. Memory usage from Wonderdraft is 29% or 4,182 MB, although these programs do use a lot by default.

No Man's Sky now crashes shortly after loading into the game. Not sure why, it's possible it's game-related and not computer related. I've tried many times, it keeps crashing. I re-installed with a "fresh install" my graphics driver a bit ago and tried again. It still crashed. I also removed my OC offset from the CPU voltage and tried shutting off XMP. No dice, same issues. I also cleared the games cache files and settings files and reset the settings as desired before closing, reopening, and trying to do things in the game again before another crash. Maybe if I can get off the planet that's having the issue, if it's game related instead of computer related.

None of these changes seemed to affect the other issue with programs.

 

[Bob.B]

The background info:
-I built this computer in late January 2020. Since day one pretty much it has had some of these oddities with certain programs.

The Specs:
-CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X Matisse (16 Cores 32 Threads) /// Cooler: Corsair H150i Pro RGB AIO Liquid Cooler
-RAM: 32GB (4x 8GB) Dual-Channel G-Skill TridentZ RGB 3200MHz (16-18-18-38) 1.35v DDR4
-Motherboard: MSI Prestige X570 Creation (AM4)
-Graphics Card: Asus ROG Strix Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 Super 8GB GDDR6
-Storage: 1TB Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus (M.2 NVMe (V-NAND)) - System Install Here /// 2TB Samsung SSD 860 EVO (SATA) - Extra Storage
-OS: Windows 10 Home 64-Bit
-PSU: EVGA 1000 GQ 1000W Semi-Modular 80+ Gold
-Screen: Display Port - Acer Z321Q (32" Curved) G-Sync

Overclocking:
-XMP is enabled.
-CPU is set to Offset Mode and Voltage is offset to -0.0500 V
-These are the only changes.

The problem:
-When running certain programs, particularly upon opening them, the screen seems to do this faint blinking. The mouse movement also goes from fluid to kind of jittery or stuttery. Sometimes the problem can be "resolved" by minimizing the program and then bringing it back up. Sometimes doing it again will cause it to come back, make it worse, make it better, or make it only happen when doing certain things within the program. It does seem to "slow" things down a bit while using the program, but not by much. If the program is not the focused on window or is minimized, the problem usually subsides while I'm in the other window or on the desktop with everything minimized.

The programs:
-This was always worst in Adobe Photoshop 2020, but it also affects a program called Wonderdraft which is used for creating fantasy maps. The issue never used to affect, CCleaner, but it does now, and also now affects Dungeondraft which is also used for creating fantasy maps of a different type. It can also affect other programs I just don't know about yet. I have since learned that the problem does not affect Photoshop, Wonderdraft, or Dungeondraft, as long as Google Chrome is not running. If Google Chrome is running, then they are impacted somehow. CCleaner seems to be affected whether chrome is running or not.

-Recently the issue seems to have affected gameplay in No Man's Sky as well, under certain circumstances. If I go through the center of the galaxy and the game loads a new galaxy, and then loads the planet, once I'm in control of my character again the game is "stuttery" when looking around. If I minimize the game and bring it back up, the problem ceases.

-Recently I have had a few of crashes while playing the game when I did not a couple of months ago.

Things I have tried:
-I have updated all of the device drivers I can find updates for.
-I have updated my graphics driver many many times and it is currently up to date.
-I have updated and flashed my BIOS to the latest version available.
-I have removed and re-enabled XMP.
-I have enabled and disabled SVM Mode.
-I have tried tweaking graphics card settings.
-I have cleaned all my dust filters and blown out the tower of dust.
-I have removed, rearranged, and reseated my RAM.
-I have removed and reseated my graphics card (quite awhile ago, though)
-I have tried a number of other things as well, I can't remember everything I've done at this point.

Other Information:
-This is a weird issue, I'm really not sure what to make of it, but this is also my first AMD machine. I have mostly just tried to ignore or just deal with the problem for awhile now, but it seems to be affecting more and more programs with time, whereas in the past, it was mostly just Photoshop, now I deal with it when running CCleaner, and my map creation software, and it seems to be beginning to affect games too.

-I might be spacing out some information, I'll likely remember if I am if it becomes relevant.

-I'm hoping it's a really easy fix and someone already knows exactly what the cause of this behavior is, but if not any suggestions, any information, ideas, or solutions would be a great help. Thank you.

When you updated the bios did you also get the chipset driver?

 

[Soul Sojourner]

I did also do the chipset driver, yes. I actually updated every driver I could get my hands on to the latest versions. The motherboard manufacturer's website didn't even have ALL of the latest versions of some of the drivers, and I tracked them down myself to get them updated as well.

I am not 100% certain, but I think I resolved the blinking issue and the stuttering mouse problem that has been plaguing me for nearly a year. I tested Wonderdraft, Dungeondraft, Photoshop, AND CCleaner, even with Google Chrome open and none of them had this issue at all. Which makes me think I both created and resolved my own issue with the CPU voltage offset. I can't remember fully why I chose that offset, but it's set to auto now and I'm not having an issue.

More test runs will have to happen after a few restarts and whatnot to find out for sure. Don't blame me for wanting to facepalm right now... either that or maybe the re-seating did it, I kind of did them both at the same time. If I had to guess the cause, assuming it doesn't return, my money is on the offset.

Still have no idea what's going on with No Man's Sky and the freezing though. I've checked temps while running and don't usually see anything even above 60c most times. I'll try and get off-planet and get elsewhere in the game to see if the issue persists in other places. If so, I'll have to try reinstalling the game entirely.