[SOLVED] Flickering.... REALLY grinds my gears........

[jackington]

Bad quality and I have tried blocking somewhat sensitive information, but you can clearly see the issue here:

View: https://youtu.be/u6Pk8T8rHcM


Specs:
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Ryzen 5 3600
RTX 2070 Super AORUS
16GB TridentZ 3200MHz
ROG STRIX X570-E GAMING
and my brand new monitor ASUS VG35VQ

I built this PC like two months ago. Don't recall having issues back then, not sure.

This happened on my previous 60Hz monitor too, but it was way less frequent. Now, depending on what I do, it can get very serious (as seen from the last 10 seconds of the video, me editing in Vegas Pro 14). It seems like this happens more on desktop than in games. I also play VR a lot, no issues in the headset (except for some red artifacts a while ago, fixed by reseating the headset HDMI cable). Screen flickers white/black, fonts and window sizes change until I move my mouse around them... It's really bad.

My GPU is mounted vertically with the CableMod vertical bracket. I thought this could be the issue, but nope. Changing my monitor's settings doesn't seem to help (tried with G-Sync and ELMB on/off). This happens with both DisplayPort and HDMI.

I have every driver up to date, afaik. I tried uninstalling my display adapter in safe mode, no luck.

Anything??? Please??? This is REALLY frustrating, I tried googling solutions but none helped. Is my gpu bad, should I re-install windows??
Please and thank you...

 

[jackington]

Have you tried underclocking the VRAM of the graphics card, rather than just the GPU core clock? I'm not sure if it's an artifact of the video compression or actually present, but it looks like there might be some artifacting going on when the screen flickers. That kind of makes me think the data in the video memory might be getting corrupted.

Have you tested the card without connecting it through the riser? And is there another system you could test the card in?

How much should I underclock the Core / Memory clocks..? I don't think it's worth it... I gradually lowered them and got to -200MHz Core Clock and -500MHz Memory Clock, still flickering.....

 

[jackington]

Vegas Pro 14 flickers A LOT when using my native resolution of 3440x1440, especially when maximum processor state is set to 100%. Still flickers at 2560x1440, but when I changed to 1920x1080 it seems like the flickering disappeared?

 

[sizzling]

At this point I would reinstall Windows just to rule out a software or malware issue. If you have a spare drive then you could try installing an unactivated copy of Windows, drivers and 1 game and see if the problem persists.

 

[jackington]

At this point I would reinstall Windows just to rule out a software or malware issue. If you have a spare drive then you could try installing an unactivated copy of Windows, drivers and 1 game and see if the problem persists.

I have an old hard drive that I can format, but it's from 2008... Shall I proceed?

Or would it be better to reinstall Windows on my current drive, Corsair MP510? Don't want to lose any files though.

 

[sizzling]

I have an old drive that I can format, but it's from 2008... Shall I proceed?

I think it’s worth a try. Disconnect your other drives so you cannot cause any problems with them by mistake. Although a 2008 drive will be slow it allows you to try a fresh install of Windows, drivers and games. This way you have the option to put the old drives back if it does not help and you have not lost anything.

 

[jackington]

I think it’s worth a try. Disconnect your other drives so you cannot cause any problems with them by mistake. Although a 2008 drive will be slow it allows you to try a fresh install of Windows, drivers and games. This way you have the option to put the old drives back if it does not help and you have not lost anything.

Got it, thank you so much. Might take some time, I will reply and update you as soon as possible.

 

[jackington]

I think it’s worth a try. Disconnect your other drives so you cannot cause any problems with them by mistake. Although a 2008 drive will be slow it allows you to try a fresh install of Windows, drivers and games. This way you have the option to put the old drives back if it does not help and you have not lost anything.

I instead backed up everything valuable from my SSD to one of my hard drives and made a clean Windows installation on it (deleted everything). All other drivers were, and still are disconnected. First thing I did was download Malwarebytes as that's an easy way to test my problem. Windows Balanced power plan was automatically selected, and with it (default settings=max processor state 100%), the screen was flickering. I downloaded all the windows updates, still flickering. Installed latest NVIDIA drivers, still flickering. Now what? 🙁

 

[sizzling]

I instead backed up everything valuable from my SSD to one of my hard drives and made a clean Windows installation on it (deleted everything). All other drivers were, and still are disconnected. First thing I did was download Malwarebytes as that's an easy way to test my problem. Windows Balanced power plan was automatically selected, and with it (default settings=max processor state 100%), the screen was flickering. I downloaded all the windows updates, still flickering. Installed latest NVIDIA drivers, still flickering. Now what? 🙁

Wow this is a tough one. It very much seems like it must be a hardware fault as it’s the only thing left. Without swapping parts I’m not sure how to better to narrow down the problem. My instinct is it’s mire likely a motherboard or gpu issues but that’s a guess.

 

[jackington]

Wow this is a tough one. It very much seems like it must be a hardware fault as it’s the only thing left. Without swapping parts I’m not sure how to better to narrow down the problem. My instinct is it’s mire likely a motherboard or gpu issues but that’s a guess.

That sucks. I'll use DDU and go borrow a GTX 1070 from my friend and try it in my system. I'll let you know if that fixes anything.

 

[jackington]

Wow this is a tough one. It very much seems like it must be a hardware fault as it’s the only thing left. Without swapping parts I’m not sure how to better to narrow down the problem. My instinct is it’s mire likely a motherboard or gpu issues but that’s a guess.

Update: Didn't use DDU and just replaced my gpu with the GTX 1070. Still flickering... Does it matter if I use DDU or not, since it's an NVIDIA gpu and has the same drivers? I don't have any software installed for the 2070 AORUS either (rgb fusion). Worth a shot to try using DDU first, or is this now more likely a motherboard issue? Perhaps a cpu problem, or is that unlikely (you didn't mention it at least)? What do you think? Thank you in advance.

 

[jackington]

I switched to my old monitor, Acer GN246HL (using 60Hz HDMI) and set my power plan to High Performance (100% max state) and did a test. There is still flickering but way less, so it's not the monitor's fault.

 

[sizzling]

You have done some good testing and seem to have eliminated all thoughts I had except a possible motherboard issue. I’m not sure what else it could be or what else you can try to pin point the cause.

 

[jackington]

You have done some good testing and seem to have eliminated all thoughts I had except a possible motherboard issue. I’m not sure what else it could be or what else you can try to pin point the cause.

I'll be pissed if it's the motherboard... My previous one was getting faulty after 4 years of use, so in this new build I decided to put a little bit extra on it to prevent the same issue... I'll be in touch with the store I bought the motherboard from and give them a link to this thread.

Thank you SO much for being nice and trying to help. Thanks to everyone.

I will update this thread or send you a message when and if I can get my hands on a replacement motherboard.

edit: Of course, if someone has other ideas to my problem, do comment or ask me anything!

 

[jackington]

Bump?

Update: When I'm using High Performance power plan and open Google Chrome, most of my plugins crash and I lose most of my pinned tabs. Does not happen if I set the maximum processor state to 99%. I should also mention that my Chrome does not work with hardware acceleration, in case any of this makes it easier to pinpoint the flickering issue..? I just have a black window if it's turned on. I got it fixed though by adding --disable-gpu to the launch options. So is it a problem with the gpu after all....? IDK. 🙁

 

[Third-Eye]

If it were the motherboard, the system would probably crash all the time. It's more likely a bug in some background task doing some kind of polling or pulling focus.

 

[sizzling]

If it were the motherboard, the system would probably crash all the time. It's more likely a bug in some background task doing some kind of polling or pulling focus.

I think that’s unlikely to be the cause as the OP has tried a fresh install of Windows.

 

[jackington]

If it were the motherboard, the system would probably crash all the time. It's more likely a bug in some background task doing some kind of polling or pulling focus.

How could we identify this? Just throwing this out there, but could the problem be my SSD, the Corsair MP510? I disconnected ALL other drives from my pc and made a clean Windows installation on the SSD. Right after it was done, I did some testing. The screen was flickering. Installed latest Windows updates, still flickering. Updated gpu drivers, flickering. Idk. :/

 

[jackington]

Throwing this out there too, I have also tried stopping "Windows Error Reporting Service" and "Problem Reports and Solutions" from msconfig but it didn't help. I read it helped some people, but not me. Those services were already stopped, but I removed the checkmark from them. And I just remembered, it can't be the gpu right? Since it was happening with a GTX 1070 as well. Maybe some problems with the PCI-e slot on the motherboard? Idk. Keep the ideas coming though! 👍

 

[Third-Eye]

How could we identify this? Just throwing this out there, but could the problem be my SSD, the Corsair MP510? I disconnected ALL other drives from my pc and made a clean Windows installation on the SSD. Right after it was done, I did some testing. The screen was flickering. Installed latest Windows updates, still flickering. Updated gpu drivers, flickering. Idk. :/

What have you installed? Did you try playing games or the same tasks as before with minimal programs installed? I'm saying only installing required drivers, a browser and maybe Steam on a clean new installation of Windows and also getting a new download of the Windows installer.

Edit - Adding to this, the issues may be related to a motherboard driver, so maybe try older drivers for everything and upgrade only the GPu driver and see what happens.

 

[jackington]

What have you installed? Did you try playing games or the same tasks as before with minimal programs installed? I'm saying only installing required drivers, a browser and maybe Steam on a clean new installation of Windows and also getting a new download of the Windows installer.

Edit - Adding to this, the issues may be related to a motherboard driver, so maybe try older drivers for everything and upgrade only the GPu driver and see what happens.

I honestly can't remember how I made the new Windows installation lol... Pretty sure I used the MediaCreationTool and chose "Upgrade this PC now"..? But I think I still had some old files on the drive afterwards, so was it ineffective? Should I try it again, and this time install W10 from usb, but format the drive before doing so? Anyways, the only thing I downloaded was Malwarebytes for the testing actually, as it flickers and is easy and fast to get. I then gradually updated Windows and my drivers (Fresh Windows install -> test - > Windows update -> test -> GPU drivers -> test -> downloaded DriverEasy and installed various old drivers one by one, testing after each update). Basically every time I updated something, I checked if the flickering was still present. Nothing fixed it.

So should I try installing Windows one more time but COMPLETELY wipe the SSD first? Or what exactly? Sorry.

The oldest BIOS version I can get is 1404, which is from 2019/11/08. It says "* You will not be able to downgrade your BIOS after updating to this BIOS version." Currently using the latest version, 1405 which is from 2019/11/26.

This is a mess, sorry for making you read it haha. I can be bad at explaining stuff I guess.

 

[Third-Eye]

I honestly can't remember how I made the new Windows installation lol... Pretty sure I used the MediaCreationTool and chose "Upgrade this PC now"..? But I think I still had some old files on the drive afterwards, so was it ineffective? Should I try it again, and this time install W10 from usb, but format the drive before doing so? Anyways, the only thing I downloaded was Malwarebytes for the testing actually, as it flickers and is easy and fast to get. I then gradually updated Windows and my drivers (Fresh Windows install -> test - > Windows update -> test -> GPU drivers -> test -> downloaded DriverEasy and installed various old drivers one by one, testing after each update). Basically every time I updated something, I checked if the flickering was still present. Nothing fixed it.

So should I try installing Windows one more time but COMPLETELY wipe the SSD first? Or what exactly? Sorry.

The oldest BIOS version I can get is 1404, which is from 2019/11/08. It says "* You will not be able to downgrade your BIOS after updating to this BIOS version." Currently using the latest version, 1405 which is from 2019/11/26.

This is a mess, sorry for making you read it haha. I can be bad at explaining stuff I guess.

Get the newest media creation tool, and tell it to make a USB drive for installation. Then during windows installation, delete all partitions on the SSD at the drive selection screen. Make sure to backup any data if you have anything on the OS partition. If you have a game or storage partition, you don't need to delete it or you shouldn't need to anyway.

 

[jackington]

Get the newest media creation tool, and tell it to make a USB drive for installation. Then during windows installation, delete all partitions on the SSD at the drive selection screen. Make sure to backup any data if you have anything on the OS partition. If you have a game or storage partition, you don't need to delete it or you shouldn't need to anyway.

Okay got it, thank you. And when Windows is done installing? Should I install Windows updates or update my drivers, and in what order?

 

[Third-Eye]

Okay got it, thank you. And when Windows is done installing? Should I install Windows updates or update my drivers, and in what order?

Just install the newest drivers required for the motherboard, graphics and audio first. Install Steam or whatever you need to install to try at least one game. Just use the comptuer like normal with minimal installed software, other than a browser, to see if the problem persists.

 

[jackington]

Just install the newest drivers required for the motherboard, graphics and audio first. Install Steam or whatever you need to install to try at least one game. Just use the comptuer like normal with minimal installed software, other than a browser, to see if the problem persists.

Will do, thanks! Updating you as soon as possible.

 

[jackington]

Just install the newest drivers required for the motherboard, graphics and audio first. Install Steam or whatever you need to install to try at least one game. Just use the comptuer like normal with minimal installed software, other than a browser, to see if the problem persists.

Windows just installed and as soon as I got to my desktop, there was some flickering… How do you want me to proceed? Haven't installed a thing yet.