Page 1 of 2
1
2
LastLast
  1. #1
    Deleted

    Screen Flickering

    Hello all,

    As of lately I've noticed my screen starting to flicker. Nothing really severe but it can be slightly annoying while playing. I only got this in WoW as of yet (didn't test it in other games yet). When surfing the internet all is fine however, even on darker sites where you would see it clearly.

    I've already updated my graphics card driver, also tried to set my monitor refreesh rate to 75 Hz. instead of 60 Hz. The latter only made matters worse, however.

    Anyone got any suggestions? Thanks for any responses in advance.

  2. #2
    Scarab Lord Djinni's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    West Sussex, UK
    Posts
    4,232
    Can you please post what Screen you are using (try to be as exact as possible: Make, Model, Size, Resolution, Standard Refresh Rate) as well as what graphics card you are using?

    (You full system specs might also be helpful actually.)

    Also try to provide links to the manufacturers product page for that item.

  3. #3
    Deleted
    Hello there, sorry for the somewhat late reply.

    My current screen is a Philips Brilliance 220SW, it's pretty old (at least 4 years, probably quite close to 5) As they're obviously not being manufactured anymore, this page is the best I could find about it: http://reviews.productwiki.com/phili...ance-220sw9fb/

    Size: 22"
    Resulotion: 1680x1050 (also playing with the same resolution)
    Standard refresh rate: 60 Hz.

    I'm starting to think the screen is the cause of the problem though, due to it's age as opposed to the rest of my system (a bit more than half a year old). Here is my (most relevant) hardware as well:

    CPU: Intel Core i5 760 @ 2.80 GHz. (overclocked to 3.2 GHz. at the moment)
    GPU: Nvidia Geforce 460 GTX (latest driver installed)
    RAM: 4 GB (I believe it was around 1600 MHz. on top of my head)
    OS: Windows 7 64 bit

    Basically, the game runs really smooth, except for the slight flickering that sometimes occurs. I does seem to be a bit random though, currently it's all very clear, but typically when I start raiding it happens again. Hope this information helped to clarify things, if any more is required please say so.

    Thanks!

  4. #4
    Scarab Lord Djinni's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    West Sussex, UK
    Posts
    4,232
    If it's the screens fault that'll be apparent regardless of what your doing, if it's happening only when gaming that leads me to think its your Graphics Card.

    Make sure your graphics card is set to output at 60Hz.

    You can try using a different screen to check that its the screen though ;-)

  5. #5
    Deleted
    Alright, this might be a noob question, but where can you alter your graphics card output? Tried to look for it in the drivers' configuration screen but couldn't find it.

  6. #6
    Deleted
    Gonna revive this post a bit.

    I've pretty much tried anything I could think of, namely:

    - uninstalled my graphic card drivers, and cleaned them with Driver Sweeper. Afterwards I reinstalled them.

    - Tried a different resolution

    The flickering keeps occurring, however.

    Seeing this problem only happens in WoW, I guess it has to do something with the graphics card. Anyone has any more ideas? As I'm pretty much running out of options, and don't really wanna buy a new card seeing this one is not even a year old.

    Thanks in advance!

  7. #7
    1. Make sure WoW's in-game refresh rate setting is set to 60hz.
    2. Open control panel, open the Nvidia control panel, and find the manual refresh rate setting and set it to 60hz. (wish I could give more detail, but I haven't owned a desktop Nvidia card for ages - it's in there somewhere!)
    3. Make sure if there's a specific Nvidia game profile for WoW in the (Nvidia) control panel, that you also have the refresh rate set to 60hz.
    i7-4770k - GTX 780 Ti - 16GB DDR3 Ripjaws - (2) HyperX 120s / Vertex 3 120
    ASRock Extreme3 - Sennheiser Momentums - Xonar DG - EVGA Supernova 650G - Corsair H80i

    build pics

  8. #8
    turning down shadows can fix it sometime, noticed it happens more often with dx11 set

  9. #9
    Deleted
    Right, will try those, thanks you both. ^^

  10. #10
    Deleted
    Hmm do you have vSync enabled ? Having that enabled caps the graphics card's output to match your screen's refresh rate. My old computer had the same issue (no same hardware though), some screen tearing and a bit of flickering here and there (solved just by enabling vsync in the video settings in WoW).

    Also try to clean your graphic's card a bit, dust may be causing it to overheat and mess with it's performance.

    If you have access to a different screen you cold give that a try (if it flickers it's almost certainly the graphics card's problem). If you could try playing any other game and tell us if it still flickers it would help i guess. And last but not least try windowed mode (Does it still flicker? Entire screen? Game area only? Less/More?).

  11. #11
    Deleted
    I do have Vsync on, if I turn it off it seems to be a little worse. In windowed mode, it only seems to be the game area that flickers, yeah. Unfortunately don't have access to a different screen at the moment.

    Will try cleaning the graphics card though, thanks for that suggestion!

  12. #12
    Deleted
    To me it just sounds that when you strain your video card it doesn't work properly. Could be overheating (dust,bad case airflow). Before jumping to conclusions though i'd make sure the screen is working ok.

    Does it only flicker when playing wow? Or any game? Does it also flicker when watching a movie ? (What i'm trying to say is: Can you do anything else at 60 fps w/o flickering at the same screen? If you do it's most certainly a gfx issue).

    Had somewhat the same issue on my old comp. The gfx was overheating and causing some flickering and later some shutdowns. Solved by cleaning it (after that point i cleaned it roughly once every 2 months) and never had an issue like that.

  13. #13
    Deleted
    I tested it a little bit, can seem to do everything fine, except for playing WoW (haven't tryed any other game though, will try that later too. It certainly does seem to be some gfx issue.

  14. #14
    Try anything that would put the card into 3D mode. The 3D screensavers "might" do it.
    EVGA Classified SR-2 | Intel Xeon X5680 x 2 | Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600 6 x 2GB | XFX HD5970 x 2
    Intel PRO/1000 PT Server NIC | ASUS Xonar DX | Corsair AX1200 | Corsair TX750
    OCZ Vertex2 60GB | WD Velociraptor 300GB x 2 | Samsung Spinpoint MP4 500GB
    EK-FB SR2 - Acetal+Nickel | EK-Supreme HF - Acetal x 2 | EK-FC5970 Acetal x 2
    Thermochill TA120.4 x 3 | Thermochill TA120.3 | Swiftech MCP655 x 2

  15. #15
    I am Murloc! Kuja's Avatar
    15+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    City of Judgement
    Posts
    5,493
    I was about so suggest taking cables off and putting them back, but if it only happens during gameplay, it has to be due to GPU, aye. It could be faulty if even reinstallation didn't work. Have you checked if it hasn't come loose? Try reattaching the card. If it still flickers, I'd try another GPU and see if it's faulty

    My gold making blog
    Your journey towards the gold cap!


  16. #16
    Deleted
    If it's a VGA screen they can get flimmer when the GPU is under load. When I'm running a game my right screen (which is a VGA screen) goes crazy.

  17. #17
    Deleted
    Right, done with raiding now so time for a bit more detailed response.

    Here's a quick recap what I've tried/checked tonight:

    - Made sure both the GFX card's output rate and the monitor's refresh rate where at the same value (60 Hz.). As well as the WoW refresh rate. This all was already the case.

    - Played around with the in-game graphic settings a bit, turning on Tripple Buffering seemed to help a tiny bit, (not 100% sure on this however).

    - Put on a 3D screensaver, didn't seem to experience any flickering there, though.

    Basically, I've never had this problem until about a week ago, and as far as I'm concerned I didn't make any major changes over the past months. It's not like it's totally unplayable either, it's merely a bit annoying. Next on the list is cleaning the inner side of the PC (especially the graphics card), that's on the schedule for tomorrow.

    Thanks for all the help people, much appreciated.

    Edit: I do play on a screen that's connected with a VGA cable, yeah. As mentioned it's pretty old.

  18. #18
    I had that issue, turned my multisampling down to 8x from 16x and it has never flickered since.

  19. #19
    Deleted
    Hm, pretty sure mine's at 4x atm, I'll try 8x tomorrow as well for the hell of it. :>

  20. #20
    Think you just need to replace capacitors on your monitor. They usually go for like $10 on amazon. Just open up your monitor, check for bulging on your capacitors, replace with the same brand if possible.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •