What to do if the computer monitor flickers

A monitor is an important element of a computer. The comfort and efficiency of working with a PC depends on its quality in many respects. A common enough display malfunction is its flicker.

The main causes of screen flickering

There are many reasons why a PC or laptop monitor flickers during operation. Most often, the problem is caused by factors such as the need for demagnetization, incorrect update frequency settings, inappropriate or damaged drivers, exposure to computer viruses, or a malfunction of the video card and / or monitor.

What to do if the monitor flickers

Since it is not immediately possible to establish exactly what caused the problem, it makes sense to act by elimination, that is, by enumerating the options below. The algorithm for resolving the problem is as follows:

1. When operating some types of monitors, it is periodically required to demagnetize them. The problem is solved using the buttons located on the device’s body or by selecting an option in the display menu.
2. In the settings of the operating system, the refresh rate that is not supported by this monitor is selected. In order to reconfigure, they load the operating system in safe mode and set the device-supported refresh rate in the screen settings.
3. The drivers for the video card or monitor are not installed correctly. You must download and install the appropriate software.
4. The program that is currently running is configured for a mode that is not supported by the monitor or video card. It is necessary to adjust its image parameters so that they correspond to the modes supported by the equipment.
5. The impact of malicious software, including computer viruses. To solve the problem, you should use a fresh antivirus program by running a deep scan on your computer and then deleting the detected malware.
6. Equipment malfunctions - both the video card and the monitor. In this case, if there is no experience in eliminating such malfunctions, you should contact a computer repair company or a specialist.

Below are more detailed recommendations to solve the problem.

Checking the screen refresh rate

If you do not make out any labels, you cannot do without loading the operating system in safe mode. To do this, during the initial boot, immediately after switching on, press F8 or Shift + F8, depending on the system, and select the safe boot mode from the menu that appears.

If it is possible to make out the labels when the display flickers, you can immediately proceed to the settings. To do this, right-click on the context menu and select "Screen", then "Screen Resolution".

In the window that appears, select "Advanced options". Then, in the "Adapter" tab, you can change the image mode to the same one with a lower refresh rate or with a lower resolution and frequency. Another option - in the "Monitor" tab, raise the selected screen refresh rate to a maximum of 60, 70, 75 Hz and so on. When you click "Apply", the settings take effect.

Identify driver issues

In order to correctly install the drivers, you need to know the model of the used video card and monitor. It is strongly recommended that you download driver packages from the official websites of the equipment manufacturers or install them from the disks supplied with the equipment (if any). Third-party sources, in addition to the drivers themselves, may contain viruses built into them, which will soon appear.

ATTENTION! Typically, driver installation packages are self-extracting archives. In this case, the installation process occurs automatically. The main difficulty is to find suitable drivers on the Internet for existing equipment, and then run the corresponding exe file in the supplied package.

Application Errors

In this case, the symptom looks like this - the operating system behaves correctly until the launch of a certain program, there are no problems with the image. But when you start any of the programs or, for example, a game, the image on the screen is distorted, it starts to flicker or horizontal stripes go. If it is possible to change its settings without leaving the application, you must do so by going to the appropriate menu in the program.

If this is not possible, the program may have a separate exe-file that allows you to configure it until the main application is launched. It is also possible to change the resolution and refresh rate of the screen in the so-called config-files of the application. To do this, you need some experience, or in some cases, you can find step-by-step instructions for changing settings in this program on the Internet.

Technical issues

The first sign that the problem is in the equipment - flickering often begins even before the operating system has loaded, that is, immediately after turning on the power. First, you need to check the reliability of connecting the cable to the video card. If it doesn’t help, you can check the version with a device malfunction if you have a spare or old video card or another monitor. Alternately, you must first connect another monitor, then change the video card.

If there is no experience in such manipulations, and the equipment is expensive - in order not to permanently disable the computer, you should go to plan "B" - that is, immediately contact specialists.