[SOLVED] Screen flashes when certain programs opened

[Kirby]

I think I have this solved, but it's the second time it's been in for this so I wanted to make sure. The customer brought the laptop in with a "flashing screen". At first I thought it was hardware, but it's Lenovo (laptop), 3 months old and when she dropped it off she said that she had thought it just happened when she opened Excel, but found that it was happening with other programs. I did all the updates, removed the junkware she had installed and tested. In Excel and Word it happened.

I had thought the latest Windows 10 updates had fixed it. I had tested Word and Excel. It came back in today. Word and Excel still worked fine. Then I noticed Power Point files on the Desktop. It happened with that. I managed to close it, the screen stopped flashing. Opened it again, it's fine. Reboot, try again, flashing. Plugged in an external monitor, it stopped even before the screen displayed anything (unplugged that right away and didn't plug it back in). Un-maximized it, closed it, rebooted, opened it and it was fine. Maximized it, fine. Closed it, rebooted, opened it, fine.

It seems that after I get one of these programs to open after a fresh reboot without causing the issues it doesn't happen again. My first thought would be video driver, but no Lenovo updates and just using Intel HD 620 graphics. Set to check for updates for other Microsoft products as well. All up to date, including the BIOS.

I seem to remember seeing this years ago, but I'm not sure. The only thing I saw it happen with here is Office programs. Every single one I opened, but once I got it to stop, it seems to have stopped for good with that program. Then it happened again when a different Power Point file was opened from a fresh reboot. I know this is something stupid and somebody, somewhere knows what it is. Any ideas?

 

[HCHTech]

What kind of flashing? Any change of posting a video?

 

[phaZed]

Sounds suspiciously like Switchable graphics are kicking in.

 

[Kirby]

Flashing like you get when the screen cable is bad and you have to move the screen just right to get it to come back on. It's mostly black with the occasional, brief flash on. At first it seems like the type of flash you get when the video is switching modes, but then it never comes back on and stays on. It's more the type of thing you see in a game than in a windowed program. The crazy thing is, once I fix it for a file that file seems to open fine after that, but another file might do it. I usually fix it with a combination of plugging in external monitor and un-maximizing it, closing it, opening it again and then maximizing. Only maximized windows do it.

I did make a video, but I can't upload it. It's less than 2 minutes but 168MB. It's MP4, so it won't compress. I can't promise the speeds you'll get, but here's a link: http://www.kirbyscomputers.com/video.htm

 

[phaZed]

https://www.apeswithcomputers.com/article/turn-off-hardware-graphics-acceleration-in-office

Try disabling Hardware acceleration in Office and see if that helps. It still looks like a GPU issue IMO - a bad/faulty GPU looks likely but I suppose it could be a driver issue (less likely).

If it's ok with @Kirby I can upload the video to Youtube for you...

 

[phaZed]

@Kirby video on Youtube:

 

[GTP]

Bad GPU.
I have a Toshiba laptop doing the same thing.

 

[Kirby]

The GPU is right on the processor and it only happens with Office software. It has been forever since I've seen a bad processor, and this thing is 3 months old and Lenovo. Not that any of that means it's impossible that it's bad, it just doesn't seem likely. Maybe if it were an Acer I would suspect hardware at 3 months old, but with Lenovo that's my last guess.

I've disabled the hardware acceleration and am rebooting now. Hopefully that will get it.

 

[Kirby]

Okay, fingers crossed, but it looks like disabling the hardware acceleration did it. Unfortunately it didn't do it every time before, but I've opened every Word, Excel and Power Point document on the Desktop after rebooting and the issue hasn't returned. I'm going to send it back to the customer for further testing, but so far it looks like that did it. I'm going to mark this as "solved". Thanks everyone!

 

[HCHTech]

So...we have to conclude, then, that there is something about your graphics hardware and/or drivers that is incompatible with Office's implementation of "hardware acceleration". Does on-die graphics with the HA setting even provide any advantage over letting the CPU do all of the graphics work? I'm not sure, but I would think the option would/should be disabled if you didn't have discrete graphics hardware. IOW, turning off HA probably won't have any affect other than fixing the problem. I can understand in a desktop with a powerful graphics card where the HA setting would make some positive difference - with a laptop, probably not so much.

 

[Kirby]

I don't keep up on all the hardware stuff. I'm a software guy. I don't care about the latest specs and the fastest clock speeds. It's sad, but it takes a virus to give me wood these days. I used to love computers in general, experiment with them, etc. These days if it's not broken then get that thing the hell away from me. If it IS broken, though, sweet baby, bring me that! It's really kind of sick.