Windows 10 Screen Flickering

[Blue Banana]

So a client upgraded her laptop to Windows 10. She did not like it that much and her printer wasn't working (I was not aware of the update nor the printer issue). She then did a system restore to the date before the Win 10 update. The restore did failed to complete sucessfully and the laptop has attracted a strange screen flickering issue. I've did some tests and it only seems to happen once explorer has been started. I did some digging and found that it is quite a common issue:

http://betanews.com/2015/08/24/scre...0-blame-norton-antivirus-icloud-or-idt-audio/

As the article explains, removing those applications could fix the issue. I followed Norton's fix and ran it but to no avail. Just to make sure I used their uninstall tool and still nothing. IDT Audio and iCloud is not installed on the laptop. I am really unsure where to go from here. Found many articles where users share their experiences with this and it's all the same stuff. Has anyone dealt with this issue before or have any ideas?

What makes it hard to troubleshoot is the fact that the flickering is actually refreshing the screen. Which means typing or clicking on icons is near impossible. The removal of the norton files was done through Safe Mode with CMD. Once explorer.exe is run, the flickering starts.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

This sounds like a case i had in the past, I don't see it in my notes though so if I did resolve it I did so fairly quickly. I suppose I would have started out with process monitor and also confirm that the nortons shell extensions were removed.

 

[Blue Banana]

There is not a single trace of Norton left. At least not what I could find. I don't belive it to be the issue in this case.

 

[Bizybone]

Sounds like the Norton case to me but since you already ruled that out then it sounds like malware activity, maybe?

Boot to Selective Startup via msconfig and see if it still happens.

 

[Blue Banana]

Sounds like the Norton case to me but since you already ruled that out then it sounds like malware activity, maybe?

Boot to Selective Startup via msconfig and see if it still happens.

Can't see that this will make a difference. The flickering occurs in Safe Mode as well, or the moment I start explorer.exe.

 

[Porthos]

Back up with Fab's and clean install. Wasting time on some issues is wasting good money .

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

did you try process monitor?

 

[frase]

sys specs please

Is it a touch screen - display driver issue, trying to calibrate display.

Run this and select your alliance

http://www.guru3d.com/files-get/display-driver-uninstaller-download,1.html


Would suggest getting a snappy driver

https://sdi-tool.org/download/

 

[Blue Banana]

Well, @Porthos made a solid point so I just did a backup and reinstalled. Laptop is good as new.

 

[Porthos]

Sometimes it has to come to nuke. It will be more stable in the long run. Once I have their data I can install windows 10 from a syspreped image in about 5 minutes. Activate it and run snappy and done. Reinstall data get $PAID$ move on to next job.

 

[RCD_Technology_Solutions]

This was what fixed that issue about 6 months ago for me....
1. Open Task Manager, click File > Run new task, type ‘msconfig’ without quotes and press enter

2. Click on ‘Services’ tab, find two services named ‘Problem Reports and Solution Control Panel ‘and ‘Windows Error Reporting Service‘ , uncheck them to disable, if Windows prompts you for a restart, do it.

 

[Blue Banana]

This was what fixed that issue about 6 months ago for me....
1. Open Task Manager, click File > Run new task, type ‘msconfig’ without quotes and press enter

2. Click on ‘Services’ tab, find two services named ‘Problem Reports and Solution Control Panel ‘and ‘Windows Error Reporting Service‘ , uncheck them to disable, if Windows prompts you for a restart, do it.

I tried this as well, but did not help unfortunately.

 

[Krynn72]

Can you describe the flickering in more detail? You say it "refreshes" the screen, what do you mean by that?

I've run into probably 10 cases or so of windows 10 upgrades going sideways and ending up with Explorer.exe crashing every 10-15 seconds and restarting itself. It sounds like it could be your issue also.

Unfortunately if that is the case, I have not found a solution. I've dumped dozens of hours into trying to figure it out and have come up with nothing. I've upgraded drivers, downgraded drivers, run sfc and DISM restorehealth, run tweaking's AIO Repair tool, done extensive malware scans and manual searches, any kind of registry tweak I could find, etc. The only thing that works is a Nuke&Pave. Even doing the refresh seems to fail. Something seems to happen during the upgrade process to make Explorer.exe unstable, and after a bit of use this issue starts to occur and the OS becomes unusable.

Any time I see it now, its a N&P and will remain that way until someone else finds an answer because its impractical for me to spend anymore time trying to figure it out.