It’s super frustrating when your computer has been working fine and then all of a sudden the screen starts flickering or completely turns off!

Before throwing your computer out the window or running down to the shops to get a new one, there’s some things you’d best check.

Hardware Issues

It could be a very simple and cheap fix – things you should check are:

• Loose or Damaged Cables

  → Check HDMI, DisplayPort, or VGA cables for damage or improper connections.  Sometimes all it takes is unplugging and plugging back in the display or power cable, or replacing a cable.

• Faulty Display Panel

  → If it’s a laptop, the screen itself may be failing or cracked and need repair. If you think this might be the case, bring it down to one of our stores and we can source and replace the screen.

• Power Supply Issues

  → A failing power adapter or unstable power source can cause flickering. To see if this is the problem, try plugging the screen or laptop into another power socket in your house. You might have to investigate the power supply; if it’s an external brick power supply then you can feel if it is overly hot to the touch – if it is, there may be a problem there and replacing the power brick might help.

• Overheating

  → Excessive heat can affect display components, causing flickering. If this is the problem you will be able to hear the fans spin up under load. A possible way to see if this is the cause of the flickering is powering off the computer or monitor, letting the device cool (15 minutes) and turning the computer back on again. If the problem still persists keep working your way down the list.

Software & Driver Issues

• Outdated or Corrupt Display Drivers

  → Update or reinstall your graphics driver. This can be as easy as checking for the latest updates in windows. To check this click the start button and start typing “update” to search for windows update with the start menu and “clicking check for updates”. Also you’ll need to check the installed driver is up to date. This can be done by right clicking on the start button (bottom left button on windows 10, blue four squares on the left hand side of the search bar at the bottom of the display) and clicking on device manager. In the list you need to find “Display adaptors” and click the arrow to the left to open the menu. Right click on the Display adapter and click “update Driver”. This will open up a new Window. Click the  “Search automatically for drivers” button.

Note: If you only see Properties when you right click on the display adapter this means you need to be on the administrator account of the computer. You’ll need to ask the administrator to log into their account and do this step on their account. The changes take effect across all accounts.

• Incompatible Refresh Rate

  → Ensure your display settings match the correct refresh rate of the monitor. (e.g., 60Hz, 120Hz). (This is specific to desktops or if you are using an external monitor on a laptop) To check this right click on the desktop and click on display settings, scroll down to find advanced Display settings (Advanced display in Windows 11). Look for refresh rate, there’s a drop down menu that you can choose different refresh rates. If you make a mistake here, don’t panic, just wait for 15 seconds and the setting will revert back to what it was before.

Display Settings & External Factors

• Adaptive Brightness or Auto-Brightness

  → Try turning off auto-brightness in settings. This will fix issues if you’re finding the brightness of the display is jumping from bright to dark.

Note: This is a Laptop Specific setting.

• Graphics Card Issues

  → A failing or overheating GPU can cause flickering. If your problem is related to the graphics card overheating then you’ll find the computer has issues when there’s more demanding tasks happening on the computer eg. high graphics games. If this is the case then to confirm that it is the problem you can remove the graphics card and run the monitor from the motherboard by plugging the cable that is in the graphics card into the same kind of port that is on the motherboard if your motherboard supports the same output as the graphics card, alternatively, purchase a cable which supports both the motherboard and motherboard. (Note: This is only possible if you have a desktop PC, if you’re using a laptop and you’re having these issues on your laptop then you may have to take it into one of our stores for us to have a look at it. there’s a high chance that your laptop cannot be fixed.

Hopefully this guide has helped you to solve your issues you’re facing with your flickering screen. If the problem still persists then you may want to bring in your computer into one of our stores to diagnose the problem or get a quote for a new screen or laptop repair.