Laptop Screen flickering

[Tipex]

I'm having some issues with my laptop, the screen keeps flickering as per the attached video.

 

It started on my old laptop running Win 10 and eventually the screen completely stopped working, I happened across an identical (supposedly) laptop on EBay that was so cheap I just bought it thinking I'll switch the HD and all should be good.

 

The replacement arrived and had a clean install of Win7 on it, I ran it for a few days to make sure there weren't any issues, it was fine, aside from the fact it was missing it's graphics card, and also the connector for a graphics card.

 

Anyway, I swapped the HD's and it powered up, Win 10 'repaired' itself and it seemed to be working just fine, albeit Windows says it needs activating and the picture looked very low res, but after about 10 mins it made a notification noise and the screen went back to how it should be, nice and sharp.

 

All that's pretty moot I'm sure but thought I'd give some history, anyway, the 'new' laptop is now exhibiting the same issues that led to the old one eventually kicking the bucket, it started with the occasional flicker, but now gets worse every time I use it, I'm sure it won't be long until the screen in this one dies too, the flickering caused the old laptop to crash, although that hasn't happened on the 'new' one yet.

 

Anyone any idea what's going on? Anything I find online with regards to Win 10 and flickering screens seems to be more to do with flickering icons rather than the whole screen actually spazzing.

 

I find it hard to believe it's coincidence, there must be something causing this? 

 

My virus software is always up to date, currently running Avira and never had any issues.

 

Help!

IMG_1044.MOV

Edited July 18, 2016 by Tipex

[Waylander]

this happened to my mum's laptop after I upgraded to Win10. I went cross-eyed looking for solutions and was resigned to assuming the screen was dying and I'd need a new machine.

I was away, then she was away etc etc and after a month it just corrected itself . No real idea but I've assumed a driver updated in the background or some such nonsense.

[Mac]

It'll be either your screen/graphics driver or you have a naughty app that tries to do screen writes directly.

MSFT have an article on it here.

 

What you may want to do is turn on the Windows Insider Program (down the bottom in Windows updates). You'll get Windows Insider preview branches then (pre-Current Branch), and they're actually fairly good - current build has far better graphics drivers in there.

 

[Tipex]

Many thanks, will have a read through when I get home tonight.

[Tipex]

Ok, so I've followed all of that through, deleted iCloud, deleted drivers etc, doesn't seem to have fixed the porblem.

 

Yesterday I turned the laptop on and it started flickering almost immediately, today I've been on here nearly an hour now and nothing yet, only using Chrome, nothing else, just browsing as I was yesterday.

 

Anything else I can try?

[Waylander]

intermittent issues are a b*tch.

is something overheating (was it on your lap when it started immediately and vents blocked)

Otherwise it might just me - screen or GFx is on the way out

[Tipex]

No I never actually have it on my lap, plenty airflow through the vents.

 

Just seems odd (or a huge coincidence) that the only common denominator between the two laptops is the HD, yet one dies and the other appears to be going the same way.

 

It's not the end of the world, I've had my money's worth out of it and then some, everything is backed up, it's just more of a convenience thing really to get it working properly, I'll probably stick the other HD with the fresh Win7 install on it back in and see if it still plays up, if it does, at least I know it's definitely hardware related, although I'm convinced it's software causing whatever the hardware issue is.