Monitor randomly blinking on and off can be quite annoying, especially when you are in a gaming session or streaming movies. Although it turns right back on, it disrupts the overall experience.
This usually happens when the GPU fails to transfer data to the screen. Besides this, complications with the GPU itself and its drivers or cables connecting the GPU and monitor can also cause your monitor to blink on and off.
Here’re a few things you can do to fix the issue.
Before We Begin
Before we get into some major fixes, let us look at some general fixes that can fix the problem with your blinking monitor.
Most of the fixes below require you to use the monitor. If the monitor is constantly blinking, try toconnect the system to a second displayand then perform the solutions explained below.
Reinstall Graphics Driver
A corrupted or outdated graphics driver may run into numerous complications when communicating with the OS. These problems might result in the screen flickering or blinking issues. To fix this, tryreinstalling the graphics driver.
But first, you need to uninstall the current graphics driver using Display Driver Uninstaller.
ForNVIDIA Graphics cards,
Disable Overclock
Your graphics card will also take in more power when you overclock it. If the PSU cannot match the power requirement of the GPU, the display may run into screen flickering or blinking problems. To determine if this is the case, you candisable any overclockperformed on the GPU.
To do this, you’re able to simply uninstall the software that you used to overclock the graphics card.
Turn Off Freesync and G-sync
Enabling Freesync/G-sync could cause the screen to flicker when the FPS is low in a windowed application. This can especially happen to monitors without certified Freesync/G-sync and ones that use VA panels.
In the case of Freesync, disabling them and setting Gsync to full screen should fix the blinking issue on your monitor.
To disable Gsync, follow these steps.
Check Graphics Card Temperature
When the fans on the graphics card fail to cool the GPU chip, the entire GPU might shut off to prevent the components from damage. If your monitor mainly blinks during extreme graphic usage, your graphics card might be thermal throttling.
On desktop PCs, you’re able to check GPU temperature from Task Manager.
On idle, the GPU temperature should stay around 40° Celsius. And on full load, its temperature should not rise above 80° Celsius.
If it is running high, we recommend that you change the GPU’s thermal paste and clean its heatsink and fans to keep the temperature under the limit.
If the overall system is overheating, it is best that youclean dust from the PC caseand the system fans as well.
Check GPU Power Consumption
If your system does not supply enough power to a power-hungry graphics card, it might crash randomly. This will result in the monitor to blink on and off.
you may use the specification list on your graphics card user manual or simply refer to the internet to determine the power requirement for your GPU. If the GPU is not getting enough power, you will need to replace your PSU so that it can provide enough power to your GPU.
Reseat Graphics Card
Another reason that the screen is flickering could be due to an improper connection between the GPU and the PCIe slot. To check if this is the case, you may try reseating the graphics card.
Problems With the Monitor
If none of the above-mentioned solutions work, the problem could be with the monitor. To fix this, try resetting all monitor settings.
Resetting the monitor reverts all its internal configuration back to its default state. If the problem is due to incorrect monitor settings, resetting it should fix the blinking issue.
If that does not work, we recommend that you check the power adapter. If you are using an old/faulty power adapter or a power adapter that is not designed for your monitor, it might run into issues such as this.
Besides this, you’re able to also check if the monitor has any permanent/visible damage to it. If so, check if the monitor has a warranty—you can repair the monitor for free.
If the warranty is void, we recommend that you take the monitor to a local repair shop.
