Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with flicker

How can I fix my LCD monitor's loose connection?

christonabike — Wed, 06 May 2009 07:53:09 -0800

My LCD monitor is flickering, scrolling, and generally behaving strangely, almost certainly due to a loose connection. Can I fix it? Over the last couple months, my 24" Soyo LCD monitor has been exhibiting strange behavior. It will vary in brightness, scroll horizontally, display jagged lines and exhibit other strange behavior. At first, wiggling the DVI cable would alleviate the problem; now I have to physically shake the monitor. I've also used both the monitor's VGA and DVI inputs and it exhibits identical behavior. This all points towards a loose connection inside the monitor. Is it possible to identify and/or fix this problem myself?

I started to poke around myself, but after removing the plastic housing I was daunted by the next layer of metal casing. Even if the odds of me being able to fix it are low, I'd still like to give it a shot before I have to buy a new one.

Why is my Thinkpad screen flickering so much?

n_s_1 — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 15:02:07 -0800

Help me figure out why my laptop screen is flickering (madly). Here's a YouTube video showing my Thinkpad R40. As you can see, the screen is flickering a lot. Other times, my laptop will boot up just fine, I'll log into my XP account, and then suddenly the screen will flicker for about two seconds, and the screen will just freeze up.

Anyone know what's causing these problems? I believe I have the right video/graphic drivers installed---the machine worked fine for four or five months before the flickering started. Also, for anyone who's certain it's some *X* or *Y* causing the problem, is there a cheap replacement part that I should buy, and would it be easy for me to install?

I went to a Best Buy Geek Squad to get this fixed; they charged me 40 bucks to "re-seat" something; the flicker came back right after I left the Best Buy, though, and to be honest, I was too frustrated to return to the store. If I can, I want to avoid paying hundreds of dollars to fix this thing.

Bright light flashes in my right eye.

Devileyezz — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:12:21 -0800

Balls of bright light, one or two, appear as if zipping through the top right corner of my right eye. First, I thought it was the headlight of a car that sneaked into my room through the curtains. But no, it happened again, this time in broad daylight. What is it? This has happened to me at random moments. If unanttended, lol, it'll make me feel as if a UFO passed by like a meteor falling from the sky. But only on the top right corner of my right eye can I feel it. It's not painful.

I don't know if these things affect it, But I work on the computer during day, and usually get back home and am on the PC again for a couple hours atleast.

I don't remember if this started before this past weekend, or after. But this weekend, on friday night I took a pill of Cialis, and took another one on Saturday night.

About 6 months ago, I had left eye flickers.. and after some Googling I found that it's due to calcium deficiency. And after taking some calcium pills, it was sorted.
Unfortunately, this time Google wasn't as helpful.

Please help, and please help us stay on topic rather than asking why cialis, why PC and stuff.

Silver bullet for my nausea-inducing monitor?

Kadin2048 — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 18:37:10 -0800

[DirtyPowerFilter] My CRT monitor has developed a nasty shake/vibration at certain refresh settings, since I moved to a new apartment. I think the problem stems from the old electrical system. Is there anything I can do to "clean" the power and alleviate the problem? Or are all "power conditioning" products bogus? Backstory and more info below the fold. So I just recently moved into a new apartment, in an older (1940s or 50s) building with original wiring. The building has all 2-prong outlets. I got my computer all set up, using a 2-prong to 3-prong grounding adaptor, properly attached to the center screw of the old-style 2-prong outlet.

However, my trusty old 20" CRT monitor isn't happy. When it's set to 75Hz refresh (my preferred setting), it jitters and shakes horribly. At 60Hz, no problem -- it's rock solid (but it gives me headaches). At lower resolutions and higher refresh rates, like 80Hz and above, it also seems stable. Unfortunately, the lower resolutions keep me from using some applications, and really cramp my desktop. I've tried degaussing, to no effect.

I have done some research, including this older AskMe question on shaky CRT images, but I think that my problem stems from the power (and/or bad grounding), and not from nearby electromagnetic fields (since I can turn off everything else in the house and still have the problem, or move the monitor around and not see any difference. The computer is located in the outside corner of the building on the second floor; there's nothing motorized or mechanical nearby, or on the same circuit (at least not inside my apartment). It's possible there's something big and nasty elsewhere on the building's electrical system, but if that's the case it's beyond my control, and I have to figure out how to deal with it.

At the resolution I use my monitor at, the only options are 60Hz or 75Hz. So it's either jitter at 75, or headaches at 60. I'm trying to think of solutions. Obviously, ditching the CRT in favor of an LCD (which we have on other computers, and seem to work fine) is one, but I'd rather not -- first, because it means money, and second, because my CRT monitor is pretty nice, and I don't like the limited color gamut of LCDs for photo and video work. Modifying the wiring in the apartment is probably out, or at least a definite last-resort option (since it would entail going through the landlord, etc.). Similarly, running a separate ground wire would be difficult -- I've thought of getting some heavy copper braid and running it to the CW pipe in the bathroom, but I'm afraid that would just create big loop.

Are there any sort of 'power conditioner' products that might help? Optimally, I'd like something that I could plug in between the wall and the monitor, which would isolate it from whatever junk is coming in, and let it play nice at 75Hz again. I've seen such products aimed at audiophiles with a lot of extra money to spend, but I've always been suspicious that they're nothing but electronic snake oil. Do such things exist at less exorbitant prices, and do they actually work?

Other suggestions would be welcome also, if there's some possibility I haven't thought of.

Blinky the Laptop

TheGoldenOne — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 07:47:29 -0800

Laptop screen blackout issues: Sometimes my laptop screen will flicker black. Sometimes it will stay blacked out until I play with the angle of the screen, then it flickers a little more and eventually goes back to normal. What's going on here? Bad connection? Do I need to send it back from whence it came? If so, how do I back up everything?

-It's a new laptop. I got it in December. I've been gentle.

Can I fix these recent horizontal black glitches on this onboard SiS chipset?

adamwolf — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 18:46:47 -0800

How can I fix my SiS onboard video? What did I even do to break it? I recently reinstalled my girlfriend's Linux machine, adding a hard drive in the process. For some reason, the display shows horizontal glitches and every once in a while blinks black for a few seconds. This is onboard SiS video. It is independent of monitor. This sounds quite like video bandwidth issues, but I'm not exactly certain, because of two reasons. The 99% of the time these horizontal black glitches occur during a keystroke. You can tap out a drum solo on the spacebar, and the flickers will follow as well. Is this typical of video bandwidth issues? Another thing is that assuming it is memory bandwidth issues, I decided to set the display to 640x480@8 bits per pixel. Still horizontal glitches. This makes me say it isn't a memory bandwidth issue. Another test I performed was playing a video. The "glitch rate" didn't increase.

The display also blacks out every once in a while for a few seconds. Here's the kicker--It worked a month ago, and she's never seen the glitches before. I haven't really changed anything except I installed GNOME. However, Xfce4 *also* has this problem. I've tried to see if text mode has this problem, but its hard to see the glitches on a black background. X detects ~64 megs of video memory. This *should* be enough by my calculations for 3.5 frames of 1280x1024@16bpp. I've used alternate monitors and alternate video cables.

What would do this? BIOS settings? Was there an Xorg update recently that would break something? I'll accept "random hardware failure" if there are no other choices, but I can't help but wonder. It's extremely hard to work with this machine, and I'd really hate to have to replace it this soon. I've googled with my usually amazing google-fu, but have had no luck.

I can't handle candles!

evariste — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 13:45:57 -0800

Candles. They're great. But. It's great to set a romantic mood in the room by lighting a candle, it smells nice and has a flattering and warm light. However, the flickering of the flame when the candle is the only source of light is distracting and eye-straining, even headache-inducing at times. Suggestions?

Printing stuff causes lights to flicker

Big Fat Tycoon — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 15:33:35 -0800

Why is it, when I print anything, that for minutes after the fact, the lights in my room continue to flicker?

How can eliminate monitor flicker from digital video?

strangeleftydoublethink — Mon, 14 Feb 2005 12:29:52 -0800

What is the easiest way to eliminate computer monitor flicker (from the refresh rate) that shows up in digital video? I'm taping some people for a company documentary and need to shoot them at their computers.

Visual Field Distortion

troutfishing — Sat, 10 Apr 2004 10:07:37 -0800

Pizza induced visual field distortion : When I chew - as on a piece of pizza (or whatever) and stare at a computer screen, especially from it distance, I perceive a "ripple" (or a "flicker") on the screen which is congruent with my chewing action. (more inside) Now, I know why this occurs, sort of : when I chew, it increases the pressure in my skull a little and this in turn squeezes or squishes my optic nerve, or maybe my eyeball, or whatever. OK, fine.

But this effect only occurs when I chew and stare at a screen. Why don't I get the same effect when I chew and stare at the wall, or out the window, etc. - in all other cases?

Has anyone else noticed this effect? I know that there's some brain algorithm driving the effect, and I assume that there's an evolutionary reason for this sort of "Steady-Cam" mechanism - and I can guess as to the reasons. But why does the "Steady-Cam" turn off when I chew my pizza and stare at a powered-on CRT or LCD screen ?