One of the most annoying and common problems on the LCD screens of computer monitors is the flicker, that is, the effect of vibrating the image, hardly noticeable, but in the long run terribly annoying and harmful. The flickering of the LCD screen can cause eye fatigue, headaches and many other ailments, especially if you spend a lot of time in front of the computer.
Luckily, the flickering of the image on the monitor or flickering is usually a configuration problem that can be solved immediately without having to buy anything.
To understand the causes of a monitor that has a flickering image, it is necessary to understand, in broad terms, how an LCD screen works.
Although the image on the screen may appear frozen to the human eye, it is actually the result of intermittent lighting at a very fast refresh rate.
The final effect is like that of a film with always the same image, making what you see as a fixed thing seem.
The speed of these monitor updates is measured in Hertz.
If the monitor is set to update at a speed of 100 Hertz, it means that the image is renewed 100 times per second.
The most common refresh rate in monitors is 60 Hertz, which ensures a stable image for everyone.
However, if, due to an incorrect configuration or a technical problem, the refresh rate on the LCD monitor is too low, it may seem that there is a flicker or vibration of the image caused by the fact that there are not enough updates to the second to keep it fixed.
To check the refresh rate setting of an LCD monitor in Windows, open the Control Panel and go to the Appearance and Personalization -> Display section .
On the left side of the window, click on Change screen settings, then on Advanced settings at the bottom right and, finally, in the window that opens, open the Monitor tab.
In this window you can change the monitor refresh rate even if the availability of options depends very much on the type of monitor.
To be sure you can take advantage of all the available options, uncheck the box " hide modes that cannot be displayed with this monitor ", press on Apply and try to see if there are other selectable values in the update frequency box.
However, using a frequency not supported by the monitor is never an acceptable solution.
In mine, for example, you can't change from the standard value of 60 Hertz, but for some more expensive models you can also get to 144 Hertz which is a bit of a video game standard.
In the end, the more the monitor costs, the higher its refresh rate.
READ ALSO: How to choose the LCD monitor and screen resolution .
Screen flicker may also depend on an unsupported screen resolution setting .
Then try to change it by trying various configurations and see if you still feel that annoying flicker.
To change the screen resolution, go back to Control Panel -> Appearance and Personalization -> Screen and click us Change resolution from the left bar.
If you are unable to change the refresh rate or if you cannot resolve anything from your PC settings, there may be a software problem.
First of all, make sure that the latest monitor driver is installed on your PC (for the monitor, not for the video card).
Usually a generic driver provided by Microsoft is installed on the PC, but you can check on the manufacturer's website if a proprietary driver version exists.
If there is, it may be that installing the driver leads to unlocking new options to change the refresh rate in Herts.
In addition to this, download and install AMD or NVIDIA video card drivers updated to the latest version.
The video card can also cause the image to flicker on the computer monitor, and some options in the card management program may also need to be fixed.
We have seen, in another article, how to solve problems of AMD and ATI video cards, drivers and screen .
If it still does not resolve and does not depend on the system configuration, the main hardware causes of the PC monitor flicker are:
- Problem with the cable that connects the monitor to the computer, so try a different one or move it a bit.
- Problem with VGA or HDMI or DVI ports, try changing ports and changing cables and avoid adapters to see if it resolves.
- Electromagnetic fields that make the screen image tremble.
Although this is unlikely to be the cause, in the meantime it is better to keep away the electrical devices that emit radiation, including fans or stoves.
- The defective monitor ; try connecting it to another computer to see if it is broken.
- The defective video card .
In my case, nothing worked, the monitor worked well on another PC and the internal video card could only be broken.
Since my PC was old, I replaced the video card with a new equivalent, which cost me just 30 Euros on Amazon.
Before buying a new one, however, check that it is well connected inside the PC and update the drivers as seen above.
READ ALSO: Adjust the monitor: colors, contrast and brightness on the screen
