Recently, Ive dealt with the problem that most laptop owners fear a broken screen [in particular, a flickering screen with pink flashes]. In this article, I am going to share with you all of the steps I tried to fix the flickering of my laptop screen. Perhaps, you can also find the solution to fix your flickering laptop screen here in this article.
What causes Screen Flickering?
A flickering screen, most likely, is a hardware failure. It could be that your laptop screen has already gone bad and you need a screen replacement. Additionally, it could be that the flex cable connecting the screen to the motherboard inside your laptop is damaged. The worst-case scenario is that the graphics card inside your laptop is starting to die.
Lets hope that you are not in the third case. If that is the case, you need to buy a new laptop entirely or at least replace the motherboard inside your laptop. Buying a screen replacement is expensive in itself but buying a new laptop will cost you much more.
How much does screen replacement cost?
Screen replacements can cost a lot of money. The replacement costs can set you back more than $100 depending on multiple factors such as screen resolution, touch sensitivity, OLED or IPS panel, etc. Unfortunately for MacBook users, repair from Apple costs even more expensive, especially when your device is not backed by AppleCare.
How to Fix Screen Flickering on my Laptop
There are also other factors that you must check first for you to confirm that the flickering is caused by a bad laptop screen. To reduce unnecessary costs, check the following solutions:
Disclaimer: I will not be held responsible for any damages or inconveniences that occur when following this tutorial. Proceed at your own discretion.
Check for malware or viruses
In some rare instances, screen flickering may be caused by malware or viruses. Perhaps, you have installed unsafe software that caused screen the screen flickering. We need to perform a full scan to detect if your PC is infected by malware or virus that causes the screen flickering.
Here is how you can check if the screen flickering is caused by malware or a virus:
Click on the Windows button. Type Windows Security and hit enter.
Once the Windows Security opens, choose Virus and Threat Protection in the menu.
Click on the Scan options.
Choose Full scan and hit Scan now. This process can take minutes or hours depending on your laptops storage.
Once done, if Windows Security did not find any malicious threats, then the screen flickering may not be caused by malware or viruses. If you want to double-check, you can use another anti-virus software you have on your laptop.
Boot into Safe Mode
Although your laptop does not have any malware or viruses, installed software on your laptop can still interfere and may cause the screen to flicker. Booting into safe mode is the easiest way to know if screen flickering is caused by a recently installed software.
The easiest way to boot into Safe Mode is by holding shift while you select Power > Restart.
Your laptop will now restart to the Choose an Option screen. Select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart.
Your laptop will restart one more time to a list of options you can select. Select the appropriate mode [in our case, safe mode] you want to boot in. I suggest you select option 4 [Safe Mode] rather than the Safe Mode with Networking.
If your laptop now does not manifest the screen flickering, then congratulations! You just have to find out and uninstall which software is causing the screen to flicker.
Otherwise, lets move on to the next solution.
Update your graphics driver
An outdated graphics driver may also be a culprit that causes the screen flickering. By now, you have already restarted your laptop back into the normal Windows Mode.
Since laptops usually have two graphics cards baked inside, this can create massive conflict when it comes to which graphics card to use. Most likely you have a laptop with Intel integrated GPU and either an AMD or Nvidia dedicated GPU.
If you havent updated the drivers of these graphics cards, then now is the best time to do it.
To update the Intel integrated graphics, you can go to the Device Manager by right-clicking the Windows logo and choosing Device Manager.
You can scan for hardware changes by clicking the icon shown in the image below.
If that does not work, you can click the drop-down icon to show all the available graphics card your laptop has. Right-click on the Intel integrated graphics card and choose update driver.
A pop-up window will appear. You will choose Search automatically for drivers.
If there is an available driver for the Intel integrated graphic card, then proceed to for installation. Once the installation is done, restart your laptop and see if the screen flickering is fixed.
Otherwise, lets proceed to update the dedicated graphics card.
Update your Nvidia or AMD dedicated graphics card
In this section, I will show you how to update the driver of an Nvidia graphics card. AMD graphics cards are updated the same way anyway.
You need to open the Nvidia GeForce Experience by either looking it up in the Windows search or by going to the system tray on the bottommost right-hand side. Right-click on the Nvidia logo and choose Nvidia GeForce Experience.
Once GeForce Experience opens, you can click drivers which is located on the upper left of the app.
Check for updates if there are any. Otherwise, your graphics driver is already up to date. If that is the case, and nothing has worked for you so far, dont worry because we still have so many possible solutions to fix the screen flickering of your laptop.
Try the next solution to fix flickering screen on your laptop.
Try switching the integrated graphics card to the dedicated graphics card
By default, laptops use the integrated graphics card for everyday casual use. Only when you use software [or a game] that requires more graphics power is when the dedicated graphics card kicks in.
Try switching to the dedicated graphics card to see if your integrated graphics card has the problem.
Follow these steps to change the graphics settings to use the dedicated graphics card:
This is how you switch the graphics card to the dedicated Nvidia graphics card. Again, you can search it online if you have a Radeon graphics card instead.
You need to go to the Nvidia Control Panel. To do so, you need right click on the Nvidia logo on the system tray [located at the bottom right corner] and select Nvidia Control Panel.
Look at the list of options located on the left. Choose Manage 3D Settings. Under the Global Settings, open the drop-down menu for the preferred graphics processor. Select High-performance Nvidia processor, then hit the Apply button.
Your laptop should be using the dedicated graphics card by now. We could take an extra step by disabling the integrated graphics card.
You can disable the integrated graphics card by going to the Device Manager. Search Device Manager using the Windows search.
In the Device Manager, under Display adapters, right-click the Intel integrated graphics card and disable it.
If the screen flickering and artifacts are still persistent, then follow the next solution.
Connect to an External Display
Remember when I said that screen flickering may be a sign of a dying graphics card? Screen flickering or artifacts are a manifestation of a defective graphics card.
If this is the case, then purchasing a screen replacement may be a waste of money. Instead, buying a new laptop is the only possible solution.
However, there are still steps you can do to confirm that your laptop has a dying graphics card.
You can do this by trying to connect the laptop to an external display first and see if the flickering or artifacts are still present.
If you dont have an external monitor lying around, you can use your smart television and connect to it via an HDMI cable.
If the artifacts and flickering are present in the external display, then you have confirmed that the graphics card is the problem. At this point, you need to buy a brand new laptop.
If not, [like in my case] you can follow the next solution.
Look for a damaged display flex cable
Disclaimer: I will not be held liable for any damages that result from opening your laptop. If you are not a technical person, then I recommend you not to proceed.
Opening up and checking for a damaged display flex cable depends on the brand and model of your laptop. I suggest looking up a disassembly video on YouTube for your specific laptop model.
When I opened my laptop up, I found out that mine was damaged. My Dell G3 is already more than 2 years old at the time, so it was not surprising to me.
I immediately order a replacement display flex cable online. It only cost me around US$10, so I guess why not.
It took my order 10 days to arrive.
Once it arrived, I immediately changed the display flex cable. Lo and behold, it still did not work.
I was disappointed and frustrated at the same time when I found out it did not work. I thought it will fix the flickering of my laptop screen.
If the solutions I mentioned above did not work for you, then the only step you could do next is to purchase a screen replacement. You are lucky if your laptop is still under warranty.
Where can I get a screen replacement to solve laptop screen flickering?
Your first option is, of course, your laptop manufacturer. Your laptop manufacturer will recommend a local authorized repair shop that can accommodate your needs.
One disadvantage of going this route, however, is the price. It can get pricey to ask for a replacement from an authorized repair shop since you are paying for labor, too.
If you want to spend less money, you can do your own research as to what model of screen panel you should order online. Perhaps, you can upgrade your laptop screen to a better one.
In my case, the screen of my Dell G3 can be upgraded to a 120 Hertz panel with better color accuracy. Perhaps, you can also upgrade yours to a better one instead.
Once you found the exact model number you need to buy, you can go to Amazon, AliExpress, or eBay to get the screen panel.
You will have to open up your laptop and replace the screen yourself, however. Again, I recommend you not to proceed if you do not have technical knowledge regarding screen replacement.
However, there are a lot of screen replacement tutorials on YouTube you can refer to.
Final Thoughts
Screen flickering is a nightmare for anybody who experiences it. If you have an external display you use with your laptop, you are lucky since you can use your monitor instead of the laptop screen.
Although it is most likely caused by broken hardware, malware, viruses, and incompatible software may also trigger screen flickering.
If all the software solutions did not work for you, I suggest you check the internal components of your laptop. Perhaps, there is broken or damaged wiring that causes the screen to flicker.
When there is nothing physically damaged inside your computer, then, either contact your laptop manufacturer and ask for a screen replacement or research for a compatible screen replacement and order it inexpensively online.
If even the screen replacement does not work either, then I think it is already time to buy a new laptop.
I hope this article served helpful to you. If you have any more questions, you can comment down in the comment section below and I will be more than happy to help you with that.
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