How to Fix Screen Flickering When Moving Mouse

Have you ever had a screen automatically turn on and off constantly? Every time you move the mouse cursor, parts of the screen randomly change their brightness, or in some worse cases may even flicker.

Besides causing eye strain, some users may even suffer from epileptic seizures due to the constant flickering of the screen.

Therefore, we have brought you a list of solutions to fix the issue with a flickering screen on Windows.

Before we start, let us first look at the causes of screen flickering when moving the mouse.

What Causes a Screen to Flicker?

Your monitor screen can be flickering due to faulty hardware or internal windows problems. Regardless, here is the list of reasons that can cause screen flickering.

11 Easy Solution to Fix a Flickering Screen

As discussed above, the issue that you face can either be a hardware malfunction or some Windows issue. So, before jumping into the solutions, you need to perform the necessary measures to figure out what’s causing the screen to flicker. 

Depending on what’s causing the issue, perform the following solutions to fix a flickering screen.

Check for Faulty Monitors

Firstly, if you are on a desktop PC, try using a different cable to connect your desktop to the motherboard. Since a faulty cable is known for causing a screen to flicker, changing them can be one of the troubleshooting steps.

If you still have a flickering issue, connect the display to a different monitor. If the screen does not flicker, then you have successfully figured out the problem.

If the issue persists, the problem is probably with the Windows, the display driver, or the graphics card.

Connect to an External Monitor

Any physical damage to the laptop screen can cause it to flicker. So, if you are using a laptop, try connecting them to a separate monitor using an HDMI cable.

If this fixes the flickering screen issue, you might want to repair your laptop screen in a local repair shop.

Clean the Graphics Card

On a desktop PC, we connect a monitor directly to the graphics card. So, if you have issues with the display, there is a chance that the graphics card is causing the issue. Dust, or improper placement of the GPU, may disrupt the flow of data between the GPU and the motherboard, causing a screen to flicker. 

To fix this, remove the graphics card from the motherboard. Clean both the graphics card slot and its fan using a can of compressed air. Once you clean everything, re-assemble everything and check if the screen still flickers.

If cleaning and reseating the graphics card does not work, try removing them altogether. When removed, the computer uses the integrated GPU from the CPU to display. If it fixes the issue, you might have a faulty graphics card.

Check Power Supply

A system requires voltage above a certain level to perform smoothly. So, when a PSU fails to deliver this power, internal hardware also fails. So, if a screen starts to flicker, it may even be that the PSU is not providing the graphics card with enough power.

Websites like Coolermaster have great sections that can help you check if the PSU supplies enough voltage to your system. 

If your system consumes more power than power supplied, you might want to get a beefier PSU.

Disable Windows Error Report Services

Due to unknown reasons, disabling error report services such as Window Error Reporting Service and Problem Report and Solutions services is known to fix the issue.

Follow these steps to disable these services.

1. Press the Windows + R key simultaneously.
2. Type “msconfig” and press Enter.
3. Go to the Services tab.
4. Here click on Service to sort these services alphabetically.
5. Uncheck Windows Error Reporting Services and Problem Report and Solutions Control Panel Services, or Problem Report Control Panel Support.
   
6. Now, click on Apply, then OK.

Check Refresh Rate

Your screen can flicker when you have a low refresh rate since the pixel won’t update as frequently. If the OS has set a lower refresh rate, increasing them to the maximum Hz (most likely 60) might fix the issue that you face.

Follow these steps to adjust your computer’s refresh rate.

1. Press the Windows key and open Settings.
2. Go to System > Display.
3. Under Related Settings, click on Advanced Display Settings.
4. Here, you can adjust your computer’s refresh rate.
5. Furthermore, you can also click on Display adapter properties for Display 1 to open your GPU’s properties.
   
6. Click on the Monitor tab.
7. Under Monitor Settings, adjust the refresh rate to the highest setting by clicking on the dropdown menu.
   

Uninstall Conflicting Application

If you have two conflicting applications that might be using the same display resource, it can cause a flickering screen. Try closing all background application using the Task Manager and check if you still face the issue.

If the screen stops flickering, you might want to uninstall the application that you closed right away. You can also try uninstalling any recently installed application that started the screen flickering issue.

Please follow these steps to uninstall an application:

1. Press the Windows key and open Control Panel.
2. Make sure that you set View by to Large Icons.
3. Now, click on Program and Feature.
4. Here, you can see all the application that you installed in your computer.
5. Right-click on the application that might be causing the screen to flicker. Then, click on Uninstall.
   

Update Windows

An outdated Windows will have a lot of issues, and it also includes screen flickering when moving the mouse cursor. If you have not updated the OS to the latest version, updating it will fix several problems.

Follow these steps to update Windows to the latest version:

1. Press the Windows Key and open Settings.
2. Go to Windows Update (Privacy & Security > Windows Update for Windows 10).
3. Click on Install Updates or Check for updates.
   
4. Once the installation is complete, restart your computer to check if it fixes the issue. 

Update/Roll Back Display Driver

Updating a driver can fix most issues with any display-related issues. As the OS uses the driver to control these display devices, updating will make them operate with ease. 

Here’s how you can update your display drivers:

1. Press the Windows + X key simultaneously.
2. Select Device Manager.
3. Now, expand Display adapters.
4. Right-click any one of the listed drivers.
5. Click on Update driver.
   
   Following the same steps, update all drivers inside Display adapters.
6. Restart your computer once the update is complete.

Updating the driver may not always fix an issue. Sometimes, a driver update may even bring some bugs that can cause malfunction to a device. If this is the case, you will need to roll back a driver update. Follow these steps to roll back a driver update.

1. Open the Device Manager. 
2. Expand Display adapters. 
3. Double-click on the driver that you want to roll back.
4. Go to the Driver tab.
5. Click on Roll Back Driver.
   

If updating or rolling back a driver does not fix the issue, you can always uninstall a driver. Fortunately, once uninstalled, the Operating System automatically reinstall a driver. This replaces any corrupted driver files that may be causing the issue.

Uninstall/Reinstall Display Driver

To uninstall the display driver please follow these steps.

1. Open the Device Manager and expand the Display adapter.
2. Right-click on the driver and click on Uninstall. Once you uninstall the driver, the OS switches to the basic driver.
3. Restart your computer and check if the flickering stops.

Restarting should reinstall the display driver automatically. However, if it does not install, right-click on the top item in Device Manager list. Click on Scan for hardware changes. This will automatically reinstall all missing drivers.

Uninstall Recent Windows Update

If your screen starts to flicker after a Windows update, it might be that the update itself is causing the issue. If that’s the case for you, uninstalling the recent Windows update can fix this issue.

1. Press the Windows + I key to open Settings.
2. Click on Windows Update (Update & Security > Windows update in Windows 10).
3. Select Update history and scroll down to Uninstall updates.
4. Under Microsoft Windows, right-click on the latest Windows update and click on Uninstall.
   
5. Restart your computer once the uninstallation process is complete.