Flickering in and out of not responding

[LukeyG500]

Recently when going onto some programs such as word or even file explorer, the program seems to... flicker in and out of responding repetitively and i have no idea what is causing it or how i can fix

thanks in advance to anyone that helps

 

[Ralston18]

The image on your monitor is physically flickering - is that what you mean?

Does the flickering get worse as you type or physically do things on your desk/table?

I do not understand "responding repetitively". Please explain more.

You mention just some programs but you really need to add more description about the specifics. E.g., does the flickering start immediately or after some time. Are you working with large documents, with lots of open windows.

For now check that all of your power cords and connecting cables are tight.

Then, if the problem continues, please provide more information.

 

[LukeyG500]

maybe i described it awkwardly, basically the program will go into 'not responding' to 'responding' (thats what i meant about the flickering) but it does this so quickly as in it can go from 'responding' to 'not responding' back and forth a good few times in a second. As for program specifics mainly happens in word and when im typing it happens more often, cables and everything seem to be in place and fine im convinced its not a power issue as it still happens when im running directly off the mains without a battery in place. When i start word up it will start up as 'not responding' then go back to being fine in a second or two. Same thing happens with file explorer and a couple other programs like chrome and IE but it happens less regularly with them i can be browsing for hours and nothing. Where as Word seems to happen all the time which is my main problem not too concerned about the other programs. ive tried reinstalling office, restarts.

Hope there is enough detail there, thank you for helping out

 

[Ralston18]

Yes that helps.

Well let's find out if there are any errors showing up in your Event Viewer Logs.

Open Event Viewer by pressing the Windows key and the R key together.

Type "eventvwr" (without quotes) in the Open box.

Then start opening up and looking into the various logs. Do not let yourself get overwhelmed. Just poke about a bit and look for red and yellow icons.

Especially any icon that show up during times of the "flicker" or while Word or File Explorer were/are in use.

Look for the error codes. You can also "right click" an error entry (or any entry) to get more information via Event Properties.

Take a look and see what you can find. No need to take any immediate actions - just look for a consistent pattern of events to correlate the behavior. Or if no correlation just anything that keeps happening and happening. Especially with a red or yellow icon.

 

[LukeyG500]

only thing that seems to pop up is Kernal-EventTracing ID 3 and ID 4... but i dont think thats got anything to do with my problem just coincidentally just happens at the same time as i launched and typed in word?

 

[LukeyG500]

ive just ran word side by side with task manager and looking at the CPU and disk, it will start to stop responding at around 15% CPU and the disk rises very quickly to around 20-30% and this is where it keeps not responding and the responding and then not responding and then responding very quickly like i mentioned before??

not sure if that will be any help

 

[Ralston18]

Probably not coincidental.... What about when File Explorer is launched?

Google "Kernal-EventTracing ID 3 and ID 4".

I just did that and found a number of links: a couple links were in this forum.

Scanned through a couple of links that address the error.

For example: one link ascribes the problem to a defrag program and backup program installation. Other links address a HDD related cause.

Some of the links do not appear relevant right up front. But if you look at details etc. you might recognize or otherwise realize something else that has been or is also occuring. May show up in your logs as well. Or provide a more definitive error code reflective of the problem.

Also look at any other errors or warnings that occur. There may be some common service or process between them.

Just a bit of detective work to do I think......

 

[LukeyG500]

i was just about to ask could it be HDD related as, HDD guardian throw up some errors. ATA errors - 12... i cant seem to find out what these mean aswell as having LOTS of hours on HDD itself over 15000 but the overall evaluation reads passed. Temps seem to have gone a bit high to... i cant find any events that seem to correlate with the time of opening running or closing file explorer.

 

[Ralston18]

Could be a good lead....

Old HDD, some higher temps, some errors - all warnings. Nothing wrong ("passed") but "failed" may be too late. Get backed up ASAP.

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The errors/flickering may not necessarily correspond with the opening and closing file explorer per se. Your system is doing lots of other things as well. May take two things happening to cause the flicker.

If you have not done so look into some of the other logs available via Event Viewer....

Also take a look at the Performance Manager. Watch what happens to the HDD as you open and close file explorer and do other things. E.g., lots of faults when Word is opened. Bad sector, tries and tries, heats up.

Back up the HDD first. Verify the backup.

 

[LukeyG500]

everything is on my external, because i had this problem before when i had so much stuff on my laptop it was hard to work out what was doing what and just to many things going on at the same time so i backed it up on my external HDD then did a fresh install of windows 10 to try and work around that... i think what it could be is just the HDD packing up and im just trying to find any reason to not replace the HDD because if i do and find out ahh actually it wasnt the HDD fault i would of just wasted money

 

[LukeyG500]

Looks like it was the HDD after all, switched it on this morning and HDD had failed