Laptop Screen Randomly Flickers Pinkish Color

[chacol]

I recently purchased a Lenovo Y50-70 Laptop that had Windows 8.1 on it. I decided to update it to Windows 10 and I started noticing a flickering that happened pretty regularly. I looked online and found out to update the BIOS. This removed the flickering, however it caused another issue with the screen randomly flashing a purple/pinkish color for a second and goes back to normal. I disabled the onboard intel graphics driver and it seems to be not nearly as frequent now, but sometimes I occasionally get it.

Any suggestions on how to make this stop? I'm not exactly sure what causes it but I feel like it just randomly occurs now.

 

[Solandri]

screen randomly flashing a purple/pinkish color for a second and goes back to normal

It's flashing magenta. The green signal to the screen is cutting out, leaving just the red and blue signal. Red + blue = magenta.

Either the GPU is defective, or the video connector between the laptop and the screen is not fully transmitting the green signal. If you're lucky, it's simply a matter of opening the laptop up and re-seating the connector. Fortunately, the standard screen on the Y50 sucks so there are plenty of videos showing how to disassemble it and disconnect/reconnect the video cable.

https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BqVuCKew1E

You say the problem happened when you upgraded to Windows 10? I'm trying to think of a software issue which could cause the green signal to cut out. But unless the video drivers have a severe bug in them, I can't think of one. Maybe Win10 is driving the screen at a higher refresh rate than Win8, and the problem doesn't show up a lower refresh rates but does at higher refresh rates? If this is the UHD model, then I believe the screen is limited to 48 Hz. Maybe Win10 is trying to drive it faster than that?

The fact that it happens with both video cards doesn't really tell you anything. The Y50 is an Optimus laptop. In these laptops, the Intel card always drives the screen. When the nvidia card is active, it's used as a co-processor which draws the screen in memory, then passes it to the Intel card which sends it to the screen. So the green signal is cutting out somewhere between the Intel card and the screen, regardless of whether you're using the Intel GPU or nvidia GPU.

 

[chacol]

screen randomly flashing a purple/pinkish color for a second and goes back to normal

It's flashing magenta. The green signal to the screen is cutting out, leaving just the red and blue signal. Red + blue = magenta.

Either the GPU is defective, or the video connector between the laptop and the screen is not fully transmitting the green signal. If you're lucky, it's simply a matter of opening the laptop up and re-seating the connector. Fortunately, the standard screen on the Y50 sucks so there are plenty of videos showing how to disassemble it and disconnect/reconnect the video cable.

https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BqVuCKew1E

You say the problem happened when you upgraded to Windows 10? I'm trying to think of a software issue which could cause the green signal to cut out. But unless the video drivers have a severe bug in them, I can't think of one. Maybe Win10 is driving the screen at a higher refresh rate than Win8, and the problem doesn't show up a lower refresh rates but does at higher refresh rates? If this is the UHD model, then I believe the screen is limited to 48 Hz. Maybe Win10 is trying to drive it faster than that?

The fact that it happens with both video cards doesn't really tell you anything. The Y50 is an Optimus laptop. In these laptops, the Intel card always drives the screen. When the nvidia card is active, it's used as a co-processor which draws the screen in memory, then passes it to the Intel card which sends it to the screen. So the green signal is cutting out somewhere between the Intel card and the screen, regardless of whether you're using the Intel GPU or nvidia GPU.

I wasn't experiencing the magenta flashes until after updating the BIOS (to get rid of the flickering) after updating to Windows 10. I think it is most likely just an issue with the Intel graphics driver which I've tried updating before, but I think I am going to try reinstalling the driver and see if it gets better. Hopefully it does not require me to disassemble the laptop to fix the connector.

Also, I have mistaken myself. I have both of the video drivers enabled, however if I disable the Intel graphics I believe the issue is resolved.

My refresh rate is set to 60Hz with no option to change it.

 

[Seall]

Chacol were you able to find a solution? Because i have exaaactly the same problem. With the same laptop...

 

[Griets]

Hi Chacol,

I also have an Lenovo Y50-70 and most probably the same problem. It shows thin vertical lines and the color of the screen keeps changing. However, I did replace my original lenovo screen with a better IPS screen in the beginning when i bought it (I have the Full HD model). the screen i replaced it with was the B156HAN01.1.

Any luck finding a solution already related to the drivers? Did you also try connecting your screen to an external monitor/tv?? that could also clarify for you if the problem is related to the intel graphics..

Good luck solving and keep us updated if you find anything!

Edit: I also changed my graphic settings to always enable the Nvidia card, and it seems as if the screen does not show the colors so much now.

 

[chacol]

Chacol were you able to find a solution? Because i have exaaactly the same problem. With the same laptop...

I have not found a solution. I contacted Lenovo support and I'm going to send it in for repairs.

 

[chacol]

Hi Chacol,

I also have an Lenovo Y50-70 and most probably the same problem. It shows thin vertical lines and the color of the screen keeps changing. However, I did replace my original lenovo screen with a better IPS screen in the beginning when i bought it (I have the Full HD model). the screen i replaced it with was the B156HAN01.1.

Any luck finding a solution already related to the drivers? Did you also try connecting your screen to an external monitor/tv?? that could also clarify for you if the problem is related to the intel graphics..

Good luck solving and keep us updated if you find anything!

Edit: I also changed my graphic settings to always enable the Nvidia card, and it seems as if the screen does not show the colors so much now.

I don't think it has anything to do with the drivers because I connected my laptop to an external monitor and everything was working fine. I think it is just a bad connection with the cable and it needs to be re-seated.

I'm very disappointed with this laptop because of other problems that I have as well. The touchpad barely recognizes any of my clicks and it is impossible to drag and drop a file. I am forced to use a mouse to have any use on this laptop. The USB 3.0 slots on the left side are also very poorly designed and are way too tight to fit anything inside of them without causing potential damage.

When I first plugged my wireless mouse in and took it out the USB part for the mouse got stuck inside of the slot, luckily I was able to get it out with some tweezers and put it back together however that port is now damaged on my laptop. Other than that, one of the screws came out from the bottom randomly, luckily enough I found it before it was lost.

Lastly, another thing I noticed is sometimes my fan gets really loud for no reason even when I'm not using any heavily demanding programs.

 

[Maamees]

About any screens, I have lenovo y70-70 touch and had flickering and red lines porblem too which are similar problem like here. I changed video cable inside laptop and it works about 3 months very good. No problem when i cahnged that cable.