Taskbar icons blinking while using Chrome

[Erithlor]

Hello,

Few months ago I've noticed that when I use Chrome to surf internet my taskbar icons blinks from time to time. It's like refreshing. This happens at random times every few minutes. Here is the example of the blinking: https/i.stack.imgur.com/MiDti.gif. As I said, this doesn't happen every second like in the gif, but once in a few minutes. Not much, but still, annoying and most important, very distracting when you see them blinking.

What I did:
- A fresh reinstall of Windows and drivers and the issue is still there.
- I tried my old video card (GTX 1070) to make sure it's not a video card issue - and the blinking is still there (current card is GTX 1080 Ti).
- Issue also happens in Safe Mode with networking.
- Tried many different settings, also tried to disable hardware acceleration for Chrome, but the issue is still there.

There is no blinking if I use Internet Explorer or Edge. I've noticed that Windows explorer usage increases to 0,1-0,2% for a 1 second and then I see spinning mouse circle for a second and then taskbar icons quickly blink.

I already run out of ideas. Any idea how to fix it?

 

[Ralston18]

Do you have any icons known to "blink"? Turn that off that blinking if possible.

Right click an open space on the Taskbar and try moving the task bar to the bottom or sides.

Check the other available Taskbar settings.

Remove and re-add the pinned items one by one. See if the blinking stops and starts with one particular item.

Try reinstalling Chrome.

Could be some bug or conflict within Chrome.

 

[Erithlor]

Tried all of these options, but non of them fixed the issue.

 

[Ralston18]

Without Chrome running open Task Manager and watch what is running for awhile.

Leave the window open but drag to one side or the other.

Then start Chrome and continue to watch Task Manager.

Look for some "side" process, service, or app that starts running as well.

The next step would be to start disabling processes, services, and apps in Task Manager one by one.

Google for information if you do not know or recognize something that is running.

Shutting down one of them may end the blinking. Just have to be careful about what you shut down. Know what it is first of all to ensure that you do not take your entire system down.

 

[Erithlor]

Haven't noticed any unusual processes. As said, I did a fresh reinstall of Windows, so there can't be any side or unwanted processes. The only thing I notice is the moment the icons blink windows explorer usage increases from 0% to mere 0,1-0,2%. And this happens in Sage Mode too, only with Chrome.

 

[Ralston18]

With a fresh install of Windows and so other "side or unwanted processes" then that probably narrows down the blinking to some issue between Windows and Chrome.

What "usage" is increasing; e.g.; CPU, disk, memory?

To be honest, I have been having some browser issues that seem to be a result of every browser wanting to be "king of the hill" when run and other apps/add-ons doing sort of the same. Get something fixed and the next update undoes it all.....

Getting hit with continue pop-up videos that blast audio at me to the point where pre-muting is SOP. Attempts to block such things result in very sluggish, to the point of the browser just simply stopping sometimes.

Still working on pinning down a specific source.

Take a look at your add-ons/extensions. Could be one of them not playing well.

 

[Erithlor]

By usage I mean CPU. There is really nothing special in processes. Well, I noticed that during the blink there is windows explorer, some kind of remote service, WMI provider host, state repository service... all of them use mere ~0,2% CPU during the blink... Nothing special...

Don't have any extensions, only google docs and calculator.

 

[Ralston18]

Suggest "reverse engineering" the problem.

Google "how to make icons blink".

Do some reading/research and see what you find that is relevant to your system.

No need to take any immediate action beyond just finding something (hopefully) and posting accordingly.

Also came across the following link:

https/answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/windows_10-hardware/screen-flickers-in-windows-10/70acc924-bc0c-4e35-a3b1-b258bbd3ab21?tm=1455761961408&auth=1

 

[Erithlor]

Well, I been using Chrome Canary for a month and it works fine, no blinking or any other issues while standard Chrome makes taskbar icons blink from time to time. A really weird issue.

No one knows how to fix it yet? No one had this issue before?

 

[Erithlor]

Well, issue is still there. Icons still blinks every few minutes while using Chrome.
Here, I recorded how it looks:

https/streamable.com/81bee
You can notice quick blink at the very beginning of the clip.

https/streamable.com/b6wg4
Blink happens in the middle of the clip.

 

[Ralston18]

With such a consistent pattern (i.e., "every 3rd second") use Resource Monitor and Resource Monitor to look for a matching pattern.