[Ol_Hardcore]

Hi all, I have been using windows 7 x64 for almost a month now. It works great and i love it except for one thing: The screen flashes black every now and then. It happens at varying intervals but quite regularly. It seems to be related to what is happening on the desktop (opening/closing windows/programs ect), and the flashes get longer (time for which the screen is black) when watching videos in WMP.

The Graphics card is a GeForce 7800GTX 256mb, and the mobo/cpu is an Asus M2N-E with a phenom II x4 940, with 4gb ddr2. Bios is up to date.

It is definitely not a hardware fault as the rig runs perfectly on windows XP which I am dual booting. I have also noticed that windows & has trouble getting the screen resolution right and this reults in a slightly off aspect ratio but this is barely noticeable in normal use. It has a greater effect on my Virtual machines which seem to be unable to display the same resolution as the native (win7) OS.

Ive had to come to the conclusion that this is a x64 driver issue but the problem happens with the latest 64bit geforce drivers from Nvidias website, and also with he default ones from windows 7. The problem is actually worse with the ones from the nvidia site.

I have run out of ideas please help.

[Tipstaff]

This issue sounds so familiar. I remember hearing things like this before prior to the 174 drivers, with Vista, and with XP. Happens like THIS video?

Two questions:

1) Have you tried running in a non-native resolution, such as 1024x768, and if so, does it happen in that rez as well? If not, try running at that resolution.

2) What Hz does it say you are running at for you monitor settings?

Few suggestions:

1) Go back to the first driver for Windows 7. In this case try the 186.18 or the 190.38 drivers first. I usually recommend the 190.38 drivers as they seem to be more stable.

2) Double check your monitor settings. Specifically, go to your manufacturers website, and download the drivers for your monitor. The "Generic PnP" driver isn't too bad, but it's always better to use a specific driver. I had an issue with my Samsung 2693HM where the Windows driver was setting the Hz wrong, and getting the actual driver fixed things. If you can't find specific Windows 7 driver download the Vista driver, although you might have to manually install/update the monitor driver with the Vista one.

3) Just in case, go into Control Panel | Power Options, and change your profile to "High Performance".

4) Go into Device Manager, and see how many display adapters are showing. If there are 2, disable the 2nd one. On the same note, if you are using DVI, make sure you use DVI port 1 on your video card. This is the primary port. If memory serves DVI 1 is the port furthest away from the S-Video port (check the back as it should say DVI 1).

BTW, if you monitor refresh rate says 59Hz, just to see if this is the issue first try installing the actual monitor drivers as I suggested, then see if you can pick a higher refresh rate. Be sure to go back in that section a couple times as sometimes it will reset to 59Hz. Now, technically is shows 59Hz, but it's actually 59.94Hz. It should be fine, but I have notice (especially in my case) that a lot of Direct3D apps, in particular games, screw up because THEY see 59Hz. In any case, if that doesn't work you can try manually adding whatever frequency you need. In most cases 60Hz is the default, so in the Nvidia Control Panel you will want to add this frequency. This trick has helped some people out. To do this follow these instructions:

Go into the Nvidia Control Panel, go to Add resolution, create Custom Resolution, click on Timing, Manual, set the refresh rate to 60.001Hz, save it (hit apply).

[Ol_Hardcore]

Thanks tipstaff. Thats given me alot of insight. Ive tried changing resolution but it looks horrible and didnt fix the problem. Ive tried rolling back to the initial win7 driver (but im not sure of the number), and ive tried manually setting the refresh rate. Neither worked.
I have not tried installing a new monitor driver so il try that first.

BTW, does this forum send email alerts for new post to threads? I didnt receive any notification of replies to my threads??

[Tipstaff]

Originally Posted by Ol_Hardcore

BTW, does this forum send email alerts for new post to threads? I didnt receive any notification of replies to my threads??

It's off by default. You need to go into your User Control Panel, and look under "Settings & Options" for "Edit Options". In there is a listing called "Default Thread Subscription Mode", and change it to "Instant Email Notification". I do thin you have to subscribe to the thread first for it to work though (top right of this page pick "Thread Tools", then "Subscribe to this thread").

[mcdragon2]

I have this on my compaq 8510p laptop and figured it was a video card issue. but i'm running windows 7 32-bit

[Ol_Hardcore]

Originally Posted by Tipstaff

It's off by default. You need to go into your User Control Panel, and look under "Settings & Options" for "Edit Options". In there is a listing called "Default Thread Subscription Mode", and change it to "Instant Email Notification". I do thin you have to subscribe to the thread first for it to work though (top right of this page pick "Thread Tools", then "Subscribe to this thread").

LOL i see this now fter not gettting notification and forgeting about the thread for a month! I tried everyhing but no joy. Turned out to be an issue with win7 not likng my monitor in the end. I got a 32inch tv hooked up and that works perfectly .
Great advice though, thanks alot for the help.

[Judas]

yeah some monitors display information being sent back through to the win7 is inaccurate and win vista and win7 will try all it can to properly recognize it..

a cheap non-brand name lcd panel someone brought in after i upgraded them with win7 was complaining about the same problem... ironically an nvidia 7800 series gpu...

resolved with a replacement monitor.. they used the old one for their old xp machine.