Troubleshooting a Blinking Monitor Screen

Techwalla may earn compensation through affiliate links in this story. Learn more about our affiliate and product review process here.
Image Credit: BananaStock/BananaStock/Getty Images

A monitor is a screen used to display the user interface on a computer. If the screen quality of a monitor suffers blinking, flickering or other problems, it can be distracting and make it difficult to use a computer effectively. There are many issues that can potentially cause a monitor to function improperly and as such there are several ways to troubleshoot monitor problems.

Advertisement

Step 1

Shut down your PC, turn the monitor off, turn the monitor back on and then start up your PC. Simply restarting electronic devices sometimes resolves issues.

Video of the Day

Step 2

Check your monitor's cable connections. The power cable should be plugged firmly into the back of the monitor and the wall socket or power strip. The monitor interface cable should be plugged firmly into your computer. If connections were loose, seating cables properly may resolve monitor screen quality issues.

Advertisement

Step 3

Replace your monitor's power and interface cable with different cables. Bad cables could cause the monitor to blink or flicker. Also, try plugging the power plug cable for the monitor into a different outlet.

Step 4

Disconnect your monitor and connect it to secondary PC. If the monitor blinking persists on the secondary PC, the monitor itself may be damaged. If the blinking does not occur on the secondary PC, your computer is likely causing the issue.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Step 5

Uninstall recently installed software. If the problem started after installing a new program remove it from your PC by clicking "Start," "Control Panel," "Add/Remove Programs," or "Programs and Features," and then selecting the program and choosing "Remove" or "Uninstall."

Advertisement

Step 6

Install new graphics card drivers. If your graphics card drivers are bad it can affect your display. Click "Start," right click "Computer," select "Manage," "Device Manager," double click on "Display Adapters" right click on your graphics card and select "Update Driver." You can also select "Properties" to find out what kind of card you are using and search for a driver to install at the website of the graphics card's manufacturer.

Video of the Day

Advertisement

Advertisement

references