Surface Laptop 3 screen flickering issue - I had this with the Surface Pro 4 too

I am having the same problem. UEFI screen shows no flickering.

Unfortunately, after doing everything suggested, the problem is the same.

I hope that at least it remains confined to that corner and not get worse over the next period. It looks to me like a defective backlight LED or a defective backlight circuit that cannot work well at lower currents or at lower PWM frequencies. A firmware update could maybe fix this but I am really not holding my breath. 

The thing is that I love these 3:2 screen ratios that Microsoft uses for their laptops and tablets (and I hate those 16:9 and even 16:10 formats which are not suitable for business use - especially for programmers - but are more economical to produce due to lower total surface area), and in this regard there is almost no alternative to Microsoft Surface at this time.

Did you have any luck?

I'm not getting it everywhere, but in games and on the desktop for some reason.

Hi Catalin Stavaru1,

Thank you for the response. I'm sorry to hear that the issue persist after those steps. Can you please boot the device to the UEFI screen and check if the flicker on that area also occurs on the UEFI screen? You may check this page for the steps on How to get to the UEFI settings. After checking on the UEFI, just choose Exit > Restart now.

If the flicker also occurs in the UEFI screen, I highly suggest that you Contact Support and check for replacement options available since this is a hardware issue already.

If the flicker does not happen on the UEFI screen, this could just be due to a software on the device and you may re-install Windows on the device using a USB Recovery Image. This option will reimage the entire device and reload Windows including the drivers and firmware. It is the most complete form of Reset and it will wipe out everything on the device so you might need to back up your files first. You will need also a 16GB/32GB of flash drive that must be formatted into FAT32 prior to downloading the Recovery Image. If you like to try, you can follow the steps provided below:

How to Download, Create and Use a USB recovery drive

To download the Recovery Image:

• You'll need a PC running Windows 7 or later or Surface Device.

1. Visit the page to Download the recovery image for your Surface
2. Sign in with your Microsoft Account
3. From the list of Surface devices available, select the device that you need a recovery image for

Please note that while you will only be presented with devices that are currently registered on your account, you will also be presented with the option to get an image for a different type of device. If you try to use this option, you will be prompted to enter the serial number for that device 4. Download the recovery image using the button on the page 5. When the download bar pops up at the bottom of your screen, save the file in a location you will be able to find it.

 Format USB Drive:

• Note: Formatting a recovery drive will erase anything that is already stored on your USB drive. Make sure to transfer any important data from your USB drive to another storage device before using it to create a Surface USB recovery drive.

1. Insert your USB drive into the USB port of your PC.
2. From the desktop, open File Explorer
3. Tap and hold or right-click on the USB drive and choose Format
4. Select FAT32 as the file system and enter a Volume label to name the USB drive, such as RECOVERY, and then tap or click Start
5. Tap or click OK to erase the contents of the USB drive
6. Tap or click OK when the format is complete

Create a recovery drive:

1. On your Surface or PC, open recovery image that you downloaded by double-clicking it or right click then select Extract and then Extract all.
2. Select the USB drive you formatted earlier for the location and click Extract.

Use a USB recovery drive to reset your Surface:

1. Shutdown the Surface
2. Insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port
3. Press and hold the volume-down (-) rocker
4. Press and release the power button
5. When the Surface logo appears, release the volume-down (-) rocker
6. Surface will start the recovery software on the USB recovery drive
7. When prompted, choose your language options and keyboard layout
8. Select Troubleshoot
9. Select Recover from a Drive. Choose Remove Everything and Fully Clean the Drive. Recovering this PC.
10. If prompted, select Repartition the drives
11. If prompted for BitLocker Key, tap Skip this Drive

Kind Regards,

Marrion Y.

Unfortunately, after doing everything suggested, the problem is the same.

I hope that at least it remains confined to that corner and not get worse over the next period. It looks to me like a defective backlight LED or a defective backlight circuit that cannot work well at lower currents or at lower PWM frequencies. A firmware update could maybe fix this but I am really not holding my breath. 

The thing is that I love these 3:2 screen ratios that Microsoft uses for their laptops and tablets (and I hate those 16:9 and even 16:10 formats which are not suitable for business use - especially for programmers - but are more economical to produce due to lower total surface area), and in this regard there is almost no alternative to Microsoft Surface at this time.