Surface Pro 4, Screen Flickering, Shaking

Anonymous
2017-01-19T07:47:47+00:00

Hi All,

Update: Flickergate is now having a forum to bring all affected users at a single platform to plan for resolvement of issue. Please join at

 https://forum.flickergate.com

UPDATE: Check FlickerGate.com for videos of the problem and to submit your own. 

I purchased SP4 device a few months ago and it was working fine for a month. Then I noticed that when the CPU is at its max, the screen flickers a bit. Investigating further revealed that it flickers even if it is setting idle. It does not flicker if at least one of the following thing is done:

  1. A video being played in browser 
  2. If I keep the touch screen busy by either taping it or keeping a finger on it
  3. If I use the touchpad
  4. If keyboard is used for typing

This resulted in making the device completely unusable while reading articles or ebooks. I am a developer, most of the time I have to read the code and to do that, I have to constantly keep a finger on the touch pad or the screen. I contacted surface support in October and November and was told that the developers are working on the patch. Looking at the updates the developers are pushing since then, I don't think anyone is even aware of the problem there. 

My previous support ticket numbers are:

 ***deleted personally identifiable information***

***deleted personally identifiable information***

Just wondering if anyone else had the same problem (and the fix) and if not, what's the procedure for the refund? I will rather go for a mac then sacrificing $2000+ for a dancing screen.  

Kind Regards,

Abbas

***Personal information deleted by the moderator. Please see the Microsoft Community Frequently Asked Questions for more information on how you can protect your privacy.***

Surface | Surface Pro | Display and screen

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Anonymous
2018-05-11T17:59:00+00:00

Hey Everyone,

Creating the best products and experiences for our customers is our top priority.

We have heard your feedback and after careful examination, have determined that a small percentage of Surface Pro 4 devices are exhibiting a screen flicker that cannot be addressed with a firmware or driver update.

To support customers affected by this issue, we will replace eligible Surface Pro 4 devices for up to three years from the date of purchase, free of charge. If you believe your device is experiencing this issue, please visit our Surface Pro 4 screen flicker article for more details.

Bryan [MSFT]

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-02-27T03:33:14+00:00

    At this stage, disabling screen auto brightness seems to be helping me.  Thanks Graham Hatley. At my last session of a couple of hours of heavy video editing there was no jitter but only a slight blurring of the text but I will see how future sessions go.

    I'm sympathetic to the claim that this is a hardware/heating issue for reasons stated in my original post.  Since my SP4 is more that two years old now, heating could have caused components to deteriorate rapidly and cause the problem which means that being beyond warranty I might be up the proverbial creek without a paddle in terms of getting the problem solved.  I would be nervous about spending so much money again on another fully-speced SP given the potential for this to occur again.  Tragic that MS will not give any guidance on this.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-02-27T03:43:04+00:00

    HEllo DesCarrollAU

    Just wondering when your problem first appeared. I am also trying the auto brightness Off recommendation buy it is too soon to determine if that works

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-02-27T05:35:29+00:00

    The auto brightness thing must be a placebo effect or something. I have never used auto brightness on my SP4 (or any device for that matter) and the jitter or scrambling of the screen still happens to me. Started a month or so ago, 5 days after my warranty expired.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-02-27T06:54:01+00:00

    I purchased the SP4 on 16 Dec 2015.  The jitter problem first emerged on 16 Feb 2018 when I first started some serious video editing.  I have only ever had the problem since then while video editing but by turning off the auto brightness for my most recent video editing session I was able to work for about an hour before I noticed some blurring of text (but no jitter). I will be doing more video editing tonight and will post what happens about jitter.

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