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
    2018-03-28T10:22:27+00:00

    Yeah, mine affects the UEFI as well which means it's not an application problem (unless something has infected the BIOS and lower level pre-windows stuff). As it has not even loaded the windows graphical drivers at that point I don't believe there will be a Windows update to fix this :(

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-03-28T10:04:01+00:00

    Mine started on 27th May. Yesterday.

    Works for about half hour then screen flickers. I purchased my SP4 end of August 2016. Never experienced this till yesterday. Happens in UEFI as well. 

    Serial: 064028161953

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-03-27T20:52:16+00:00

    [Surface Pro 4, Screen Flickering,  FIXED (until now)]

    Hi! 

    My one year old Surface Pro 4  started with a strange flickering on left side of the screen. Although seemed to be not as bad as other cases reported it was annoying. After some research on line I found some Microsoft help that suggest a test to get a diagnostics and then correct it:

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12374/windows-10-troubleshoot-screen-flickering

    In my case, it seems that an app is probably causing the problem. I don't have any of the known incompatible apps installed. I suspect of an app that I use to change my desktop background and download automatically daily Bing images, but I don't want to uninstall it.

    My other option, as someone has suggested, is to keep task manager open all the time to make flickering disappear. It seems to work, but is not very practical. Starting from the point that some background activity helps with flickering issue -may be related to direct communication with the hardware as Windows task manager seems to perform- I looked for another System Monitor more convenient to use.

    After trying some System monitors, I decided to install permanently this one:

    http://www.wisecleaner.com/wise-system-monitor.html

    Is a free utility that gives some system useful information in real time, but the best part is that it keeps a very small floating window that you can locate anywhere on the screen. Is always on the front but is not annoying at all and so far it has make screen flickering disappear!

    I hope this lasts, at least until Microsoft releases some patch to correct the problem.

    If someone tries this, kindly share your experience to contribute with this knowledge base and help others.

    I'll update this post accordingly to changes on my Surface behavior.

    Best regards,

    Mig.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-03-27T02:53:49+00:00

    Hi! Mine started with a few flickering lines in the bottom of the screen so I had to reposition my taskbar to the right. No biggie there.

    But recently just about this week everytime I maximize a window, my whole screen just started flickering and it is not even overheating. There a times too that it would start flickering on it's own for a few seconds without me doing anything. 

    I have tried the fix suggested in the forums - updating drivers, disabling some background apps, etc. - but it's still there.

    Hoping that Microsoft will issue a fix soon. Otherwise it's really money wasted.

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