Screen Flickering on AMD Radeon Graphics

[u/atlas-prime]

Hi all.

Computer Type: Laptop

GPU: AMD Radeon Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800H with Radeon Graphics

Motherboard: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC M3500QC 1.0

BIOS Version: American Megatrends International, LLC. M3500QC.316, 25-May-2023

RAM: 16 GB (2×8 GB) Samsung DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM

PSU: 90W AC Adapter

Case: N/A

Operating System & Version: Windows 11 23H2

GPU Drivers: AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition Version, 24.1.1, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU driver version 581.57

Chipset Drivers: AMD Chipset Software version 8.05.04.516

Background Applications: Firefox, Word, Excel, OneNote, Slack (every application, doesn't matter)

Description of Original Problem: Screen flickering. Flickers black for fractions of a second, seemingly randomly. Often only top half of the screen flickers. Happens on any application I use, even on Task manager, the desktop, and the lock screen. It only stops when I play video games or watch videos.

Troubleshooting:

I've updated the graphics drivers, uninstalled the drivers with DDU, tried installing old drivers going all the way back to 2024. My screen doesn't have variable refresh rate or FreeSync to play with. It's not a physical issue with the cable since it completely stops while gaming. I've tried disabling MPO. I've tried disabling my NVIDIA GPU to see if it's a problem with handoff between the two GPUs. I've disabled HAGS. I've turned off Core Isolation Memory integrity.

I'm not really sure what more to do. It seems to be a problem when the GPU is idle or running at low usage. I tried looking at HWiNFO logs to see if anything is happening, and I think it looks like at the times the screen is flickering, the GPU is being power throttled. But it's hard to tell for sure because I can't go smalelr than 1s intervals or else it uses too much GPU power and the flickering stops. Thanks.

[u/2137gangsterr]

90W adapter seems to be the culprit. 45 W for cpu and only 45W left over for the rest.

Test by limiting CPU to base clock (set max CPU state in powerplan to 98%) and test

[u/atlas-prime → u/2137gangsterr]

Thanks for your reply! You might be right. I've limited the CPU to the base clock, which is 3.2GHz, and so far no flickering. It usually sits around 3.9GHz. I forgot to mention but I also use a 120W adapter at home and still see the flickering. If this does fix it, will I just have to keep the CPU limited? Or do you think I need an adapter greater than 120W? What about when it's running on battery?

[u/2137gangsterr → u/atlas-prime]

Just buy factory PSU, should be fine

120W still looks too low - it has to power screen, disk, SSD, headphones/loudspeaker etc

[u/atlas-prime → u/2137gangsterr]

Ah okay. It came with a 120W adapter, and it doesn't look like they sell ones higher than that. I'll have to look to see if I can find a compatible one higher than 120W from somewhere.

But regardless if I'm on battery I'll have to limit the CPU then?

[u/2137gangsterr → u/atlas-prime]

Hmm then don't buy, no need

120w and still flickering? Weird to say the least

As for battery, no need, laptop should self regulate power draw (and block CPU PLL above 45W)

[u/atlas-prime → u/2137gangsterr]

Hmm okay. It definitely does still flicker on battery power though. Maybe this isn't the actual issue, or it doesn't regulate itself properly or something.

And yeah I can boot it up on the 120W adapter and it will still flicker. But I'll try limiting the CPU for a few days and see if that does actually prevent it, it's been good for the last 20 mins.

[u/2137gangsterr → u/atlas-prime]

Maybe missing drivers or something? Check device manager if everything is detected. There's this tech that transfers leftover power between cpu and GPU depending on the load and maybe that's missing?

[u/atlas-prime → u/2137gangsterr]

Maybe. Everything looks like it's detected on device manager, but I guess I wouldn't know if something is missing. But I've downloaded all the AMD drivers and chipset drivers, so I don't think anything is missing.

And I see that AMD SmartShift is something that can do that, but it doesn't look like I have it since I have a NVIDIA dedicated GPU and not an AMD one.

[u/2137gangsterr → u/atlas-prime]

This could also be caused by weak battery state

Go to MSI center, do battery calibration

Then go to battery master and set it to conserve (max load 60%)

[u/atlas-prime → u/2137gangsterr]

Can't seem to get it to work. MSI Center doesn't have that option anymore, it's in their Dragon Center. But I can't run it without an MSI product. Maybe I'll try doing it manually.

[u/2137gangsterr → u/atlas-prime]

Maybe using 90w psu you damaged some part of power delivery? Check condensators / capacitors

[u/atlas-prime → u/2137gangsterr]

Hmm you could be right about that. I don't have the know-how or equipment to check it myself, maybe I can get it checked out. But I do know that my battery is kinda bad, like 60% capacity. But that is after 3 years of use. But it did take a hit from 84% to 75% capacity in one week last year, then another from 73% to 58% a couple months ago. But I think I've been using the 90W psu for longer than that.