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

Hello,

I entered the UEFI settings and the problem does not appear.

However, in my opinion this is not indicative of a software issue, but indicative of a fact that the hardware does not work as intended when it tries to optimize power consumption. The problem seems to appear because one of the drivers (or the kernel itself, or even the firmware but unlikely) tries to conserve power when there is no activity on screen and lowers either some currents or some PWM refresh rates in an effort to lower power draw, which causes this issue. That's why the problem temporarily disappears while moving the mouse.

An urgent update should disable this power management feature (even at the expense of battery life), because as I see it the flickering does no good to the screen and the flicker begins to extend slightly along the lower edge of the screen and this is not a good sign.

I also suspect that many people do not notice the flicker because they use black as the taskbar color, which masks the issue (but it is still there if you look carefully).

Believe it or not, but I had the same problem and I fixed it by changing the collor of the taskbar to "light". It is sad that I have to use it like this, but it is better than going back to the store and losing time trying to fix it.

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.

Hi Catalin Stavaru1,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Community.

Screen flicker on the new Surface Laptop 3 is not like what happened to the Surface Pro 4. This might just be a software glitch on the device. Please follow these steps to troubleshoot the issue:

1: Run Surface Diagnostic Toolkit and check Windows Update

2: Update drivers and firmware

                               Check what is the current OS Build of your Windows version by going to Settings > System > About.

                               Go to Download driver and firmware for Surface, choose Surface Laptop 3 then click Download on the next page.

                               Choose the .msi file that matches your current OS Build and click Next.

                               After downloading, run and install the .msi then Restart.

3: Run System File Checker Tool in Windows 10

If this answer your question, we highly encourage you to inform our Community by clicking on Yes or marking my post as an answer. This will help other members who may have the same issue as you. Otherwise, don't hesitate to update us so we can further assist you.

Kind Regards,

Marrion Y.