Old external monitor blinking (WIndows 11 problem suspected)

Question

My external monitor connected to my Surface Book 2 is blinking on and off. It is connected by a USB-C to VGA adapter (older monitor) which has been working fine until now. I switched to Windows 11 last year and fear that an update has caused this to happen. I have updated all my drivers so they are all current. It is not hardware as external monitor works well with another laptop still on Windows 10. I doubt that the fault is my USB_C port.

***Moved from Windows / Windows 11 / Windows update***

Answer 1

Hi Emily Booboo,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community. I understand that you are experiencing issues with your external monitor blinking when connected to your Surface Book 2 through USB-C to VGA.

We would like to ask for a few details for us to further understand and isolate the issue:

• May I know what is the make and model of the external monitor used?
• Do you have the Surface Book 2 with performance base where it has the NVIDIA graphics?
• Does the blinking issue occur when you run or open specific applications or it just happens randomly even when no applications opened?

Firstly, I would recommend checking if your Surface Book 2 is up to date with the latest Windows updates. To do this, go to Settings > Windows Updates and click on Check for updates. If there are any updates available, please install them and restart your device. Try also to check for the Surface drivers' health through the Surface app and run the Surface Diagnostic Toolkit to make some system checks and repairs. See this page for reference: Fix common Surface problems using the Surface app and Surface Diagnostic Toolkit - Microsoft Support

If the issue persists, I suggest checking the USB-C to VGA adapter. Make sure that it is securely connected to both your Surface Book 2 and the external monitor. You may also want to try using a different USB-C to VGA adapter to see if the issue is with the adapter itself.

Another thing to check is the display settings on your Surface Book 2. Go to Settings > System > Display and please check what is the screen resolution and refresh rate set for the monitor. You can also try changing the resolution and refresh rate of the external monitor to see if that resolves the issue.

If none of the above steps work, you can try updating the graphics driver on your Surface Book 2. To do this, go to Device Manager, expand the Display adapters section, right-click on the graphics driver (Intel(R) UHD Graphics) and select Update driver.

If still the issue persist, please try clearing the display cache of the device then see if it helps. See this page and refer to Solution 9: Troubleshoot connecting Surface to an external display - Microsoft Support

Let me know how it goes.

Kind regards,
Marrion

Answer 2

I have an old AOC monitor still with VGA connections. I have tried everything that you suggested but the monitor still blanks out randomly with my Surface Book 2 via the USB-C connection. The only improvement is that my SUrface Book does not blank out and ping in unison anymore. I have used another external monitor via the USB-3 connection without problem. I am now suspecting that it is my surface book USB-c that is the problem.

The USB-C to VGA adapter works without issue with my other laptop so it is not that.

I have trend micro anti-virus which is up-to-date so it should pick up malicious malware.

What else could I try?

Answer 3

Hi Emily Booboo,

Thank you for getting back and for the details. I'm sorry to hear that issue persists even after those steps suggested. To proceed, let us try to rollback the display adapter of the device following these steps below then see if this helps:

Open Device Manager

Expand Display adapters

Double-click on Intel(R) UHD Graphics

Go to the Driver tab

Select Update driver

Select Browse my computer for drivers

Select Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer

From the list of available versions of the Intel(R) UHD Graphics, select a previous version

Click Next then restart the Surface and see if issues persists

If still issues persist, does your Surface Book 2 also has the NVIDIA display adapter? If yes, try this below:

Open the NVIDIA Control Panel

Go to Manage 3D settings

Under the Global settings tab, select Integrated graphics

Click Apply then restart the Surface

Let me know how it goes.

Kind regards,
Marrion

Answer 4

Thanks for your suggestions. I tried them without any real success. External monitor continued to blank out for a few seconds randomly. However, spurious as it is, just out of the blue, the monitor stopped its erratic behaviour yesterday. I don't know why but am hopeful that it wouldn't return. So wait & see. This is very perplexing nonetheless.

Answer 5

Hi Emily Booboo,

Thank you for the update and sorry to hear that the steps suggested did not help. Glad to hear though that suddenly the issue disappeared, and the monitor works fine now. I'm not sure also what could've fixed the issue but hopefully, this would continue to work smoothly.

Thank you also for spending time here with us in the Community.

Kind regards,
Marrion