How to Fix a Chromebook Screen That Keeps Flickering and Dimming?


How to Fix a Chromebook Screen That Keeps Flickering and Dimming

A flickering laptop screen can be frustrating in various ways, like having a negative impact on your workload due to frequent screen flickering and dimming. In addition, it will decrease productivity since you will need to take more frequent breaks to avoid the chance of eye strain and headaches. There are several varieties of flicker, including quick, random flickers and permanent appearances. How your Chromebook screen flickers can be used to identify the source of the problem.

To fix the Chromebook screen that keeps flickering and dimming, check for faulty hardware, disable color matches on the laptop, check web page issues or graphics-related issues and check for scroll issues. If the flickering continues, update and install Chrome and Windows, disable hardware acceleration, make sure you have the latest Chrome version, try to modify your registry, and check for system issues.

Numerous Google Chrome users have expressed dissatisfaction with the flickering issue in recent months. As a result, we’ve compiled a list of practical solutions for your Chrome flickering problem in this post. 

What screen flickering

A screen flicker is a change in brightness that can be seen on video displays. It mostly applies to the refresh interval on TVs and computer monitors with cathode ray tubes.

Possible reasons why your Chromebook screen is flickering and dimming:

Lack of visibility and productivity due to a flickering laptop LCD may be costly to your organization. A loose power cable or wrong power settings might be at fault. Otherwise, the laptop’s LCD screen has to be replaced since it’s broken or deteriorating.

AC adapter cord problem.

A laptop screen suddenly dimming is most likely caused by an AC adapter cord that has come undone. When a battery powers a laptop, the screen brightness is automatically reduced to conserve energy. Make sure the laptop’s AC cable is securely plugged into the outlet. Even though there is no movement at the laptop connection, damage to the internal power component may cause dimming. 

Option for power savings.

You can improve picture quality, decrease eye strain, or preserve power by adjusting the screen brightness when battery power is on. But incorrectly changing this parameter might result in an abnormally dark display. 

Failure of a Component

Chromebook light issues and LCD breakdown are more challenging reasons for a flickering laptop screen. The picture on the liquid crystal display is controlled by an inverter board and a backlight bulb. A long bulb requires a greater voltage than the laptop’s internal components can supply for the LCD screen. A failure of an inverter board or bulb can result in a dimmer display. 

Tips for fixing the problem if your Chromebook screen is flickering and dimming

We will discuss ways to identify this Chromebook flicker bug and possible solutions. 

How to fix the Chromebook’s flickering screen

Check for faulty hardware.

Occasionally, the flickering is caused by faulty hardware on your computer. To avoid getting bogged down in extensive troubleshooting, you may start with this simple step to verify your hardware. No one wants to spend hours troubleshooting to discover that something is seriously wrong with their computer system.

Check your cable connections first to make sure there are no hardware problems. Next, check that the display cable is in excellent working order and that both ends are firmly connected. Finally, ensure that the passive adapter you’re using is of high quality, ideally a branded one, if you’re using a DP to HDMI converter, for example, before proceeding.

You might also experiment with other cables and adapters to see if that makes a difference in your situation. Finally, if you’re confident with your cable and adapter, then you can continue with the below steps. 

Disable color match.

 For those who want to use a custom wallpaper on Windows 10, you may activate an option that will automatically adjust the accent color of the Start menu, taskbar, and action center to match the base color of the wallpaper you’re now using.

While this appears to be a useful option for customizing the browser, several reports have it that this function is the source of Chrome flickering issues. As a result, you can disable this option by following these steps:

  • Click on an empty space of your desktop with the right mouse button and select “Personalize” from the drop-down menu that appears.
  • You will find colors in the left-hand menu. In the accent color section, make sure to tick “Automatically pick an accent color.”

How to Fix a Chromebook Screen That Keeps Flickering and Dimming

Open Google Chrome and check to see whether the screen flickering has stopped. If this strategy does not prove beneficial in your situation, try the next step below. 

Check for a web page issue.

A change in backdrop color due to customization of websites may be misinterpreted as screen flickering in some situations. However, the web page flickering is not Chrome itself but rather linked to Chrome. Therefore, testing the same page with multiple web browsers can allow you to determine if the problem is merely a web page issue.

Try the next step if the dimming problem continues after testing web pages. 

Check for graphics-related issues.

Graphics problems frequently cause flickering issues. In other words, if you are using a graphics driver that is either broken or obsolete, you may have this issue. Therefore, if you want to avoid display problems, you should always make sure you’re running the most recent graphics driver available.

Manually updating your graphics driver may be accomplished by visiting the website of the graphics card manufacturer (NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel), looking for your model number, and then downloading the most recent driver from the website. However, if you don’t have the time, patience, or computer skills to update drivers manually, you may use Driver Easy free download to do so for you.

Select update all from the drop-down option to have your system automatically download and install the most recent version of any missing or out-of-date drivers on your system.

After you’ve updated your network driver, restart your computer and see whether Chrome starts flickering once more. If the Chromebook dimming persists, then try the next step.

Check for scroll issues. 

When scrolling, some Chrome users claim that the browser flickers. The Smooth-Scrolling flags can be used to see if your issue persists after you’ve updated your graphics driver.

Follow these steps to get started:

  • You should open Chrome and enter chrome:/flags in the address bar and click Enter.
  • Search for “smooth scrolling” in the search field. Try enabling and disabling Smooth Scrolling to find out which works best. After making changes to Chrome’s settings, restart the browser.

If you still have flickering screen issues, try the next step.

Update and install Chrome and Windows.

Bug fixes and compatibility improvements are included in the latest Chrome release. For example, the flickering issue may have been resolved in the most recent version. To see if Chrome has been updated, you can do the following:

  • Take a look at the web browser of your choice. The “three dots” icon may be seen in the upper right corner of the screen. 
  • Select Help > About Google Chrome from the menu that appears. The update should start as soon as you open this page.
  • It’s time to relaunch Chrome when the browser has been updated. There is no need to continue if you use Chromebook’s newest version.

You’ll get regular security fixes and a speed boost every few months if you’re using Windows. However, if you haven’t examined system updates in a while, you must do so immediately. But if the screen dimming continues, try the next step.

Check for hardware acceleration.

The CPU can outsource part of the page loading and rendering operations to the GPU, so hardware acceleration enables more efficient page loading and rendering. Graphical difficulties have been reported due to the use of this function, although it may improve your overall experience. You might want to deactivate it and see what happens.

Open Chrome in your web browser, and click on the “three dots” icon in the upper right corner of the screen. Then, click on the Settings button.

Type “hardware” into the browser’s search box. Turn off the Use hardware acceleration option, then click Relaunch. You may now go to several websites to observe if Chrome flickers. If the first repair doesn’t work, try the second or third.

Check your Chrome version.

Specific builds appear to have a flickering issue, according to several reports. Try downgrading your Chrome version if none of the techniques listed above worked for you. Go to the Slimjet download page and pick the prior version you want to revert to accomplish this. Be sure to switch off automatic updates after installing an older version of Chrome. 

Modify your registry

A small number of users noted that the flickering might have been caused by dwm.exe (Desktop Window Manager), which has been resolved in Windows 11. In addition, there is a workaround for Windows 10. To test if this is applicable in your situation, you can make changes to your registry and see if they affect it.

  • Select the Win+R key on your keyboard, then type or paste regedit into the text box. 
  • To proceed, click OK.
  • In the Registry Editor on the address bar, type or paste HKEY LOCAL MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsDWM and click Enter to open the Registry Editor.
  • In the right pane, on an empty space, right-click, and then pick New DWORD (32-bit) value from the drop-down menu that appears.
  • OverlayTestMode is the name of the mode.
  • Right-click on the entry and change the value to 5 by pressing the Enter key. Then restart your computer and check to see whether the flicker has returned.

How to Fix a Chromebook Screen That Keeps Flickering and Dimming

If the screen flickering persists, try the next step. 

Check for system issues.

In the worst-case scenario, your system has failed, or some critical data has been damaged or deleted. You’ll need a tool to check the integrity of your system, and you’ll need it quickly. 

Consider using Restoro to fix your computer’s operating system if you need to. Using this sophisticated program, you can restore your computer by searching for and repairing all damaged files. Of course, you’ll also retain all of your settings and data.

  • Reimage should be downloaded and installed.
  • Open Reimage and select the Yes option. This will do a free scan of your computer and provide you with a thorough report on the condition of your computer.
  • Wait for Reimage to complete its scan of your computer. It may take a few minutes to complete this process.

Upon completion, it will present you with a report detailing all the problems. To automatically correct all of the issues, click START REPAIR (you need the full version). If Reimage does not resolve your case within 60 days of purchasing it, you will be given a refund at any time.

Eddie Mcfarren

Eddie Is no stranger to technical writing after spending years in Networking, IT Infrastructure management, and online content marketing. He is an avid researcher, Software and apps dev tester who spends hours solving problems behind the scenes. Get in touch with him via social media and you can email him via contact@gawkygeek.com

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