Second Monitor/Screen Flickers/Blinks Black Multiple Times At Launch/Alt Tab On Windows 10

[Phedg1]

The title. Since upgrading my pc to windows 10, whenever I launch the game or alt tab back into the game my second monitor will flicker black, then back to normal again and again about 10 times in a row. Super frustrating and distracting.

[Manager of the Melons]

Payday 2 really doesn't like having a 2nd monitor on at all. But some things worth trying are making sure your screen resolution matches your monitor and game settings:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/311403

Use that to check what your monitor refresh rate is (60 MHz is 60 fps) and your resolution size.

And then apply that to your renderer_settings.xml file.

Like this:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/14/412446292758934434/#c412446292758941816

To clarify though, is your 2nd monitor connected to the same GPU as your first monitor? And is this a integrated card or otherwise?

[Phedg1]

It's the same gpu for both monitors and they aren't inegrated in the motherboard, they're both on a detachable card. To clarify, this didn't happen ever on Windows 7, it's only happening on 10.

[Manager of the Melons]

Originally posted by Phedg1:

It's the same gpu for both monitors and they aren't inegrated in the motherboard, they're both on a detachable card. To clarify, this didn't happen ever on Windows 7, it's only happening on 10.

Thank you. Hm. Are both monitors at the same refresh/resolution settings? And did you make sure to re-install all drivers/ VC redistributables/ DX and physX programs after upgrading to windows 10?

[Phedg1]

Originally posted by Manager of the Melons:

Originally posted by Phedg1:

It's the same gpu for both monitors and they aren't inegrated in the motherboard, they're both on a detachable card. To clarify, this didn't happen ever on Windows 7, it's only happening on 10.

Thank you. Hm. Are both monitors at the same refresh/resolution settings? And did you make sure to re-install all drivers/ VC redistributables/ DX and physX programs after upgrading to windows 10?

Not sure about all drivers. I've certainly done the one for the card, dont' know about physX and DX. Yes, both monitors are the same resolution and refresh rate.

[Manager of the Melons]

Originally posted by Phedg1:

Originally posted by Manager of the Melons:

Thank you. Hm. Are both monitors at the same refresh/resolution settings? And did you make sure to re-install all drivers/ VC redistributables/ DX and physX programs after upgrading to windows 10?

Not sure about all drivers. I've certainly done the one for the card, dont' know about physX and DX. Yes, both monitors are the same resolution and refresh rate.

Hm. Well here is the physX and DX and VC redistributables for PD2:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/14/412446292758948285/#c412448158145040957

And instructions on how to re-install/repair them.

[Mr_Sands80]

Actually I think this is a windows 10 upgrade problem. You need to upgrade your motherboard drivers to windows 10 also do a clean graphics install also- Your drivers were ment for the other os and could make your hardware act wonky.. Go into the task scheduler and deleted some other operating system "only" tasks this will take some research. Also might wanna check date on bios software for your board and see if the issue is listed in the patch notes. Some of your previously installed software may have issues with the system transition also.

Edit: oh yeah also check your event viewer just type event in windows search. Administrative logs- here you can see aplication crashes and system background events- clean up all error and critical error problems.

can look them up via event id on this page for free- (dont buy the tool)
http://www.eventid.net/

Use google, bing, yahoo, ect engines to find fix tutorials for your problems.

[Manager of the Melons]

Originally posted by ☺♦✞◥ByU◤✞♦☺:

Actually I think this is a windows 10 upgrade problem. You need to upgrade your motherboard drivers to windows 10 also do a clean graphics install also- Your drivers were ment for the other os and could make your hardware act wonky.. Go into the task scheduler and deleted some other operating system "only" tasks this will take some research. Also might wanna check date on bios software for your board and see if the issue is listed in the patch notes. Some of your previously installed software may have issues with the system transition also.

Edit: oh yeah also check your event viewer just type event in windows search. Administrative logs- here you can see aplication crashes and system background events- clean up all error and critical error problems.

can look them up via event id on this page for free- (dont buy the tool)
http://www.eventid.net/

Use google, bing, yahoo, ect engines to find fix tutorials for your problems.

Pretty solid advice. But yea, you'd want to make sure all your drivers get re-installed correctly (I advise finding them all, downloading them. Going to safe mode. Uninstalling all of them, restart in safe mode, re-install them). And the VC redist/DX/PhysX and Framework as well.


And this is part of why it is advised (in general) to not do direct upgrades for OSes, but instead back up. Reformat. Then install the new one. In order to avoid issues like this.

[Phedg1]

I should have mentioned. I had this issue, and a few others, when I upgraded to Windows 10. I have since reformatted and done a clean install and the problem in payday 2 persists. And I just confirmed I do have DX and physx installed.

[Phedg1]

On another note, that other thread you locked saying I had made this thread, it was a separate issue. When I alt tab OUT of payday 2, my main screen goes black for about 6 seconds. When I tab into payday 2, this happens to my second monitor.

[Manager of the Melons]

Originally posted by Phedg1:

On another note, that other thread you locked saying I had made this thread, it was a separate issue. When I alt tab OUT of payday 2, my main screen goes black for about 6 seconds. When I tab into payday 2, this happens to my second monitor.

If you are referring to this:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/14/624076751565087513/#c359547436758715075

Then yea. It is a necro post. And since there are no replies to it, and it is from several years ago. It just makes sense to make a new thread about it, and get help on the issue. i do admit it was a misinterpretation on my part that these two issues were one and the same. But we can still try to troubleshoot that after we get this sorted out first (and in all likelyhood, the 2 issues are linked together).

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/fix-windows-10-screen-flashing-problem/

and

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

All seem to point at some background application running that is causing the problem. Do you mind making sure there are either no apps, or applications, running that might be causing the problem? Specifically ones that are "windows based apps"

Like these:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-apps

[Phedg1]

No, there are no apps running. I have not tried to run it in safe mode yet, but I have closed down everything in the system tray except for steam and closed every other program that was open and it still persists.

[Phedg1]

And now when I launch Payday 2 (the flickering second monitor still happens), once it gets to the main screen my main screen keeps flickering and then my whole computer crashes. This is happening consistently. I can't play the game anymore.

[SBZ_Tobias]

A few flickers in not uncommon you launch any full screen game even if it does sound as if you issue persist longer then normal. I can't really come up with mush that melons has not already said. The only think I can think of is the drivers not being 100% compatible with win 10 or the game might run as a different resolution then what is native to the screen.

As for the crash if you post you crash log and mdmp, as well as the rendersettings file we might be able to see something. But as for now I can't really say its the games fault per say.

[Phedg1]

Where might I find these crash logs and mdmp's? Also, I've uploaded a video of the flickering screen so you may judge if it's worse than normal. I find it a huge pain as it's super distracting if you want to change a song or skip forward one episode in netflix, you just can't concentrate whilst it's blinking. It happens with every alt-tab AND at launch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiFLOWqkHnI&feature=youtu.be

I haven't been able to reliably replicate the crash, though it still happens way too often.

[Manager of the Melons]

Originally posted by Phedg1:

Where might I find these crash logs and mdmp's? Also, I've uploaded a video of the flickering screen so you may judge if it's worse than normal. I find it a huge pain as it's super distracting if you want to change a song or skip forward one episode in netflix, you just can't concentrate whilst it's blinking. It happens with every alt-tab AND at launch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiFLOWqkHnI&feature=youtu.be

I haven't been able to reliably replicate the crash, though it still happens way too often.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/14/412446292758948285/#c412448158145039281

This post explains where to find them