[montecarlo1987]

Hello. I figured this is the best hardware sub-topic to place my issue in, even though it could be under another sub-topic. I do not know the cause so I assumed this was the best one.

For the last few days now (never had this happen before and totally out of the blue), my monitor on my desktop has been flickering. When I say flickering, I mean that it flickers once quickly. The color of the flicker that I can pick up with my naked eye is just slow enough so it looks black in color. The flicker is about a half a second. This occurs very random now. It was occurring about every hour or two. Just last night is was happening about 5, 10 or even 15 minutes apart. Always just one flicker with 1/2 second in duration. Nothing happens to my programs that are running after this happens. System appears okay.

Now, during last night's flickering, the desktop area of Windows XP (everything above the taskbar) was all solid black for less than a second; at the same time the taskbar's border lines ("Start", the buttons for open applications, and the system tray) were highlighted in a wide light gray boarder with a black area inside each area. After that brief second, it all came back to normal after flickering back to normal as if the images on my screen were generating back to normal. Now today, it is just back to that super fast flicker again every hour or so.

I'll add that if I am reading a long article online and I have not changed the screen for a couple of minutes (no scrolling, mouse, or even keyboard contact), it seems to happen a little more frequent like last night.

I know it could be to a lot of things, but I am sure some of you experts are quick to jump at what actually may be the culprit from experience or knowledge. Please share with me your thoughts and ideas.

How severe is this and could it get worse? Will I need to do something soon like?

Now I know you may need some data about my system to help you. I used Belarc Advisor for the data. I have quickly checked the data you needed. So far looks accurate.

Not in the data: Let you know that my system is custom made. Motherboard: ASUS P5Q (standard version board).

Hope this helps.

Thank you!!!


Operating System System Model
Windows XP Media Center Edition Service Pack 3 (build 2600)
Install Language: English (United States)

System Locale: English (United States) No details available

Processor
2.85 gigahertz Intel Core2 Quad Q9550
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
12288 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (4 total)
Not hyper-threaded

Main Circuit Board
Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5Q Rev 1.xx
Bus Clock: 333 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 1004 07/10/2008

Memory Modules
3328 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM0' has 2048 MB (serial number SerNum00)
Slot 'DIMM1' is Empty
Slot 'DIMM2' has 2048 MB (serial number SerNum02)
Slot 'DIMM3' is Empty

Drives
1470.47 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
791.22 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H62L [CD-ROM drive]
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H62L [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

Generic USB CF Reader USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 6
Generic USB MS Reader USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 8
Generic USB SD Reader USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 5
Generic USB SM Reader USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 7
Seagate ST380815AS SCSI Disk Device (80.02 GB) -- drive 4, SMART Status: Healthy
ST3500630NS [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 3, SMART Status: Healthy
WDC WD2500JD-22HBB0 [Hard drive] (250.06 GB) -- drive 2, rev 08.02D08, SMART Status: Healthy
WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B2 [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 0
WDC WD5000AAKS-00H2B0 [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 1

Local Drive Volumes
c: (NTFS on drive 0) 262.14 GB 47.62 GB free
d: (NTFS on drive 1) 157.29 GB 145.74 GB free
m: (NTFS on drive 4) 36.70 GB 22.13 GB free
n: (NTFS on drive 1) 104.86 GB 73.91 GB free
p: (NTFS on drive 2) 40.34 GB 20.17 GB free
q: (NTFS on drive 3) 104.86 GB 27.69 GB free
r: (NTFS on drive 0) 211.75 GB 115.12 GB free
s: (NTFS on drive 2) 209.71 GB 95.84 GB free
y: (NTFS on drive 1) 185.54 GB 97.30 GB free
z: (NTFS on drive 3) 157.29 GB 145.73 GB free

Display
NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT [Display adapter]
Samsung SyncMaster [Monitor] (19.1"vis, July 2005)

Controllers
Standard floppy disk controller
Intel® ICH10 Family 2 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 2 - 3A26
Intel® ICH10 Family 4 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 1 - 3A20
Primary IDE Channel [Controller] (2x)
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller] (2x)

Bus Adapters
Generic Marvell 61xx RAID Controller
Intel® ICH10 Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 3A3A
Intel® ICH10 Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 3A3C
Intel® ICH10 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 3A34
Intel® ICH10 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 3A35
Intel® ICH10 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 3A36
Intel® ICH10 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 3A37
Intel® ICH10 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 3A38
Intel® ICH10 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 3A39
VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller (2x)
VIA USB Enhanced Host Controller

Multimedia
AVerMedia C038 USB Capture Card
Creative SB X-Fi

Communications
1394 Net Adapter
1394 Net Adapter #2
Atheros AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 PCI-E Ethernet Controller

Other Devices
OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller (2x)
APC Battery BackUP
Logitech Driver Interface (2x)
Generic Mount Control Device
American Power Conversion USB UPS
HID-compliant consumer control device
HID-compliant device
USB Human Interface Device (3x)
Wacom HID Digitizer
Wacom HID Pen
Wacom Virtual Hid Driver
Brother MFC-7820N LAN #2
Microsoft USB Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 (IntelliType Pro)
Logitech HID-compliant Marble Mouse
Wacom Mouse
OX16PCI952 PCI UARTs
UIM Drive Backup Image Plugin
Universal Image Mounter Controller
USB Composite Device
USB Mass Storage Device
USB Root Hub (11x)

[Match]

Hi MonteCarlo

Are you using Firefox by any chance? 3.6.8?