Flickering screen issue in HP spectre x360 15'

[jadavis3]

I think this may have been mentioned by someone before but in case it hasn't, I fixed this problem with my Spectre by changing the screen refresh rate. I believe that I switched it from 60hz to 50hz.

Anyone who hasn't tried that yet might want to give it a shot; at least it's a quick and easy thing to check.

[Mamdaddy5]

Same issue with my two month old Spectre 360 15". Ran fine in the beginning, running two external monitors. 

Started to have the flickering issue and tried the solutions suggested. None seemed to work. Connected to HP support, and the first tech ended up logging on to my PC. He fixed something, I believe rolling back to an older driver. All good! So I thought. 

Tried to expand the display to my other monitors, and it would not let me. Said I had to install newer drivers or use a different video card. 

Re-installed the current drivers, the flickering came back, and off to the races again. 

Tried to get back to the tech via the information link he gave me, but it turned out it was a link to support for Outlook, So I went through 2 techs there before we figured out it was the wrong department. The fourth Tech I spoke to via chat wanted me to do everything myself, but the resolution they provided was ineffective. after the fifth tech, which two of them told me I would have to pay - for a HP issue on a pc that is still under warranty, I was disconnected from them and sent an email telling me to hard reset. 

Here is what I noticed. Every time I unplugged the unit, the screen would dim when it went to power save mode. (Battery)

So, I right clicked on the screen, went to Display Settings, and reduced the BRIGHTNESS just enough that it stopped. HAS NOT FLICKERED SINCE! 

I hope this helps at least some of you. 

[JP681]

Hi, just for my info, was this 4k of full HD screen?

[jadavis3]

Mine is the 4k.

[Locke85]

My 4k hp spectre screen would flicker everytime I would restart or boot the laptop up. I found a work around that involved turning it on an off several times and it would work normal like it is supposed to, this work around just involved turning it on and off out of sleep mode several times. nothing else. sent the laptop into be fixed while still under warranty. they told me that because their were scratches around the one usb port and a tiny little scratch on the metal on one of the corners that I don't think was there before I sent it because of these cosmetic scratches the screen had to be replaced and it was not covered under warranty. $660 I was told it would cost. I took very good care of the computer and the flickering issue happened out of no where. take lots of pictures of your laptop before you send it and just be prepared for them to take a magnifying glass to your laptop to look for reasons to not cover fixing your laptop while its under warranty. hp lost a customer today. felt like I've been scammed. $1700 laptop + $660 to fix this screen flickering issue that seems to not just be affecting my laptop but many many people.

[doubleg76]

That really is too bad. It should be a solid laptop for a good period of time given its expense.  

I too own this laptop and have been seeing the same issue. 

Mine is out of warranty but it has been a consistent problem for me that I never reported properly. 

I did report a slight electrical noise that was never resolved fully after a few attempts. I was happy with that support given but I am sad to see your experience with support and the costs involved. 

Losing a customer is typically expensive and it damages the brand way more than just the one persons interaction. 

I will probably need to get this laptop repaired, but I worry there isn't really a fix even if paid for so I will probably be shopping around for a different brand. 

[MrWuf]

I purchased an HP Spectre x360 15" in November 2019.

i7 CPU

16gb RAM

4k resolution  

SSD 

I recently enountered the same issue reported numerous times in this thread.  It started w/ the bottom-half of my screen 'flickering' with it occasionally spreading to the entire display. 

I verified I'm up to date w/ all device drivers, BIOS, etc. 

Verified no issue w/ anti-virus.

Connecting the laptop to an external display (e.g. HDMI) or remoting into it from another device does not reproduce the 'flickering'. 

I changed my refresh rate from 60p Hz to 40p Hz and the 'flickering' immeditely stopped.  Switching it to battery power (i.e. unplugging the laptop) resulted in the 'flickering' resuming. Decreasing the screen brightness caused the 'flickering' to stop.

I attemped a dimmer screen display w/ the 60p Hz Refresh Rate and the 'flickering' occurs.

I played w/ the power settings, including adjusting my profiles (Plugged In vs Battery), but have not come across any other settings that appear to make a difference.

FWIF: For the time being, if I use 40p Hz w/ my display at less than max brightness the 'flickering' does not occur (plugged in or on battery).

I contacted HP support and after going through the standard troubleshooting steps, their best guess it is a display issue.  They're sending me a box tomorrow to have the laptop sent back to them tomorrow.  I'll try to reply to this thread if I'm able to learn anything definitive.

[Locke85]

regardless of how good you took care of your laptop they will go over your laptop with a magnifying glass. they pointed to defects that came with my laptop brand new out of the box for reasons they couldnt repair it under warranty and wanted to charge me $700 to replace the entire screeen/upper half of the laptop. So I actually agreed because **bleep** else could I do. they charge my card and then they finally go ahead and take a look at the thing i guess. at some point the figured out that it was a driver issue or something that was obviously not my fault. they fix it and send it back to me with the same screen. I could tell because my fingerprints were still on it and i could just tell it was my same screen. I call them and ask why they didnt replace the screen. they say they sent it back by accident, but guess what lo and behold the screeen flicker issue is gone. it's been 4 months and it hasnt happened again and it used to happen every time i started or opened my laptop. I dunno what the story is other than they will try their hardest to not honor their warranty. they will point to a tiny scratch where you plug your headphones in and say that they cant honor their warranty bc of it. I'm not lying. hope they dont screw you over

[MrWuf]

Update: 24 hours later... same settings as last evening but the flickering is back.  The login screen wasn’t legible.  Once logged in, the same behavior as last night resurfaced.  Bottom-half of the screen is flickering some consistently. Periodically the entire screen flickers and is not legible.   

[taulatin]

I changed my refresh rate from 60p Hz to 40p Hz and it helped. Thank you!

Unfortunately, it will not fix it for 100%. The quality of the picture still is not well.