Flicker in Workspace & Palette Bin

[Diana]

I have a friend who just installed PSE6 on his new CPU (with WinXP) and he has an annoying flicker that crops up regularly in his workspace and palette bin. He tried resetting preferences, and then reinstalling with Virus Protection disabled, but no joy... still has it.

Has anyone else had this problem, or if not, does anyone have any ideas of a possible fix?

TIA

Diana

[johnrellis]

He wouldn't have Windows XP 64-bit would he? On Vista 64, the Read Me describes a similar issue:
Vista 64: There is some flickering and screen delay (2 or 3 seconds) when switching between images in the Quick Fix mode on Vista 64.

[Diana]

Thanks, John, but he doesn't. I think he's finally decided it may be his video card on his new system. He's just started experiencing the flicker on his email now, too, so that kind of precludes it being Elements.

Diana

[Simenon]

Hi Diana - I too have had a similar experience with my Elements 4 and the flicker carried over into other programs as well, often opening multiple instances of a file or photo. I first ran System File Checker in my Windows XP (32 bit) and for a day it seemed better, but the problem soon returned. I am a pretty savvy PC user and I tried all the usual remedies and then some including a video driver update on this fairly new PC. Nothing worked, and after fighting the good fight for some 10 or 11 days, I finally took the PC to a repair shop where it now sits. I am hoping to get some word on the diagnosis in the next few days, and I will post back if anything meaningful to this post comes out of the experience. I do suspect a hardware related malfunction; the video card (which has 256 MB of dedicated video RAM) or possibly the mobo.

~ Simenon

[Diana]

Hey thanks, Simenon.... keep us updated on it. :)

Diana

[Simenon]

Hi Diana - Here is my experience to date with the flicker problem on my WIN XP unit. The repair shop told me the hard drive had evidence of overheating and needed to be replaced and a fresh install of Windows would be needed at an expense somewhere north of $240. I declined that option, but they did set me to thinking that the problem may be heat related, so I moved the PC to the opposite side of the room away from a nearby heat register where it had been recently situated. Then I ran a read\write test on all sectors of the hard drive which it passed. I installed a hard drive temperature monitor and the temperature is pretty steady at 32°C which is well within the safety zone. For the time being at least, I have removed one side panel for added ventilation to tower. So far all has run well though I haven't had an opportunity for in-depth photo editing sessions due to out of town company visiting for a few days. My current theory is that when the heat from the nearby register kicked in, the case temperature would rise to a high enough level to cause Windows and the System to become unstable. So if your friend is still experiencing the flicker problem, he might consider investigating the hard drive temperature in his PC, or at least remove a side panel to see if the problem persists.

FWIW

~ Simenon