I have a problem with Windows Vista that’s really bugging me. It manifests in two main ways:
1) as an intermittent flashing effect – like a throbbing flicker – on the title and status bars of any window that has the focus. Often it happens to a selected item too, or to the whole document – and it is not possible to rename a file using explorer, because edit mode flicks off an instant after entering it;
and 2) if I try to open a folder from the start menu, then both it and the start menu vanish; if I click on a program from the start menu, the start menu vanishes and the program doesn’t run. At its worst (it seems to get worse the longer the pc is on), menus in explorer and applications will appear only for an instant before disappearing – not long enough to select a menu item.
I read that the problem is connected to autoplay, and when I disable autoplay and save, the problem does go away – but in a short period of time (sometimes less than a minute) autoplay has enabled itself again and the flashing resumes.
As well as turning autoplay off, I’ve repeatedly run anti-spyware (Ad-Aware and Defender) and anti-virus software.
My display adapter is motherboard gpu NVIDIA GeForce 7050/NVIDIA nForce 610i (Device Manager says the driver is up to date – it’s 178.13). The default resolution settings are 1440×900 it will only refresh at 60Hz. If I change this to another resolution and raise the refresh rate (to 70 or 72Hz) it makes no difference to the flashing.
It seems to be connected to autoplay – but autoplay doesn’t behave like this on other pcs, and I can’t turn it off and make it stick. Anyone have any ideas how to fix it?