How to Fix YouTube Screen Flickering (8 Effective Steps)

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In This Guide

What is YouTube Screen Flickering and What Causes It?

TRY IT NOW: Quick Solutions to Fix YouTube Flickering

1. Update Your Graphics Drivers and Operating System

2. Adjust Browser Settings Regarding Hardware Acceleration

3. Modify Screen Refresh Rate Settings

4. Manage Browser Extensions

5. Run System File Checker and DISM Commands

6. Perform a Clean PC Boot

7. Check for Malware and Driver Conflicts

8. Reinstall the Browser or/and Turn Off ‘Game Mode’

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Screen flickering while watching YouTube disrupts your usual video experience, causing rapid flashing or stuttering visuals.
Users often encounter this problem regardless of their device or browser.
The following guide presents eight steps to resolve YouTube screen flickering issues. These solutions cater to beginners and experienced users and aim to restore smooth video playback.

What is YouTube Screen Flickering and What Causes It?

YouTube screen flickering typically indicates problems with video rendering or display settings. Common causes for that include outdated graphics drivers, hardware acceleration issues, browser problems, incompatible extensions, or system resource limitations.

A common culprit might be wpcmon.exe process draining your CPU.
You might also want to upgrade your RAM as well to improve PC performance and solve Youtube flickering issues.

According to many reports it usually appears only when Youtube site is entered and/or the video starts to play. The screen flickers, lags, and sometimes flashes. 

TRY IT NOW: Quick Solutions to Fix YouTube Flickering

Before proceeding to detailed steps, try these quick fixes:

• Reload the YouTube page
• Restart your browser
• Check your internet connection
• Temporarily disable browser extensions

If these don’t work, continue with the following steps.

8 Effective Ways to Fix Flickering Monitor When Watching YouTube

Let’s dive right into these and see the solutions you can apply to resolve this issue.

1. Update Your Graphics Drivers and Operating System

Outdated graphic drivers might be the culprit behind any visual issues, including video flickering when watching youtube.

• Access “Device Manager” and update your graphics driver.

• Check for and install any pending operating system updates

• Restart your computer after updates

2. Adjust Browser Settings Regarding Hardware Acceleration

Accelerated hardware can drain your system resources and cause flashing, flickering effects when playing video. Follow these steps to turn it off:

• Turn off hardware acceleration in your browser settings.

• Clear browser data, including cache and cookies.

• If issues persist, try a different browser.

3. Modify Screen Refresh Rate Settings

One common cause of a flickering monitor is when its’ refresh rate is not compatible, here’s how to adjust it:

Adjust your screen’s refresh rate:

• Right-click on desktop > “Display settings”.
• Go to “Advanced display settings” > “Display adapter properties”.

• In the “Monitor” tab, try a different refresh rate.

Also consider lowering video quality on “YouTube” to reduce strain on your system, here’s a screenshot showing you how to do it:

4. Manage Browser Extensions

Faulty and incompatible browser plugins is a common problem-causer.
Here’s how to proceed:

• Disable all extensions and test YouTube playback.

• If flickering stops, re-enable extensions one by one to identify the culprit
• Remove or update problematic extensions.

If the issue persists, let’s next fix some internal system files.

5. Run System File Checker and DISM Commands

These particular command prompt commands automatically fixes your Windows’ faulty files and registry errors. Here’s how you can run them simply:

• Open “Command Prompt” as administrator.

• Run these commands:
  DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
sfc /scannow

• Restart your computer after completion.

6. Perform a Clean PC Boot

Some services running in the background can conflict with your browser and Youtube and cause flickering. You should try disabling all of them and ‘clean booting’ until you find a faulty service.
Follow these steps to do so:

• Open “System Configuration” (type “msconfig” in ‘Start‘ menu).

• In “Services” tab, tick “Hide all Microsoft services” and click “Disable all”.

• In “Startup” tab, disable all items.

• Restart and test “YouTube”.
• If successful, re-enable services and startup items gradually to identify conflicts.

7. Check for Malware and Driver Conflicts

No need to say that viruses, malware, and faulty drivers can cause a myriad of problems on your PC.
Here’s what you need to do:

• Run a full system scan with your antivirus software (or Windows Defender if you don’t use an anti-virus soft).

• In “Device Manager”, look for devices with yellow exclamation marks.

• Update or reinstall drivers for problematic devices.

8. Reinstall the Browser or/and Turn Off ‘Game Mode’

The last thing you can try is reinstalling your browser and turning off “Game Mode” in your Windos OS:

• If all else fails, uninstall and reinstall your browser.

Consider disabling “Windows Game Mode”:

• Open “Settings” > “Gaming” > “Game Mode”.
• Toggle off “Game Mode”.

• Test YouTube playback after each change.

If these 8 steps don’t resolve the flickering on your Youtube videos, consider leaving a comment below and explaining your situation as well as downloading the Windows-fix app below for an automatic fix!

Read also: Paramount+ 3002 error fix and Netflix H403.

If you successfully regained normal viewing of youtube, you might find this useful: how can you bypass Youtube adblock detection?