Video to monitor cycles on and off

lbeck · Aug 13, 2026

PC doesn't actually reboot or even sign out to require user sign-in. But the screen goes dark and programs generally shut down. This cycles every 2-5 seconds. I have 2 monitors and if I'm fast enough I can load a program and some will stay on the second monitor, but my primary monitor continues the cycling. I've eliminated the possibility that it's a monitor problem. It's the signal to the primary monitor that continues cycling.

Google search suggests that it may be due to overheating. I've opened the computer door and disconnected all external HDDs and even the Ethernet cable. Nothing I've tried so far helps. I'm happy to supply additional information.

Ghot · Aug 13, 2026

lbeck said:
Nothing I've tried so far helps

You can use HWMonitor to monitor the temps...

HWMONITOR | Softwares | CPUID

HWMonitor for Windows® x86/x64 is a hardware monitoring program that reads PC systems main health sensors : voltages, temperatures, powers, currents, fans speed, utilizations, clock speeds ... The program handles : CPU and GPU-level hardware monitoring...

www.cpuid.com

It would also help to know which computer of yours, has this problem.

And just in case...

DDU Instructions - Nvidia

I don't know if this will solve your issue, but everyone should know about the Tutorial below, and the DDU instructions.

Sometimes the drivers that MS occasionally includes with Windows Updates... can conflict with drivers that are already installed. Which is what the tutorial below is for.

DDU, on the other hand, will remove all the leftovers from MS or Nvidia drivers, so when you install an Nvidia driver, it has a clean slate to work with.

1. First, do Option Two, step #3 and onward, here...

Enable or Disable Include Drivers with Windows Updates in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable including drivers with Windows Updates in Windows 10 and Windows 11. Windows Update will include drivers when available in Windows 11 by default. You can enable the Do not include drivers with Windows Updates policy to not include drivers...

www.elevenforum.com

2. This will block MS from including drivers in Windows Updates.
3. They'll still be listed as Optional Updates, if you ever need them.

1. Get this program, here: Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) | Wagnardsoft ...get the latest version, and save it to your desktop.
2. Get the Nvidia WHQL vid card driver here... https://www.guru3d.com/files/category/videocards-nvidia-geforce-windows-7-8-10/ ...save this to your desktop.
3. Unhook the internet completely.
4. Reboot into Safe Mode and run DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) choose the "Highly Recommend Option", and just do what it tells you.
5. After it's done, reboot to normal mode, then just double click the Nvidia driver to install.
[See pics below]. If it want's to reboot, let it.
Rehook the internet.

Lavik · Aug 13, 2026

You're experiencing a cyclical crash of the Windows graphical shell (explorer.exe or dwm.exe processes - the Desktop Window Manager). The computer doesn't fully reboot, but the graphics engine crashes and restarts every 2-5 seconds.
Since some programs survive on the second monitor, this confirms that the PC itself is working, but the process of displaying images to the primary display (cable, settings, driver) is malfunctioning.
Temporarily disabling the second monitor may help narrow down the bottleneck.

wiganken · Aug 13, 2026

Q1 - Which of your two systems is this happening on?

Q2 - Had you installed anything (software or hardware) just before this started happening or did it just start on its own?

Q3 - Are you able to update your two OS's to the latest version and build? 25H2 Build 26200.9168.

lbeck · Aug 13, 2026

First, I need to apologize for not keeping my profile up to date. The computer with the problem is system number one, the cyberpowerPC. The Acer that I have in my profile has been retired and probably works. But I don't know what good confirming that would do. I'm working from a laptop now. I'll add that to my profile after I get my primary computer operational.

You all have given great advice. I'll try everything suggested and will report back to tell what worked.

Thank you all very much.

Lavik · Aug 13, 2026

There's a known bug in Windows 11/10: when File Explorer tries to render the taskbar on a second monitor with a scaling (DPI) or refresh rate (Hz) mismatch, it enters an endless crash loop.

1. On a working second monitor, right-click an empty area of the taskbar and select Taskbar settings.
2. Expand "Taskbar behavior."
3. Find and uncheck "Show the taskbar on all displays."
4. If this is the issue, the flickering should stop immediately.

lbeck · Aug 14, 2026

Lavik said:
There's a known bug in Windows 11/10: when File Explorer tries to render the taskbar on a second monitor with a scaling (DPI) or refresh rate (Hz) mismatch, it enters an endless crash loop.

1. On a working second monitor, right-click an empty area of the taskbar and select Taskbar settings.
2. Expand "Taskbar behavior."
3. Find and uncheck "Show the taskbar on all displays."
4. If this is the issue, the flickering should stop immediately.

Exellent response and I tried it first. Unfortunately "Show the taskbar on all displays." was already unchecked.

Thanks anyway.

View attachment 179692

Lavik · Aug 14, 2026

Does the flickering stop if I temporarily make only one monitor active in Windows display settings (switch the display mode with the Win + P keys to "Computer screen only" mode)?

lbeck · Aug 14, 2026

Lavik said:
Does the flickering stop if I temporarily make only one monitor active in Windows display settings (switch the display mode with the Win + P keys to "Computer screen only" mode)?

lbeck · Aug 14, 2026

No. and flickering isn't my problem. Issue is that my main computer (system 1 in my profile) has video that cycles on and off every ~2-5 seconds.

Thanks though. I'm going to try the other suggestions. I may get more clues.

Lavik · Aug 14, 2026

lbeck said:
No. and flickering isn't my problem.

I didn’t express myself correctly. Of course, we’re talking about the video signal.

You can try to find out the cause using Task Manager.
Since programs are opening on the second monitor, let it check what exactly is "killing" Explorer on the first.

1. In Task Manager, go to the "Details" tab.
2. Find the explorer.exe process.
3. Right-click it and select "Analyze wait chain."
4. Windows will show which system process or process ID (PID) is blocking Explorer and causing it to crash.

lbeck · Aug 14, 2026

Lavik,

Temporarily disabling the second monitor may help narrow down the bottleneck.

More information but not a solution.

I disabled my MAIN monitor and my primary PC appears to function 90% okay on my second monitor. It rocognizes only my laptop keyboard/mouse and I can't cut/paste stuff from monitor 1. Maybe I can save to the cloud and work from there. Maybe - Maybe - Maybe - Maybe but of course that's unaccptable.

Still working on this trying to find a solution........

lbeck · Aug 14, 2026

You can try to find out the cause using Task Manager.
Since programs are opening on the second monitor, let it check what exactly is "killing" Explorer on the first.

1. In Task Manager, go to the "Details" tab.
2. Find the explorer.exe process.
3. Right-click it and select "Analyze wait chain."
4. Windows will show which system process or process ID (PID) is blocking Explorer and causing it to crash.

I'm working from my laptop. I think that I've really messed up. I got to the point 3 "Analyze wait chain" and as shown in the attached image it says that Explorer is running normally. Being impatient I clicked the option to "End process". I think it returned a warning or two and I clicked the go-ahead buttons. Now I've worsened my problem and even after several restarts I can't get either monitor working properly. I've tried using settings to change display parameters and nothing works there. So in desperation I tried using Windows recovery to return my Windows settings to an earlier time and that doesn't work either.

So at this point I need to ask if you know of a way to return my main computer to the point before I deleted Explorer - the point where I started this thread. Or do I need to start a NEW thread on how to reset Windows without losing my apps and saved data.

Clearly the problem is my doing and zero blame is your helpful suggestions.

Lavik · Aug 15, 2026

lbeck said:
So at this point I need to ask if you know of a way to return my main computer to the point before I deleted Explorer - the point where I started this thread.

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

This is exactly the method. Recovery via Windows Update helped me out recently.

lbeck · Aug 15, 2026

Thanks so much for your continued support. My computer is working i weird ways previously unseen, but at least it's back working. I'll report here after I get things figured out.

Thanks again.

lbeck · Aug 15, 2026

Okay - I'm going to call this "solved." Somehow 90% with Lavik's help and some with my poking around, my monitor is no longer cycling on and off. There are a few formatting issues but I'm convinced that I can work through those. I wish that I could cite one, or even a few, things that I did to accomplish success. But i can't and I'm not going to break it again and fix it to identify what worked. I do know that Microsoft's shut-down and repair utilities played a large part. But I used those in desperation only after I broke my computer by not regrading warnings,

In any event, thanks to all who contributed here ad especially to Lavik who stuck with me through the issues.

Video to monitor cycles on and off

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