Screen flickering at startup...

[Gemini]

Hello, wanted to see if anyone can help - I've had my Lenovo Thinkpad SL510 for a month and ever since I got it, the LCD flickers at the Windows logo screen while Windows loads. The flickering stops once Windows has loaded and I access my desktop.

I rarely use the laptop as I purchased it for when I need to travel and as backup in case something happens to my desktop.

It's been doing this flickering since I got it. It happened the first time I powered it up and has been happening every time after. At first I thought it was just a power issue because when I would use the laptop, it would be just on the fully charged battery. But I just noticed after using it connected to the power cord, it still flickers.

It has Windows 7 Home Premium installed - if that's helpful. I've updated the display drivers and that didn't help. So I'm not sure. Anyone know what could be wrong? Thanks in advance!

[Serge1410]

hey Gemini,

try uninstalling the current graphic driver, let windows install its generic drivers.

shutdown your unit, restart after 5 mins and see if it still flickers.

also check if it happens when battery is remove but connected to power supply.

once done, reinstall the graphic drivers from http://support.lenovo.com

[Gemini]

Hello Serge, thank you for your reply

I followed your instruction and when I uninstalled the graphic driver and let my system restart, I had a completely black LCD for about 20 minutes. The laptop was on and running, just I had no image on the LCD. I then did a hard shutdown because I couldn't see anything on the screen. When I powered my laptop back up, the image and flickering returned.

The flickering was constant this time, though - not just at startup - and it was difficult to read the screen through the flashes to finally install the graphic drivers, but I managed to. Once I installed them, it restarted my system - the flickering was still there at startup, but stopped once Windows loaded. So I'm back to the same issue as I started with - but it's better than the nonstop flashing it did after I uninstalled the drivers, lol

Before I did all of that, I did take out the battery and just ran the laptop on power supply - it still flickered.

There are no Lenovo repair centers near me, so I'm not sure what to do. I know my laptop is still under warranty, too.

[Serge1410]

give our tech support a call, they should be able to offer you assistance and provide to you an authorized service center that is closer to home for you,