Google Chrome Browser Flashing / Flickering FIXED!

Here’s a simple solution to the annoying flickering problem that can occur in google chrome browser.

Here’s The Problem:

Quite often I find I’m browsing a web page and all of a sudden google chrome starts to flicker or flash, usually, if I mouse over the scrollbars it tends to stop, and leaves me always back at the top of the page.

  • I’ve seen this on multiple computers running windows 7 and windows 10, chrome all updated.
  • A mix of Nvidia and ATI graphics cards (rules out an old issue with Nvidia drivers)
  • Dual Monitors and Single monitors
  • Fresh install of chrome with no add-ons
  • Full chrome update

It was starting to drive me crazy to the point of looking at different browsers.

Until I found the Fix:

  1. Open Google Chrome, type chrome://flags or about:flags in the address bar and press Enter.
  2. Scroll down until you see a “Smooth Scrolling” option. It would be enabled by default in newer chrome versions.
  3. Select the Drop down and choose Disabled, click on “Relaunch Now” button

That’s as simple as the fix is. It’ll restart the web browser and the pesky flashing issue should be gone.

There is talk that this feature may be permanently enabled in future, or at least reset with an update – however hopefully there’s a permanent fix to chrome smooth scrolling.

EDIT LATEST 2019 UPDATE

The Chrome update for some reason is incompatible with desktop background slideshows. If you have a slideshow, change it to a picture or solid color, which will likely solve the issue for now!

If you have anything to add please let me know in the comments below.

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57 thoughts on “Google Chrome Browser Flashing / Flickering FIXED!”

  1. Well, now THAT was certainly interesting!!! (It does warn you about security being compromised, and such. But I took the plunge because I’ve put up with that crap for too long, and too much research was done, also.)
    It DID work, however.
    And now, I can watch my movies in peace as it was effecting that too! Hurrah!! ? ?

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  2. It DID work… but I have to make some observations in the coming days and I will let you know of the changes/improvements and/or if a problem arise.

    Thank you.

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  3. It did not work at all

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  4. That solved the problem for me. Is there any way to provide feedback to Google? I’d hate for a faulty feature to become the default. A flashing browser window is so annoying, I would actually change browsers on account of that problem alone. One thing I notices is that memory usage was fluctuating while the option was enabled but that it stabilized after it was turned off. There is something definitely fishy about that setting.

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  5. Did not work for me at all.

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  6. nice fix spent a frigging hour trying to fix flickering on both chrome and firefox

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  7. It didn’t work for me.

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  8. It worked for me! thanks!

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  9. Did not find “smooth scrolling” option.

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  10. My chrome is flickering even it’s on standby.
    Our issues may be different but I’m saying that “This fix did not work on my issue” anyway.

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    1. Did you find out why chrome has been flashing? My friend is having the same problem. His Google chrome will flash every five seconds, except when he uses the incognito browser. I have tried cleaning all the settings and cookies and disabling or removing the extensions and i tried to alter a few settings but to no avail. Please let me know how you fixed this or what to try next. THANK YOU

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      1. Mine is the same way! Incognito is not affected and the fix stated above hasn’t worked. Please post if you figure it out!

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      2. Ok, I figured out a solution that worked for me. The chrome update for some reason is incompatible with desktop background slideshows. If you have a slideshow, change it to a picture or solid color.

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        1. Yahoo, your fix worked for me, many thanks for sharing.

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        2. Bingo! That’s what worked for me. It was flashing almost exactly every minute. That was the interval I had chosen for my slideshow. I put in a solid background for the desktop and the issue went away. Hope they fix it as I miss my slideshow!

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          1. Adam- Mississauga

            I wish I came through your post early I could saved lots of hours trying everything. Finally simple solution. Thanks very much.

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        3. Worked for me! Thank you so much. My slide show was changing approx. every 5 seconds. This problem just started today and the flickering was driving me crazy!!! I tried IE with no problem so, checked my BIOS, uninstalled display adapters. If they don’t fix this i’m seriously thinking of going with Firefox!

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        4. Yes, it works. Thanks for the advice

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        5. I can’t thank you enough. this issue was driving me crazy, The only solution for me was to go back to an older version of chrome but it keeps updating by itself. Thank you so much sir! you solved it. Many thanks to you!

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  11. OMG huge improvement thank you thank you. This has been driving my eyes crazy. It would vary in shakiness depending how much I advanced the scroll. S.O. thought it must be my mouse but in TB it worked perfectly. Tried Hardware acceleration – not that. Checked all my extensions. Refresh rate. This did it Yay! Problem solved.

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  12. I had flickering watching Xfinity and playing miniclips using flash….read everything everyone posted and tried all of it helped a little but would still flicker now and them….put everything back the way you had it and just go to advanced settings in chrome under system and turn off hardware acceleration and background services….problem solved.

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  13. didn’t work

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  14. Fix did not work for me.
    I get a screen flicker every 3 minutes.
    Reinstalled Chrome, no change
    Now using Firefox, problem went away.

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  15. Didnt work for me, neither did disabling GPU rasterization as another fix suggested nor did clearing browser history as another suggested, so Im still looking for a fix..

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  16. hy i tried many of option even both give by you but my problem is stil not solve. tried hardware accl. stop tried smooth scrollng, and other suff but problem not solv. kindly plz send any sollution……

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  17. Disable touch UI in chrome://flags

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  18. Didn’t work for me

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  19. I did everything that was used to fix the google chrome flickering problem. But nothing works. I even deleted it and reinstalled and still got the same problem.

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    1. I am having the same issue and have tried everything i could think of. What do we do?

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    2. Tried all solutions, also nothing has worked. Flicks about every 8 secs. No problem with Microsoft Edge, only Google Chrome browser.

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  20. When I use goggle chrome the screen flickers and has been doing this for 3 days now. I tried the chrome://flagsoraboutflags and also put chrome://flags/#smoothscrolling in the google browser and chose “disable” and then chose “relaunch now”. It did not help. IT is so aggrevating to try and work while screen flickers every 5 seconds! Please give suggestions to fix this issue.

    3/24/19

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  21. ever since that google chrome update on friday, march 22, we have had this annoying flickering when using google chrome. i tried every troubleshooting option out there – to no avail . . . then i saw this thread . . .
    i didn’t disable the ‘smooth scrolling’ because we do have a slideshow running.
    Kudos! i stopped the slideshow, went to chrome and ‘bingo’ no more flickering!! Thank you:) Thank you:)

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  22. I had already deduced that the slideshow was involved in the flickering problem with Google/Chrome and shut it off. Problem remedied. I came here hoping to see a fix for the problem… At least I’m not alone with this issue. I imagine a update will come soon, hopefully… All the feedback here is appreciated. Nice to know it’s not my computer getting ready to crash.

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  23. so, you mean I don’t get to buy a new processor?? it took forever to realize A. it was just the browser and B. this thread exists!!!
    I tried everything listed in this thread, and finally turned off my slideshow….eureka!!!
    the one troubling thought now is, why is my desktop affecting a web application…or vice versa…which bothers me more.
    maybe its time to go back to MOZILLA…

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  24. Hi there, i have done everything and nothing work, and i have tried to search for the slideshow enabler but could not find it, can someone please help me

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  25. Life saver! Tried a lot of workarounds but changing my slideshow desktop background worked!

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