Screen flickering in OpenOffice Writer

[Hugomaisie]

Hi
When I open office writer the text document flickers and I cannot type into it, when I tried to type the message came up "expression is faulty".

I have tried a restart and it is still the same.

Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

Thank you

[RoryOF]

Delete OpenOffice and reinstall from a fresh download.

[Hugomaisie]

Hi Rory

Thank you for your suggestion...

I uninstalled 4.1.5 Open Office and installed 4.1.7 and the text document is still flickering and you still cannot type in to it.

Any other suggestions, I am not certainly not a computer person but could it be something to do with my Samsung computer, when I started it up this morning a bios configuration message came up with a lot of beeping.

Clutching at straws!

[RoryOF]

What is the resolution of your screen?

Also, in OpenOffice go to /Tools /Options /OpenOffice /View, on top right is a heading "Graphics output". Under that uncheck Use "hardware acceleration" and "Use anti-aliasing". I suggest that after you have done so, and closed the window, you exit OpenOffice and restart it. These settings often affect the display.

[Hugomaisie]

I fired up my computer this morning read your suggestion re the graphics out put.

I thought I would double check that the flickering was still an issue and low and behold there is no flickering and documents have opened up okay and I can type in them. So it appears the problem has been solved.

I will monitor this for a few days to see but maybe the new version install solved it. Thank you Rory.

[Hugomaisie]

Hi

Unfortunately the flickering and subsequent crashing has continued.

I noticed that what flickers is below the tool bar where the measurement of the page is.

A text formula with the slopy fx arrow red cross X and green tick appears and goes, appears and goes really fast and creates the flickering. You try and type and the characters do not appear on the page but in the text formula in the tool bar.

Unsure how I can overcome this as I have downloaded the new version and it is still playing up.

Any help to try and solve this will be appreciated.

[RoryOF]

Did you try the changes I suggested in /Tools /Options etc?

[RoryOF]

"In the text formula in the Tool Bar"? That suggests you are using Calc. Try using Writer if you are wishing to enter text.

[John_Ha]

Strange problems are sometimes fixed by resetting the profile - see Resetting the user profile.

[Hugomaisie]

Hi Rory and John

Thank you for your suggestions, firstly I tried graphics output and hardware accelerator and did what you said and still the flickering continues. You mentioned about using calc but I always use the open office writer for my invoices and type as a normal word document but since this flickering started the formula bar arrives and goes and as I try to type something in the page nothing comes up, then sometimes it appears in the formula section. Its like the spreadsheet section is trying to appear then goes in milliseconds. It then crashes and goes through a recovery of the page and then the flickering starts. I need this for work and slowly loosing the will to live..help!

I also tried Johns suggestion re the resetting the user profile and this did not work either.

I still have a feeling it might coincide with my computer, as I fired it up this evening I had the bleeping and the Samsung bios configuration screen come up, where it said "save configuration and reset" and I clicked yes and this stopped the bleeping and took me to my desktop but no difference to the open office issue.

[RoryOF]

Is this a laptop or a desktop computer? If a laptop, is it on a hard surface such as a desk?

[Hugomaisie]

Hi Rory

Its a Desktop computer looked in settings unsure if this helps its a Samsung Intel(R) Core (TM) 64 bit operating.

Can I upload a video on this forum to show the actual problem and if so would this be any benefit?

Thank you

[RoryOF]

In settings, can you find details of the resolution of your monitor and its refresh rate (something like 1920 x 1200, 60 fps); also of the amount of memory (RAM) on your computer.

[Hugomaisie]

Hi

Resolution 1920 x 1080

Refresh rate 60Hz

Installed RAM 4.00GB

Just to reiterate the flickering is only in the Open Office writer. When I open the spreadsheet - open office calc for my accounts this is okay.

[RoryOF]

That resolution/refresh rate should be OK; 4 GB RAM is good for most purposes. I'm able to drive several screens simultaneously including a 1920 from OO on Xubuntu with no such flickering; however that is not a solution to your problem. The puzzle is that the flickering is occurring on Writer, not Calc; one would expect such a problem to occur in all OO applications.

I have asked another Forum volunteer for his thoughts.

[John_Ha]

A text formula with the slopy fx arrow red cross X and green tick appears and goes, appears and goes really fast and creates the flickering.

1. Does it flicker with test.odt? I am wondering if something in your file is eating CPU or if the file has a macro running.

2. What does TaskManager show when your file is flickering? Is CPU use high?

3. Delete the formula. Does that stop the flickering?

4. Please upload a small file showing the problem so that it can be analysed. Use the Upload attachment tab below where you type (128 kB max); or use a file share site, Dropbox or Google Drive for a larger file.

[Hugomaisie]

Hi John and thank you Rory

I opened up Open Office to look at the 1 to 4 points you suggested and there is no flickering in the open office writer now!

It has the correct toolbar with the margins and no appearance of the formula section appearing and not appearing which is great news but had this before so I will keep checking and if the flickering appears I will answer your points.

In preparation point 1. unsure what test.odt is?

Point 3...tried this when it was flickering and it kept flickering and it only stopped when I clicked on "file" in the tool bar but as soon as you come off this it started flickering again.

Hopefully I will not have to bother you anymore so crossing fingers!

[John_Ha]

test.odt is the file I uploaded.

Reseat your graphics card -it could be a loose connection in the socket. Also W10 may have updated your video driver in the interim.

It is much easier for helpers if you upload a .odt file as requested as they can analyse it.

Also see Fix screen flickering in Windows 10.