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Taskbar flicker when set on "autohide"

Discussion in 'Windows Vista' started by Teeb, Nov 22, 2007.

  1. Teeb

    Teeb Guest

    I'm fairly new to Vista and have noticed that when I have the taskbar set to
    "autohide", it's hidden OK but every 10 seconds or so a ghost of the bar
    flickers at the bottom of the screen. It's so quick you can barely see it but
    it's there.

    At the same time, the cursor goes to "busy" mode for a split second. (When I
    make the taskbar visable again, there's no ghost but the cursor still goes to
    busy periodically.)

    I Googled the problem and found quite a few comments from others having the
    same problem, but no solutions.

    Any ideas???
     
  2. In article <8FABE78F-5092-4EDB-8015-704ED63F30A2@microsoft.com>,
    Teeb@discussions.microsoft.com says...<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
    > I'm fairly new to Vista and have noticed that when I have the taskbar set to
    > "autohide", it's hidden OK but every 10 seconds or so a ghost of the bar
    > flickers at the bottom of the screen. It's so quick you can barely see it but
    > it's there.
    >
    > At the same time, the cursor goes to "busy" mode for a split second. (When I
    > make the taskbar visable again, there's no ghost but the cursor still goes to
    > busy periodically.)
    >
    > I Googled the problem and found quite a few comments from others having the
    > same problem, but no solutions.
    >
    > Any ideas???<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

    Not a total solution, but it does seem to reduce the issue if you turn
    on the network icon in the taskbar:
    Right-click the taskbar and select properties.
    Go to the Notification Area tab.
    Put a check on 'Network'.
    Apply and/or OK the changes.
    Reboot.

    I find it somewhat annoying. I have tried different mice and drivers,
    thinking something was triggering that, but no effect.

    You can disable Aero glass to fix it, but then you lose the Vista look.

    I currently have the release nVidia drivers. I havent' tried updating
    that, although I'm not really certain it's the cause.

    --
    If there is a no_junk in my address, please REMOVE it before replying!
    All junk mail senders will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
    law!!
     
  3. Teeb

    Teeb Guest

    Appreciate the response - the more people who have it (and notice it) the
    more likely MS will do something about it.

    Unfortunately, I already have the network icon enabled so I guess I'm at
    best possible condition already (unless I disable Aero, which is always
    possible once the "cool" factor wears off.)

    Was interested in your search for possible things triggering it. I tried
    opening the Task Manager and watching for processes to show a blip when the
    cursor does its little "busy" thing, but haven't been able to correlate
    anything. Oh well...

    "Andrew Rossmann" wrote:
    <!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
    > In article <8FABE78F-5092-4EDB-8015-704ED63F30A2@microsoft.com>,
    > Teeb@discussions.microsoft.com says...<!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro-->
    > > I'm fairly new to Vista and have noticed that when I have the taskbar set to
    > > "autohide", it's hidden OK but every 10 seconds or so a ghost of the bar
    > > flickers at the bottom of the screen. It's so quick you can barely see it but
    > > it's there.
    > >
    > > At the same time, the cursor goes to "busy" mode for a split second. (When I
    > > make the taskbar visable again, there's no ghost but the cursor still goes to
    > > busy periodically.)
    > >
    > > I Googled the problem and found quite a few comments from others having the
    > > same problem, but no solutions.
    > >
    > > Any ideas???<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
    >
    > Not a total solution, but it does seem to reduce the issue if you turn
    > on the network icon in the taskbar:
    > Right-click the taskbar and select properties.
    > Go to the Notification Area tab.
    > Put a check on 'Network'.
    > Apply and/or OK the changes.
    > Reboot.
    >
    > I find it somewhat annoying. I have tried different mice and drivers,
    > thinking something was triggering that, but no effect.
    >
    > You can disable Aero glass to fix it, but then you lose the Vista look.
    >
    > I currently have the release nVidia drivers. I havent' tried updating
    > that, although I'm not really certain it's the cause.
    >
    > --
    > If there is a no_junk in my address, please REMOVE it before replying!
    > All junk mail senders will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
    > law!!
    >
    > <!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
     
  4. In article <6C115BFD-EF6F-4373-9AEB-CDF211FD033F@microsoft.com>,
    Teeb@discussions.microsoft.com says...<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
    > Was interested in your search for possible things triggering it. I tried
    > opening the Task Manager and watching for processes to show a blip when the
    > cursor does its little "busy" thing, but haven't been able to correlate
    > anything. Oh well...<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

    I haven't found a source either. I've seen it flicker after the desktop
    is displayed after logging in, but I'm not even touching the mouse. I
    tried turning on other taskbar icons, but they didn't seem to have an
    effect. For now, I have my taskbar set to only 1 row high to keep it as
    minimally annoying as possible.

    I just got this computer in September. I'm not quite certain when I
    first noticed it. I still sort-of think it might have been when I
    updated the Intel Matrix storage drivers, as the stock ones were causing
    an occasional 30-60 second freeze (a known bug.) Starting the Intel
    Matrix Storage Console does seem to reliably cause the flicker a few
    times.

    From what I can tell, this bug has been there since Vista's release, or
    maybe even earlier. All we can do is try to list some of the hardware:
    nVidia 8600GTS, Forceware 163.69
    Intel Matrix Storage 7.6

    --
    If there is a no_junk in my address, please REMOVE it before replying!
    All junk mail senders will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
    law!!
     
  5. Teeb

    Teeb Guest

    "Andrew Rossmann" wrote:

    <!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
    > I just got this computer in September. I'm not quite certain when I
    > first noticed it. I still sort-of think it might have been when I
    > updated the Intel Matrix storage drivers, as the stock ones were causing
    > an occasional 30-60 second freeze (a known bug.) Starting the Intel
    > Matrix Storage Console does seem to reliably cause the flicker a few
    > times.
    >
    > From what I can tell, this bug has been there since Vista's release, or
    > maybe even earlier. All we can do is try to list some of the hardware:
    > nVidia 8600GTS, Forceware 163.69
    > Intel Matrix Storage 7.6<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

    Here's something new and I found it accidentally. I was noodling around in
    Windows Media Player, jumping quickly through my music files, changing, etc,
    and apparently got ahead of it because I got an error message telling me that
    something called "PCM Media Sharing" had stopped working. I clicked OK on the
    box and continued noodling with the music and nothing seemed
    different...except the other problem had gone away. No taskbar flicker, no
    periodic blip of the cursor busy sign.

    To test it, I restarted the computer and the problem was back -- so I opened
    task manager and found a resident program called "PCMMediaSharing.exe". I
    ended it using task manager, and the taskbar flicker problem went away again.

    So the obvious question is what is PCMMediaSharing and do I need it? Haven't
    been able to find much about it, but it seems to be part of my computer's
    resident suite of media stuff, judging by the files location.

    I have a new Acer Aspire AM3100-U3201A. Do you by chance have an Acer???
     
  6. In article <0D866E2D-CF83-4903-A92C-D38B42A619B6@microsoft.com>,
    Teeb@discussions.microsoft.com says...<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
    > Here's something new and I found it accidentally. I was noodling around in
    > Windows Media Player, jumping quickly through my music files, changing, etc,
    > and apparently got ahead of it because I got an error message telling me that
    > something called "PCM Media Sharing" had stopped working. I clicked OK on the
    > box and continued noodling with the music and nothing seemed
    > different...except the other problem had gone away. No taskbar flicker, no
    > periodic blip of the cursor busy sign.
    >
    > To test it, I restarted the computer and the problem was back -- so I opened
    > task manager and found a resident program called "PCMMediaSharing.exe". I
    > ended it using task manager, and the taskbar flicker problem went away again.
    >
    > So the obvious question is what is PCMMediaSharing and do I need it? Haven't
    > been able to find much about it, but it seems to be part of my computer's
    > resident suite of media stuff, judging by the files location.
    >
    > I have a new Acer Aspire AM3100-U3201A. Do you by chance have an Acer???<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

    This is a Dell. I don't have PCMMediaSharing.exe.


    --
    If there is a no_junk in my address, please REMOVE it before replying!
    All junk mail senders will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
    law!!
     
  7. Teeb

    Teeb Guest

    "Andrew Rossmann" wrote:

    <!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
    > This is a Dell. I don't have PCMMediaSharing.exe.
    >
    > <!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

    Hmmm, that's baffling because it's definitely triggering the problem with my
    Acer -- I've tested it a couple of times and there's no doubt. Apparently the
    potential for the problem is present in Vista, but is triggered differently
    in different systems. It seems to happen when a resident program periodically
    activates and tries to do something, either an update or some kind of search
    or "ping".
     
  8. In article <6F019152-F28E-468A-8E68-9412C07E7A83@microsoft.com>,
    Teeb@discussions.microsoft.com says...<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
    > Hmmm, that's baffling because it's definitely triggering the problem with my
    > Acer -- I've tested it a couple of times and there's no doubt. Apparently the
    > potential for the problem is present in Vista, but is triggered differently
    > in different systems. It seems to happen when a resident program periodically
    > activates and tries to do something, either an update or some kind of search
    > or "ping".<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

    Yesterday, I did a check and noticed that Intel has updated the Intel
    Matrix Storage drivers to 7.8 (I had 7.6). I updated them, and now the
    flicker seems to be gone.

    --
    If there is a no_junk in my address, please REMOVE it before replying!
    All junk mail senders will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
    law!!
     
  9. "Andrew Rossmann" wrote:
    <!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
    > Yesterday, I did a check and noticed that Intel has updated the Intel
    > Matrix Storage drivers to 7.8 (I had 7.6). I updated them, and now the
    > flicker seems to be gone.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

    Aha! this flickering has been driving me nuts since I took delivery of this
    new machine. Dell here, with version 7.6 of the raid drivers. I've just
    upgraded to 7.8 after seeing this post..

    So far it's been about 3 minutes and no flickering.
     
  10. In article <E1DC709D-B2DF-4743-BBE6-8CD8F3E00758@microsoft.com>,
    AnotherMindbomb@discussions.microsoft.com says...<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
    > "Andrew Rossmann" wrote:
    > <!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro-->
    > > Yesterday, I did a check and noticed that Intel has updated the Intel
    > > Matrix Storage drivers to 7.8 (I had 7.6). I updated them, and now the
    > > flicker seems to be gone.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
    >
    > Aha! this flickering has been driving me nuts since I took delivery of this
    > new machine. Dell here, with version 7.6 of the raid drivers. I've just
    > upgraded to 7.8 after seeing this post..
    >
    > So far it's been about 3 minutes and no flickering.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

    It's not a 100% fix, but it happens MUCH less often. Maybe every few
    minutes or so.

    --
    If there is a no_junk in my address, please REMOVE it before replying!
    All junk mail senders will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
    law!!
     
  11. "Andrew Rossmann" wrote:
    <!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro--><!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro-->
    > > Aha! this flickering has been driving me nuts since I took delivery of this
    > > new machine. Dell here, with version 7.6 of the raid drivers. I've just
    > > upgraded to 7.8 after seeing this post..
    > >
    > > So far it's been about 3 minutes and no flickering.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
    >
    > It's not a 100% fix, but it happens MUCH less often. Maybe every few
    > minutes or so.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

    I used the machine for about 3 hours last night after applying the 7.8
    release. I can't say I've noticed any more flickering at all. If it hasn't
    worked 100% here, it's made an enormous difference as I /was/ getting the
    flickering roughly every 15 seconds or thereabouts and now it's so infrequent
    I don't actually see it.

    If it makes any difference, I have the following in my system tray:

    Comodo firewall Pro
    Skype
    AVG Free
    GoogleDesktop
    LogMeIn
    LCDGamma (used by Syncmaster 226BW monitor)
    Safely Remove Hardware.
     
  12. McCulloch

    McCulloch Guest

    I experienced this problem. It was solved by turning off the clock in
    the notification area.
    Taskbar Properties, Notification Area, System icons
    Deselect Clock.


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  13. vinnybooba

    vinnybooba Guest

    the PCMmedia sharing.exe is a program if you share internet with another
    source in your house. Like an XBOX. I have noticed that program when my
    boys are using the XBOX with internet capability. And yes miny flickers
    since that Xbox came in the house. Disabling the program should do it.
    Xbox or flicker, you make the choice


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