Flashing Screen

[Cosmology27]

I've read a bunch on the net about this problem, and lots of people seem to have it. The answer I've seen over and over again is "update your client", which doesn't work for me.

I recently got a new PC laptop, and I installed Minecraft 1.8 vanilla. I've also tried a modded 1.6.4. Both of these have the exact same problem. The screen flashes a lot. Sometimes it's just parts, like the sky or a part of the character menu, and other times it's like the whole screen.

I also have a mac, and I've never had this problem on the mac, which is weird, because usually games work better on PCs.

Does anyone know how to fix this problem? Thanks for the help.

 

[Wagon153]

Sounds like a graphics card issue.

 

[Cosmology27]

Yeah I would imagine, but that's the weird thing. Like, I can play Skyrim and it looks amazing, but I can't play Vanilla Minecraft without graphics glitches?
Anyways, I don't know that much about graphics cards, but here's what I could find about mine. I'm sure it's not good, but I would think just about any computer should be able to play Vanilla Minecraft.... lol. I've even turned down all the graphics stuff in the video menu, and it still flashes.

Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
Intel(R) HD Graphics 4400
Intel Video BIOS
1792 MB available graphics memory
1760 MB shared system memory

 

[Wagon153]

Does it say anything in the log for either one?

 

[drellen]

Can you run Minecraft in Full Screen mode and see if the issue persists?

 

[drellen]

Also, I did a bit of googling, and sounds like others ran into the same issue w/ your GFX chipset and certain driver versions.
Some folks fixed it by rolling back a version or 2.

 

[Hambeau]

Yeah I would imagine, but that's the weird thing. Like, I can play Skyrim and it looks amazing, but I can't play Vanilla Minecraft without graphics glitches?
Anyways, I don't know that much about graphics cards, but here's what I could find about mine. I'm sure it's not good, but I would think just about any computer should be able to play Vanilla Minecraft.... lol. I've even turned down all the graphics stuff in the video menu, and it still flashes.

Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
Intel(R) HD Graphics 4400
Intel Video BIOS
1792 MB available graphics memory
1760 MB shared system memory

As a side concern seeing how often it comes up in these forums, how much total ram does your laptop have installed? the "1760 MB shared system memory" in the last line is nearly 2GB of your memory that is not available for anything because it's reserved for the video subsystem. The only reason it's called "shared" is that if you aren't running at top resolution or performance some of it is made available for the system, but can be taken back at any time.

This can be a problem because if you have a total of 4GB installed nearly half of that will be mostly used for graphics support while another 1-1.5GB is used for Windows. This leaves very little ram left to allocate to Java an the FtB client, and most people report best results when you can allocate 2.5-3.5 GB. When you've got just over 3GB dedicated to graphics and OS and try to allocate too much for MC then you'll start to run into "stop-motion" type lag while the game stops running so it can save part of itself to disk and run a different piece.

 

[adamich]

I've read a bunch on the net about this problem

it's not a game problem by core of minecraft
step by step
1. vanilla is totally vanilla or some mods installed?
2. are U using optifine? try delete it
3. are U using texturepack?
4. drivers for Ur video card is updated? some forums may be have info about bugs Ur version of drivers.
5. java updated? which version: 7 or 8, x32 or x64?
6. DirectX updated?
7. there may be a conflict in installed soft, which U see only in minecraft.
8. Do U try run SAME minecraft on another computer?
9. if somebody say:

Sounds like a graphics card issue.

it's not that video card is low end for game. may be it's hardware problems
10. last in list for now: try reinstall windows on laptop

 

[Cosmology27]

Can you run Minecraft in Full Screen mode and see if the issue persists?

Tried fullscreen, still the same problem, but not "quite" as apparent. Could just be my hopes though.
Also, I've tried rolling back my driver, and it screwed everything up, and wouldn't even run Minecraft, so I had to go back to the most recent version of the driver.

how much total ram does your laptop have installed? piece.

I have 8 gig ram, so that shouldn't be the problem I wouldn't think.

it's not a game problem by core of minecraft
step by step...

1. No mods. Totally fresh, just installed.
2. No Optifine
3. No texturepack
4. My drivers are updated.
5. I have JRE7 64 bit installed.
6. Yes DirectX is updated.
7. If there's a conflict, why would only Minecraft show it? And how do I find out what the conflict is on my system?
8. I've ran the EXACT same Minecraft on my mac, and it works perfectly fine. I don't have another PC to try it out on though, but I'm sure others have run 1.8 MC Vanilla before.
9. If it's a hardware problem, then why is Minecraft the ONLY thing I ever do that has a problem?
10. There's no way I'm reinstalling all of windows just for this, lol. Thanks though.

 

[Hambeau]

I have 8 gig ram, so that shouldn't be the problem I wouldn't think.

Nope, should be good on the ram requirement.

Is your GPU one of those that have "dual mode" and can run in either low and high performance modes to save power? I've seen posts somewhere saying that you might have to force Java to use the high performance setting as a runtime switch.

I'm just tossing out guesses now, BTW.

 

[adamich]

7,9,10 - as IT administrator i can say that bugs live on there own rules. And problems always have explanation, but not always we can see it.
and yes 8/10 bugs which is not have explanation resolved by reinstall windows (it take less time to reinstall than seek the answer)
and fact that laptop is new for you upvote needs to reinstall windows.
so in same situation i choose reinstall

hardware error you can check by LONG stress tests like everest or AvP benchmark tool

also try delete java and install x32 in fact of x64(try not kill)

 

[RedBoss]

How much ram do you actually have allocated to Minecraft? I had this issue in vanilla 1.8 when increasing the render distance beyond ten chunks. I'd knly allocated 1gb to vanilla. I upped it to 2.5 and now I can set my render distance hihher with no flickering.