The Flickering Screen

I’ve recently had several calls regarding an issue within AutoCAD-based products in which users are experiencing an annoying flickering screen as they move their mouse around their drawing. Usually, this is related to a graphics card issue.

First, I’d check and see if the graphics card you’re using is one that is recommended by Autodesk. And remember, just because a graphics card worked great for last year’s software doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for this year’s software.  To check and see if your graphics card is recommended by Autodesk head on over to the Autodesk Certified Hardware site.

Simply fill out the proper items for steps 1 – 3 and click the find button.  You will be provided with a list of graphics cards that meet Autodesk’s standards.

If your specific graphics card is not on the recommended list, and before you run to your IT department and claim you need to upgrade your video card, try these options:

• Head over to the manufacturer’s website and download the latest driver for your video card. I have found in some cases that, even though the video card is not recommended, upgrading the driver resolved most graphics issues.
• If updating the driver doesn’t work then try toggling on/off the hardware acceleration to see if that helps.  To do this type in GRAPHICSCONFIG at the command line and you’ll be taken to Graphics Performance dialog box.  There you will see the option to disable the hardware acceleration:

If updating the driver and/or toggling your hardware acceleration on/off doesn’t work for you then you may have other system issues or you may need a new graphics card.