Inspiron 3793 and 5593 Screen Flashing

Hey there,

I was wondering if there are other folks out there who've had this problem, since Dell support can't fix it and the engineering team's advice was to "buy a different model" (Started with the 5593, switched to the 3793 on that advice, with same results). I'm not sure what they did when they were handed my issue after months of working with Premium support and determined it was my issue alone (4 times in a row now). They won't say either.

Essentially, if I take any 5593 (bought and returned 3 in a row so I didn't end up owning a device with an issue with no ETA on resolution if what I'm experiencing is, in fact, being treated as a problem) or 3793 (Now own and will return soon), right out of the box, after the mandatory "Fill in the blanks" setup, and do the following, I can recreate the issue (Sent these instructions to Dell Support - Not sure if they ever tried this):

1. Set "Dark mode" under Settings->Personalisation->Colours  (To make this problem easier to see, even though the problem happens when switching from White to White, Black to Black, Black to White and White to Black)

2. Check "Adjust for best performance" under Control Panel->System->Advanced System Settings->"Advanced" Tab->"Performance" section(top) "Settings" button->"Visual Effects" Tab (This removes, most importantly, the various animations which confuse the eye and make the problem seem non-existent)

3. Open up windows explorer and maximise it (to make this easier to see). It should have a dark background.

4. Minimise and maximise the explorer window from the task bar so you switch between background wallpaper (doesn't matter if it's a solid colour or a picture) and Explorer. If you prefer, record your screen. This is the only way I could get Dell support to even believe me or admit they could see it (they claimed not to for about 2 weeks) when I recreated the issue over remote sessions with them time and time again.

What you should see is that the screen flashes white before the black is filled in. For most applications, this white flash will take up the entire screen if you have the application maxmised. For Windows Explorer windows, only the large file area flashes white. The navigation sidebar and top bar do not.

I verified that this happens no matter what version of video driver I use (It happens with the default VGA driver as well, and in safe mode) and with all patches, updates, BIOS firmware updates, done, etc. I've been working on this for 3 months with Dell, so I've probably done most things more than once. No hardware failure was ever detected or recognised.

I also did some work on my own and attached various monitors (all exhibit the same behaviour), tried different power outlets (Even one at a friend's house) though the problem happens on battery just the same.

I'm surely missing more than half of what they had me do to attempt to fix this issue (brightness, power plan, etc.) but the problem can't be made to go away (Yet. I'm optimistic)

The specs for both laptops (5593 and 3793), that I believe matter most are:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1065G7 CPU @ 1.30GHz, 1498 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)

Display driver: Intel(R) Iris(R) Plus Graphics

Memory: 8 or 16 GB 2666,1RX8,8G,DDR4,S

Monitor driver: Generic WIndows 10 PandP monitor (Asked if there was a specific one based on the actual model of the display, but was told there wasn't)

The most relevant thing I could find doing tests on external websites was that the Grey To Grey timing was on the slow side and display response time (with a max of 35ms according to both models User's manual for the display type = Full High Definition (FHD)) seemed to run consistently around 23ms. This should make the problem happen slowly enough for the human eye to catch, since the whole screen is painted white during transistion from window to window.

I don't believe this is a display issue (since the same behaviour on the laptop's LCD could be reproduced on various external monitors, even over HDMI), but something to do with the way the display is handled on these models of Inspiron laptops (I have an old 3451 that is much slower - 5 years old - but doesn't have this issue).

Also, naturally, if you overload the CPU and memory, this problem becomes much easier to see, but can then be explained away by "The machine's overloaded"   Still, if you stress your CPU and memory to about 50% each, this problem should be "blindingly" obvious

Just curious if anyone else has ever had this issue and, if so, found a solution.

If it would help, I can provide video or pictures (if it's allowed) of the issue. The white flash, literally, lights up the room and I work a lot at night. Massive eye strain.

Thanks,

Mike