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Joshua24627107bnpj
Participant
May 17, 2024
Answered

Illustrator flickering black like crazy when zooming in and out

  • May 17, 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 1845 views

Hello! I've been tearing my hair out at a problem I've been having for a few days now, and I have no idea how to fix it so I'm hoping someone else has a solution.

 

I recently installed Illustrator on my personal machine, which is a Windows PC. Ever since installing, Illustrator has been basically unusable because every time I zoom in and out (whether it's using Ctrl & +/- or Alt & Scroll), the screen has a black flickering effect that is really hard to look at on a bright screen. It only happens in the canvas, the menus don't flicker, and it seems to only be Illustrator that's affected. Any help with this would be massively appreciated!

 

Some troubleshooting tests I've done so far:

  1.  This only seems to happen when Illustrator isn't in full screen mode, as soon as I press F the problem goes away.
  2. Switching to CPU Preview introduces a new problem, where zoom doesn't work at all.
  3. I've tried reinstalling, installing previous versions, restarting my computer, nothing affects the issue.
  4. I thought maybe it was a problem with my monitor FreeSync, so I disabled that, forced Vsync, turned both off, nothing made a difference. I also just turned off every setting that was turned on in my GPU settings for Illustrator (Anti-Lag, Anti Ailiasing etc) and that also made no difference.
  5. Weirdly, when I tried to screen record the issue, the problem disappeared almost completely in the recording, even though it was very much happening while I was making the recording.
  6. It could be a Windows specific issue maybe? I have a work MacBook, and that is hooked up to the same monitor and I have never had this issue for the years I have been using Illustrator on MacOS.

 

Specs are as follows if this helps:

  • CPU: Intel i5 - 13600KF (14 Cores)
  • GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
  • RAM: 32GB 5200MHz DDR5
  • Storage: 2TB NVMe SSD

 

I've also attatched a video of the problem in action (recorded on my phone because as stated above, screen recording doesn't seem to show it for some reason).

 

Any help on this would be massively appreciated. Thank you!

    Correct answer Joshua24627107bnpj

    UPDATE - I've found a fix that, while still annoying, will at least let me use Illustrator until a more substantial fix is found. Figured I would share it here in case anyone else comes across this same issue in the meantime.

     

    Turns out the problem only happened when I was using the HDMI out from my GPU! I've only got one DisplayPort input on my monitor and I was using that for my MacBook, but as soon as I switched the cables over, boom, immediately worked, no setting tweaks needed. Also feels smoother generally for some reason, added bonus! (In case anyone is wondering, the refresh rate was set to the exact same setting on both, 60Hz, literally the only thing that has changed is what output I'm using).

     

    Still frustrating because my MacBook dock doesn't have HDMI out so I'll have to keep switching the DIsplayPort over when I want to use the other, but it at least works!

    3 replies

    J
    Joshua24627107bnpjAuthorCorrect answer
    Participant
    May 18, 2024

    UPDATE - I've found a fix that, while still annoying, will at least let me use Illustrator until a more substantial fix is found. Figured I would share it here in case anyone else comes across this same issue in the meantime.

     

    Turns out the problem only happened when I was using the HDMI out from my GPU! I've only got one DisplayPort input on my monitor and I was using that for my MacBook, but as soon as I switched the cables over, boom, immediately worked, no setting tweaks needed. Also feels smoother generally for some reason, added bonus! (In case anyone is wondering, the refresh rate was set to the exact same setting on both, 60Hz, literally the only thing that has changed is what output I'm using).

     

    Still frustrating because my MacBook dock doesn't have HDMI out so I'll have to keep switching the DIsplayPort over when I want to use the other, but it at least works!

      B
      Community Expert
      Bobby HendersonCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      May 18, 2024

      I can't tell from the content of the video you posted whether Illustrator is showing Outline View or full color Preview. Recently I had been seeing black and white flashing issues while using animated zoom in Adobe Illustrator, but only in Outline View. It was really distracting. But just a couple or so days ago, following a Windows update, the problem seemed to fix itself. Now the animated zoom functions on my computer are working properly both in full color Preview and Outline View modes.

      Slightly off-topic, I think it is pretty odd how animated zoom in Outline View is only enabled on monitors that are above 2000 pixels in resolution. It would seem like such a thing would be easier to render on monitors with 1920x1080 resolution settings or lower. I have an Alienware notebook with a 17" 2160p 120Hz UHD display; animated zoom in Illustrator looks beautiful on it, even in Outline View. But it's terrible if that black and white flashing issue is present. On my system it only did the flashing thing in Outline View. In full color Preview mode animated zoom always worked properly.

      J
      Joshua24627107bnpjAuthor
      Participant
      May 18, 2024

      Yeah I'd seen it mentioned a couple of times that a similar issue happens for people in Outline View, but for me this is in full colour preview - Outline view actually gives me the same problem as CPU Preview where zoom stops working entirely, but that's a problem for another day!

       

      I also thought "Oh maybe it's because I haven't updated Windows" and there was an update when I was trying to fix it, but I installed the update, restarted, and the problem was still there unfortunately.

      J
      Joshua24627107bnpjAuthor
      Participant
      May 18, 2024

      Hello @Joshua24627107bnpj,

      We understand that encountering technical issues can be frustrating. Would you mind performing a clean reinstallation of the GPU drivers (Intel / NVIDIA / AMD) and setting the Graphics Preference to High-Performance for Illustrator (https://adobe.ly/4bE5Xea) and checking if it helps?

      Also, try running Illustrator under Safe Mode (Windows / macOS), and under a different administrator account (Windows / macOS) and share your observations.

      Looking forward to hearing from you.

       

      Thanks,

      Anubhav


      Hello! Just tried the steps given, fresh install of drivers didn't fix the issue, neither did setting it as high performance.

       

      Booting into safe mode on my PC did seem to rectify the issue, but it's not using the GPU at all now, so no performance increases or animated zoom or anything like that (although I'm now able to zoom on CPU preview now which is a change from the non-safe mode boot). So it seems to have done something, I can't say for sure whether it's showing a fix or bypassing the issue entirely.

      Monika Gause
      Community Expert
      Monika GauseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      May 18, 2024

      This has been reported recently - particularly the part about this being improved when doing a screen recording.

       

      Do you perhaps have the leftovers of a Wacom driver installed? Or another graphic tablet?

      J
      Joshua24627107bnpjAuthor
      Participant
      May 18, 2024

      So I don't have a Wacom tablet and have never used one on this computer, same with any other graphics tablet brand, however I did have Duet Display installed to use my iPad as a secondary display. I had tried disabling it when trying to find the issue, but just to be safe I have now uninstalled the app entirely and restarted, and no luck, issue is still there 😞

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