Hello rsteele1113 and welcome! The standard first question always has to be: have installed the latest drivers and BIOS? I see you have Intel HD graphics. Make sure you try the latest driver from Asus or try the latest at Intel site.
I notice in your system specs you have listed your laptop as a SonicMaster. That is the sound technology it is using, not the model. Do you know the model? You need that the search for the correct drivers.
Thank you for the welcome
Firstly, I was completely unaware how many more fields there were to fill out on the system specs...I only fixed the model number for now, I will fill the rest out soon.
Secondly, there were no updates for any drivers concerning the video, and the BIOS is locked so I couldn't install any updates even if I found them. What I mean by locked is that you cannot do anything to any system settings. They are all "greyed out" if you will.
I'm also thinking, from what I learned when I got my degree in network administration from the small A+ class, if it was a driver issue, it would affect the system while connected to the TV as well, but it's only when I use the built-in display.
During typing this just now, the problem got incredibly bad, it was flickering every second for a few minutes, and I could see in between blackness that the task bar only showed the basic 3 icons for WiFi, volume and battery charge, the clock and language went away, and also the start button went away during this time. It essentially locked down and I couldn't click shut down, so I was holding the power button down until it shut off, which it should have done after 10 or 15 seconds, but it didn't, just sat there for a while, so I pressed the power button again, and the laptop screen (I should clarify that I am currently only using the laptop screen, completely disconnected from TV) came back on. The system never restarted, it was like it went to sleep or something. Now the problem is much better, it's only cutting off once every 2 or 3 minutes. Somewhat usable in this state.
I am using the Classic Shell data so I can have a usable computer. The windows 8 format is awful and I couldn't stand it, so the first thing I did was found Classic Shell. Anyways, thanks again for your time and response. I updated the model number of the computer in my profile, I'll get around to filling in all the other blanks soon. Hope this extra input helps to discover what it might be.
Additional note about Classic Shell and this problem: This problem started only about a month ago. I have had the computer since...the end of February or so, but like I said, the day I got it, I installed Classic Shell and there was never any problem for the longest time. I haven't really installed anything else new or done anything out of the ordinary, so why this problem just suddenly happened, unless it was one of the automatic system updates, is beyond me...