Solved Screen Flicker in Windows Metro view Intel GMA 500 graphics controller

[stefalopod]

I just installed the Intel GMA 500 graphics controller on my Viliv S10. It had been running the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, which didn't detect the screen's actual resolution but instead ran it at a slightly lower and distorted resolution. At the lower resolution running the basic display adapter I could scroll through the windows metro start screen and experience no flicker. Since installing the GMA 500 graphics controller I now can set the proper screen resolution but the start screen flickers when I scroll right or left and when the active tiles in the start screen refresh content, and when pinching to zoom on start screen.
I tried lowering the resolution to see if that was the issue, but I still experience flicker even at very low resolution. I also tried raising the screen brightness to the fullest extent (I saw this as a fix for flicker elsewhere) but the screen still flickers.

I haven't seen any screen flicker in desktop mode, except when toggling apps by dragging from left to right using the touch screen. Aero peek doesn't cause flicker nor does dragging an open window around the desktop. No flicker dragging open the right side information bar in desktop mode either.

 

[FuturDreamz]

My experience is that the Poulsbo has always been bad juju. Intel actually contracted the design of the chip to one company, and the drivers to another. To this day I don't believe the best drivers available truly take advantage of it's full capabilities.

 

[stefalopod]

IceFire: I've caught up a little on my reading and noticed the same thing. Since GMA 500 is broken, I wonder if there's a way to get the Microsoft Basic Display adapter to find my correct screen resulotion? I didn't have the flickering problem with it running.

 

[maxleibman]

I'm not experiencing flicker in Metro (I'm running a Dell Mini 12 with a 1.6 GHz Atom, 1 GB ram, and Intel GMA 500 graphics), but it is definitely jerkier when scrolling. The more sophisticated window animations--fade in and out of the desktop, the fade-out effect when a window closes--are noticeably slower after the driver install. Still, it looks and feels better at the proper resolution than it did with the slightly-smoother animations that were 1024x768 and stretched to fill the screen.

If you find a way to have the best of both worlds, I'm all ears (in the meantime, though, I feel lucky it runs at all on this largely unsupported--for anything--clunker).

 

[stefalopod]

Eugh, I just solved this.
Evidently I had an outdated driver for gma500 installed, it was the driver. (Personally, I think this is on Intell's Driver update utility, which installed an outdated driver. sigh.). The flickering happened when I had driver version 8.14.10.2024 installed. The functioning version I've installed now is driver version 8.14.10.2030
This resolved the screen flicker problem.