error screen flickering and black screen issue on windows 11 23h2 and some systems already in 25h2

Hello vishal admin

Screen flickering and intermittent black screens on Windows 11 builds 23H2 and 24H2 often stem from a conflict between the Desktop Window Manager (dwm.exe) and the graphics driver's handling of Multi-Plane Overlay (MPO). This feature is intended to reduce CPU and GPU overhead during video playback or gaming, but it is a known culprit for synchronization issues that manifest as the flickering you are experiencing. You should test this by creating a new DWORD (32-bit) Value named OverlayTestMode with a value data of 00000005 under the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Dwm. If the flickering persists after a reboot, the issue may be related to the "Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling" feature, which can be toggled off in Settings under System > Display > Graphics > Change default graphics settings to isolate if the kernel-mode driver is failing to manage memory priorities correctly.

Another critical area to investigate is the driver state, specifically if you are running an OEM-customized driver versus a generic one from the silicon vendor. Since you mentioned systems on 25H2, which is currently within the Windows Insider Canary or Dev channels, you are likely encountering regressions in the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) 3.2 or higher. I recommend performing a clean installation of the latest Game Ready or Studio driver using the "Custom" install option and checking "Perform a clean installation" to clear the shader cache and corrupted INF fragments. For the Insider builds specifically, ensure you are monitoring the Feedback Hub for specific build-to-driver incompatibilities, as certain preview kernels require a specific WDDM-compliant driver that might not yet be in the general release channel.

If these systems are part of an enterprise environment using managed policies, verify that "Configure desktop wallpaper" or "Slide show" policies aren't triggering a shell refresh every time the image changes, as this causes a visible flicker in certain DWM configurations. You should also run the command dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth followed by sfc /scannow in an elevated terminal to ensure the system files associated with the graphics subsystem are not corrupted during the upgrade to these newer versions.

I hope you've found something useful here. If it helps you get more insight into the issue, it's appreciated to accept the answer. Should you have more questions, feel free to leave a message. Have a nice day!

VP

Hi vishal admin,

I am following up to verify if the previous recommendations resolved the screen flickering and black screen incidents on your Windows 11 23H2 and 25H2 environments. As a quick summary, the proposed solution involved disabling the Multi-Plane Overlay (MPO) feature by adding the OverlayTestMode DWORD to the Desktop Window Manager registry key, performing a clean installation of the graphics drivers to mitigate WDDM 3.2 conflicts common in Insider builds, and running system file integrity checks via DISM and SFC.

If the display stability has returned, please confirm the resolution. However, if the flickering persists, I need you to provide the specific GPU model and the exact driver version number you are currently running. This additional detail is crucial to determine if there is a specific driver branch incompatibility with the 25H2 kernel that requires a rollback or a specific beta driver.

If the issue has been successfully resolved, please consider accepting the answer as it helps other people sharing the same question benefit too. Thank you!

VP