maandag 21 december 2015

Samsung 850 EVO SSD Windows 10 flickering redraw issue

So I got myself a brand new SSD to upgrade my ASUS x750 Laptop. I cloned the HDD using the samsung Data Migration App, all fine and dandy.

Asus x750 headaches

Unfortunatly this laptop is the most impractical laptop to upgrade I have ever seen. After removing all the bottom screws, it actually opens from the top and practically nothing is accessible without removing 40+ screws and disconnecting every cable to the motherboard. And then removing the motherboard. Check youtube for a detailed opening video, you need it. Then when finally the SSD is fully seated and the other HDD plugged in the secondary HDD slot. The ordeal is over right? No, it never is that easy...

Loading from the SSD the first

Restructered the boot options in the Bios, SSD shows up, yes, check

so far so good

user logon, check yes enter credentials, logging in here we go...

hmmm why is my screen constantly redrawing? arg it keeps flickering. what is up with windows 10!

rebooted from the HDD, all is well. So that rules out any other hardware issue, it must be the ssd...

After a long fruitless internet search decided to clone the disk again and this time first disable the HDD in the Bios, and what do you know it started with no flickering. Restarted and enabled the disk again and... no flickering! I am a genius.

Summary

- Clone disk
- Make sure SSD is the only visible disk for the laptop
- Boot up from SSD
- Enable/mount old HDD
- Enjoy high speed OS on SSD steroids

(As far as I could deduce the flickering issue came from loading up both the original HDD and cloned SSD. The old HDD got the adress C:\ and SSD something like H:\, then some conflict with the user information data (C:\users) caused the information to redrawn constantly on screen. This was impossible to change easily in the current configuration so I had to reclone the disk afresh)