Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Technical & Gameplay Problems Screen flashing on and off ONLY while playing BG3. Newer gaming laptop.

Hi all,

So, I just purchased BG3 for PC after playing it on my friend's PS5. For reference, I have an MSI Raider GE68HX 13VG with 32 GB of RAM and an 8GB graphics card. My SSD holds 1TB. Processor is 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13950HX (2.20 GHz). I'm running Windows 11 Pro 25H2. I have all windows updates. Graphics drivers have been updated.

When I try to play BG3 (and ONLY this game), my screen flashes on and off black with just brief glimpses of the game in between. These flashes happen about every second... so game play is impossible. This just began today. Yesterday, I played for hours with no problems. And there have been NO Windows updates in that time nor have I updated drivers (except as part of my troubleshooting for this game - even though ALL of my drivers are updated regularly). In two days of game play, this has happened 50% of the time. But today is the day. I played all day yesterday with no issues and today, I can't play due to the flashing. It's super frustrating and makes the game absolutely unplayable when it's happening (I just bought the game for PC after playing it on friend's PS5).

Here's some of the troubleshooting I've engaged in:

-Updated video drivers
-Turned off steam overlay
-Turned off lights on keyboard
-Tried various video configs within game
-Checked that refresh rate is consistent across monitor and game (240Hz). Also tried setting both to 60hz.
*-Once I turned off gaming optimization in windows, the game would play without flashing BUT it played super slow with extreme lag and low resolution graphics.*
-Turned optimization back on. Game flashes again.
-Restarted computer various times.
-Now, after turning back on, the flashes are back
-Refresh rate is, once again, set at 240 on everything
-Game sits in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Baldurs Gate 3\bin
-Loaded game from there and it still flashes
-Went back to STEAM and verified all files. Rebooted all. Game play continues to flash on and off with black screens and flashes of game.
-Tried playing under Vulkan - still flashes
-Set both BG3 files (bg3.exe and bg3_dx11.exe) to run as admin. Couldn't even start game on Steam after this. Could start game from .exe file but it still flashed.
-Cleared cache files in C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\LevelCache
-Started BG3 from .exe file with Vulkan then Direct. Still glitched but did start without Steam. Just loaded Larian launcher. But, still flashing on and off.
-Re-adding "run as admin" and adding disable fullscreen optimization. Trying to run again on Vulkan. Then will try Direct.
-Rebooted computer various times as needed. Still flashes when running game via .exe file or Steam.
-Removed/uninstalled Intel Killer Performance Suite (some say this ruins gameplay even though it was created to optimize gameplay).
-Turned off firewall and AV (both Windows).
-Tried to play again from both .exe file and Steam. Game still flashes on and off.
-After uninstalling Intel Killer Performance Suite, I notice I am running Raptor Lake Intel. Could this be the issue?

This is just such a mystery as Window updates can't be the reason for the change from one day to the next (there were none). Nor can drivers be the reason as I keep them up to date constantly and even tried updating them again. I also use a monitoring app to track my heat levels and run my laptop on a high-end cooler. So the mother board, CPU and the rest are cool as can be.

I'm at the end of my rope and going to ask for a refund unless someone can offer a fix on this. Yes, I have written to Larian about this. I hope to hear from them tomorrow (Monday) or Tuesday if they're US based.

Can ANYONE offer advice that will make the game work again? I love it and REALLY want to play.

Any advice would be so appreciated. TIA.