Process of elimination: MPC and codecs causing corruption?

I've been running into this issue ever since I bought a W11 Home laptop. It has 16GB of RAM and NVIDIA 1060ti GPU card. I have a Lenovo 32 inch laptop running at 75 mhz (74.78) and 2560x1440. I have my laptop connected to this external monitor: C32q-20 which is just over a year and half old. There is only one HDMI port and no DP port.

I've used K-Lite Codec and Windows Media Player Classic since the Windows XP days. I never had any issue until I got this laptop.

I watch a lot of movies I download from the web, which are mostly in .ts and .mkv formats.

I have to do a Windows reinstallation or reset (not System Restore) on average every two or three months.

What starts out fine when watching movies, within a day or two I notice a quick flicker when watching a movie, any movie. It's always random. I changed my refresh rate to 60 mhz (59.95) and that hasn't helped. The brief flicker occurs more frequently as time goes on. It then happens every 15 seconds or so.

It seems I'm quite sensitive to this flicker which can be best described as a quick black interruption or flicker. Furthermore, it's not limited to watching movies but browsing the web (text with pictures) as well.

There seems to be no issue with my laptop screen.

I'm trying to narrow down what might be going on.

I have replaced and tried different grades of HDMI cables.
I uninstalled and updated all my drivers, including NVIDIA drivers.
I play the same movies for testing purposes, and I don't download new content.
I don't have any malware.
Running SFC or drive health repair (DISM) hasn't helped.

Everything seems to be fine for about 36 hours and then the flicker starts. This is frustrating.

Can anyone share their insights, what might be going on and how to resolve this besides watching media on my laptop screen?

Display flickering is always caused by one of four things: graphics driver, monitor, cable, or power saving / dynamic brightness adjustments done by Windows/driver.

Disable "fast boot" in the Windows settings. Otherwise Windows does not do fully clean restarts. This can often help eliminate weird issues.

Check Windows settings to see if dynamic brightness handling is enabled based on sensor in the laptop.

Test if things work better with plugged in power cable and running in "high performance" power mode.

Hi, thanks for replying. I had to do some searching since I never heard of "fast boot" before. I found it hiding in Control Panel. I disabled it.

Here is my system: https://psref.lenovo.com/Detail/IdeaPad/IdeaPad_Gaming_3_15IMH05?M=81Y400BRCC

I always run my laptop connected to AC when using my external monitor. Otherwise, my graphics will run from the iGPU. The OEM quasi-non replaceable battery has very poor battery life. So I hardly ever use it.

I tried running in high performance mode and that made no difference.

I have no idea where this "dynamic brightness" option is located. I searched for it on my system, I couldn't find it. I went into control panel and there is no option. I looked in my Windows Quick settings and the slider for brightness control is greyed out.

Additionally, my laptop although it's officially compatible with W11, (it's just a year old now) has no drivers on their support site for W11, ditto with the monitor which is over a year old too.,

Finally, there is a Windows update for one flickering issue but that hasn't helped.

I'd also like to emphasize that this happens when connected to an external Lenovo C32q-20 monitor.

You can get drivers directly at NVIDIA website.

I also recommend to disable GSync in NVIDIA settings.

I don't have any other tips.