Surface Pen makes screen flash black

I've got the same issue; you can see videos here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra6zLuTul9Y and here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpHECmmPhSY

After about 30 minutes of usage when writing in OneNote on my Surface Go with the Surface Pro 4 Pen (the one with the clip and grey eraser), the Surface freezes and then every time I touch the pen to the surface to write, the entire screen flickers black. It also happens in other apps like Sticky Notes. The issue resolves itself upon restarting, but starts flickering again another 30 minutes of writing later.

This basically means the device is useless for the main purpose I bought it for, to take notes in class, as I don't really have time to reboot every half an hour in a 2-hour lecture.

I've been having the same issue with the special Windows 10 version of OneNote. OneNote 2016 works without issues.

Supposedly, if you have this issue in 2016, you can disable hardware graphics acceleration in the advanced options, but that setting doesn't exist on the UWP version.

For me, simply closing and reopening OneNote wasn't enough to fix it (it also happened in any other Modern app). Rebooting the computer worked, but that's a hassle. I did find a quicker workaround, though.

Open up Task Manager and kill Desktop Window Manager. Windows will complain and all that, but once it's killed (it restarts itself automatically), my screen stops flashing.

I really hope Microsoft fixes this...

I have the exact same issue with Whiteboard in Windows 10 on the Surface Pro 7. I can use the highlighter without any issues (thanks for the heads up on that one), but none of the solid colored pens. I can't fix by restarting and I don't have the ability to stop the Desktop Window Manager service.

I'd like MS to comment on it, let alone fix it.

Same issue with flickering screen. However, only happens in "Popup" Writing Window. No problem on OneNote. If I have an Epileptic episode from the Flickering there will be a law suite

Zacharee's workaround of killing Desktop Window Manager (which is under Windows Processes in the Task Manager from Cntrl-Alt-Delete) worked for me. There was no flickering in OneNote while using a pencil after Desktop Window Manager automatically restarted.

I also hope that Microsoft fixes the issue soon. Having to terminate Desktop Window Manager to get the flickering to stop is pretty annoying!

I've been having the same issue with the special Windows 10 version of OneNote. OneNote 2016 works without issues.

Supposedly, if you have this issue in 2016, you can disable hardware graphics acceleration in the advanced options, but that setting doesn't exist on the UWP version.

For me, simply closing and reopening OneNote wasn't enough to fix it (it also happened in any other Modern app). Rebooting the computer worked, but that's a hassle. I did find a quicker workaround, though.

Open up Task Manager and kill Desktop Window Manager. Windows will complain and all that, but once it's killed (it restarts itself automatically), my screen stops flashing.

I really hope Microsoft fixes this...

This fix didn't work for me.  I see it in OneNote (the store version, not 2016) and Whiteboard.  I am in the Windows Insider Program so it might be on builds such as "Windows 10 Insider Preview 19041.1"

We determined that it wasn't just the pen, but also drawing with finger or mouse with the black solid pen and the yellow highlighter.  the problem does not occur with the rainbow pen (from the drop-down list), or he pencil.  The problem is not just limited to Office apps, with the yellow highlighter in Snip & Sketch also causing flashing.

I have a case open with Microsoft now (119112823000292).  If you have logged a case, can I please get the case number so we can link them up?

Also, if you are having the issue, can you please report your device model, display adapter model and driver version, as well as Operating System, so we can get a better picture of what it is, and what it isn't?

For us, we are having the issue on Surface Pro 7 (Iris Plus graphics), version 25.20.100.7101 (and I also tried 26.20.100.7584 from the Intel site), running on windows 10 64-bit, version 1909.

As a troubleshooting step, the support rep got us to downgrade to the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter (by uninstalling the device and deleting the drivers).  That made it work.

We also had failures watching videos in YouTube in Edge: "An error occurred. Please try again later", which was resolved by reverting back to the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter.    There is definitely something wrong with this driver.

It's not an interaction with other non-Microsoft software, as it persists with a clean boot (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows).

We are not experiencing the issue on a Surface Pro 5 running Windows 10 1909 with Intel HD Graphics 620 drivers (both versions 25.20.100.6472 or 25.20.100.7101)