I have an issue with my PC since upgrading from Windows 8 to 8.1. I have even tried a fresh install of Windows 8.1 and I am still having this issue. Not sure what the problem is and I'm looking for some pointers on how I can troubleshoot it.

What I do is set ANY Windows Theme, or any desktop background set of pictures, with more than one picture. I select the option to shuffle the background with various times from 10 minutes to hourly on when to change the background.

The issue is that 2 or 3 times a day the background starts quickly cycling, at a rate of a new background every second. This last about a minute and then it goes back to normal.

I know one solution would be to select one picture, but I am looking for a solution to get this to work as it should. Could this be a video card issue? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Hi,

It's really strange about this problem. Since a fresh installation can't fix this problem, We should consider the hardware problem or system installation disc problem.

I need to confim that whethter this problem occures as soon as system reinstalled? Did your computer join into domain? If this is Video card driver problem, you need to check Graphic Driver edition firstly, make sure it is compatible with Windows 8.1. What about uninall Graphic driver and use system build in driver?

Thanks for your reply Roger.

Yes this happens on a fresh install, but I am not sure if it was before or after I installed any programs and joined to the domain. As I said it sometimes take hours to come back.

I did install a new video card yesterday that supported 8.1 only to have the issue come back just now.

Hi

Did you install any application after system fresh install? Actually, I don't think this is hardware problem, it more seems like caused by some application.

In addition, please check Event Viewer if it identify this events.

This still occurs after a fresh install. There is nothing I can find about it in the Event Logs.

I also have dual monitors setup, and this happens when using ANY Windows Panoramic themes online.

This issue did not happen with Windows 8. This only started happening when I installed the 8.1 update. Then I reinstalled 8.1 from scratch and still have the same issue.

What I am looking for is a way I can try to troubleshoot the issue. If anyone has any specific steps they would recommend, please let me know.

Thanks!

Hi,

How about using one monitor and other themes but not Panoramic? Will this problem occures?

How about using dual monitor but not Panoramic theme? What would be happen?

This problem sometime take 2-3 to occur, being that this is my work PC. I do not want to lose productivity using only one monitor. I will however try using a standard theme and see if still occurs.

The issue has not came back once I changed from a panoramic them to a standard one with different images on each monitor.

Not really a solution if you want to continue to use panoramic, but it made the issue go away.

I have the same problem as OP.  Every panoramic theme with more than one background image will eventually cycle through all of its background images too quickly, for about a minute, then calm down and rotate them at the "normal" speed.

What is interesting is that the "change picture every x {increment}" setting, at the higher ranges, is basically useless.  If I set the theme to rotate images every 1 day, it will actually end up rotating the images about once an hour.  And it will go through several "fast cycle" situations per day.

The only solution I have found is to use a non-panoramic theme (where rotation works okay without fast cycling), or to select a single panoramic wallpaper and thus avoid changing backgrounds at all.  Neither of which is really a good solution.

• Edited by cetaylor Sunday, September 21, 2014 2:54 AM

I have the same problem as OP.  Every panoramic theme with more than one background image will eventually cycle through all of its background images too quickly, for about a minute, then calm down and rotate them at the "normal" speed.

What is interesting is that the "change picture every x {increment}" setting, at the higher ranges, is basically useless.  If I set the theme to rotate images every 1 day, it will actually end up rotating the images about once an hour.  And it will go through several "fast cycle" situations per day.

The only solution I have found is to use a non-panoramic theme (where rotation works okay without fast cycling), or to select a single panoramic wallpaper and thus avoid changing backgrounds at all.  Neither of which is really a good solution.

• Edited by cetaylor Sunday, September 21, 2014 2:54 AM

I have been having the same problem on my windows 8.1 workstation.  ASRock MBoard, Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 6800 discrete graphics, 16 GB ram, Dual 1920 X 1200 Dell U2412M LCD's on DVI, all patches up to date (March 2015)

Ever since upgrading to 8.1 I have hand made a collection of 3840 x 1200 pixel desktop backgrounds and set a slideshow background with shuffle on, 3 minute change, and 'fit' picture position.

On an average work day I get the same symptoms 2-4 times. It usually makes some/all of my windows flicker so it is very noticeable.

Same exact symptoms here. Win 8.1 Pro, dual monitor setup. With panoramic themes only, Windows will occasionally rapidly cycle through all desktop slides, creating an obnoxious window "flicker" effect (as most of my panoramic  themes have translucent window borders). 

I've also noticed the "change picture every x {increment}" setting behaving exactly as you have described. 

I've attempted to edit the theme and select just one background image to display (in other words, to effectively disable the slide show), and intermittently after doing so I just wind up with a black desktop with no background image displayed.

Very annoying.