What's causing this visual glitch with my mouse cursor?

2

This problem is infuriating enough that I wrote a small program to reproduce it. Take a look at the gif below.

enter image description here

What's happening is a persistent distortion of the "working in background" cursor. Any application that causes my mouse cursor to switch displays this behavior. After I've had my computer on for a while, the "working in background" cursor gradually moves away from the actual spot that it clicks. You can also see that the distorted cursor is static even though it's normally an animated cursor.

The problem "resets" when I restart my computer or change to a new cursor theme (this one is the system default), but eventually continues no matter what I do.

I believe it started when I made my current install of Windows 10, but I'm not sure. My laptop has Intel integrated graphics and a GeForce 940M; the problem comes up when I use one or both screens. Device Manager reports that I have driver version 22.21.13.8253 for the graphics card; GeForce Experience reports that my driver version is 382.53.

Things I've tried:

  • Reinstalling GeForce Experience and drivers
  • Checking the integrity of the cursors themselves - their CRCs match what they're supposed to be
  • Using DISM and sfc /scannow to check for errors.

WindowsEscapist

Posted 2018-03-14T23:13:45.003

Reputation: 1 828

Does this happen in Safe Mode? – I say Reinstate Monica – 2018-03-14T23:23:57.950

Is display scaling enabled? Does enabling/disabling scaling change this behavior? – music2myear – 2018-03-14T23:33:14.347

@music2myear I'm set to 150% scaling. Changing scaling doesn't reduce the effect; it scales proportionately to the rest of the UI. – WindowsEscapist – 2018-03-15T00:21:46.903

@TwistyImpersonator I'll try it out; it takes a while to start happening so I haven't been in Safe Mode for long enough yet. – WindowsEscapist – 2018-03-15T00:21:53.153

If the problem takes a while to start happening, can you identify a process that either doesn't start immediately or begins to eat resources about the same time as the creepy crawlies appear? – fred_dot_u – 2018-03-15T00:28:10.397

The trouble is that during normal operation, my cursor is rarely in the "working in background" cursor, so I may notice it some time after it's started happening. There's a lot of variance in when it actually begins, too. I think I may just put my computer in safe mode, read a book, and leave up the offending cursor for a while to see what's happening. – WindowsEscapist – 2018-03-15T00:31:43.580

I left it in safe mode overnight and the problem didn't pop up, so now I get to play whack-a-mole with startup items. – WindowsEscapist – 2018-03-15T18:04:34.713

Answers

1

The problem is caused by Lenovo Utility application that starts with your system. Its Lenovo's app for hotkeys support but it for whatever reason invokes that glitch in some Windows version. When you have scaling below 150% (for example 125%) the cursor will not distort (however it will still not animate/will be stuck at first frame) but on 150% and higher the problem appears. I've reported that bug to Lenovo as well as Microsoft (because in fact that's Windows' bug, the app only accidentally triggers that). Now it will take some time for Lenovo to bring the new version of an app. It's also fixed in latest Windows Insider builds. You can wait for a fix and while waiting you can just disable the app on Startup tab in Task manager or you can use 125% scaling.

Przemek

Posted 2018-03-14T23:13:45.003

Reputation: 26

I think across the whole internet you're the only one to have figured this out; thanks for spreading the word. I'll test it out tonight. Do you still recommend setting utility.exe's DPI scaling to "Application"? – WindowsEscapist – 2018-07-26T21:13:31.247

Going to accept this. I haven't had time to do an overnight testing thing like I did before, but since I set utility.exe's DPI scaling to "Application" the problem has not reappeared. For others: I found that hint in one of przemek's posts (he's the only person I'd found who'd had this weird problem), but I lost the post. Someone else's post describing what I did can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Lenovo/comments/7u5xky/just_wanted_to_share_a_fix_to_this_weird_cursor/

– WindowsEscapist – 2018-08-22T21:25:34.227

For posterity: As of October 10th problem has not reappeared. I'll confidently call it solved. Thanks so much Przemek! – WindowsEscapist – 2018-10-10T13:59:40.517

Asked: 2018-03-14T23:13:45.003

Viewed: 617 times

Active: 2018-07-03T17:23:33.257