Graphical glitch in Word and Outlook (Office 365)

[Chris85]

For me it’s still persistent but not as prominent as before. I have made no tweaks, just regular updates.

 

[FSx3]

Same here: Issue still persists in general but disabling core parking very much made it disappear on my systems (Intel CPUs, Nvidia GPUs).

 

[VDB]

rwilsond,

The issue is still here! It has not been fixed (and maybe never will be). Based on my communications with Microsoft, the company remains, even still, unaware of this bug.

You mention "numerous tweaks" you have made. Perhaps you have made some (or all) of these four tweaks that people have tried with varying degrees of success.

1) Placing a load on the GPU. This can be done with programs like FurMark and OCCT. It can, however, lead to system instability as well as heat and other related issues. And it works intermittently, depending on the amount of load and other factors.

2) Setting the CPU affinity to use only one core. Be aware that this adjustment can cause sluggish performance, system errors when multi-tasking, and even Blue Screens.

3) Adding Office programs as games and setting the GPU driver for 'low latency = ultra' or 'anti-lag = enabled'. This works partially well and only with certain drivers. It can also lead to program instability and errors, as well as other strange behaviors (although apparently not Blue Screens).

4) Disallowing CPU core parking. This adjustment, on many systems, makes glitches rare. It is perhaps the most widely effective of these tweaks. It can, however, lead to Blue Screens in certain scenarios, as documented on the Bitsum ParkControl website.

Combining more than one of these tweaks at the same time can result in greater effectiveness (as well as greater instability). Perhaps, rwilsond, you did some of these tweaks simultaneously and found the combination effective. Congratulations.

Even though these temporary workarounds can help to varying degrees, they are of course no substitute for Microsoft actually becoming aware of this bug and fixing it!

 

[rwilsond]

rwilsond,

The issue is still here! It has not been fixed (and maybe never will be). Based on my communications with Microsoft, the company remains, even still, unaware of this bug.

You mention "numerous tweaks" you have made. Perhaps you have made some (or all) of these four tweaks that people have tried with varying degrees of success.

1) Placing a load on the GPU. This can be done with programs like FurMark and OCCT. It can, however, lead to system instability as well as heat and other related issues. And it works intermittently, depending on the amount of load and other factors.

2) Setting the CPU affinity to use only one core. Be aware that this adjustment can cause sluggish performance, system errors when multi-tasking, and even Blue Screens.

3) Adding Office programs as games and setting the GPU driver for 'low latency = ultra' or 'anti-lag = enabled'. This works partially well and only with certain drivers. It can also lead to program instability and errors, as well as other strange behaviors (although apparently not Blue Screens).

4) Disallowing CPU core parking. This adjustment, on many systems, makes glitches rare. It is perhaps the most widely effective of these tweaks. It can, however, lead to Blue Screens in certain scenarios, as documented on the Bitsum ParkControl website.

Combining more than one of these tweaks at the same time can result in greater effectiveness (as well as greater instability). Perhaps, rwilsond, you did some of these tweaks simultaneously and found the combination effective. Congratulations.

Even though these temporary workarounds can help to varying degrees, they are of course no substitute for Microsoft actually becoming aware of this bug and fixing it!

VDB,

I guess I had forgotten about all the glitching problems until last week, and suddenly started wondering what ever became of it, because it was seemingly gone and I just then realized it. I do know my NVIDIA card is currently Enabled, and I guess it has been that way for at least a few months. I used to spend a lot of hours trying a lot of potential fixes (some of which was suggested on this forum), including toggling my NVIDIA graphics card off (when the glitching was too much to tolerate) and on, an so on; and this would work - but was not the fix I wanted, of course.

BTW, none of that stuff you listed even looks familiar enough to me that I would have likely ever tried any of it. Maybe one of the many tweaks I tried did fix it, but I'm thinking it is more likely it was some kind of automated software or driver update. Also, I am not a gamer, but have a fairly new Dell PC with a large monitor, and use it for work-related stuff, mostly.

Fyi, I also complained to Microsoft many times, including chat sessions and a screen-share session where the Microsoft guy seemed to recognize that there was a problem, but had no idea how to fix it, and suggested all kinds of stuff like re-installing MS 365, etc., that was just a waste of time. If I recall, I had ultimately started thinking the problem was related to the fact that Office 365 is now cloud-based.

I wish I had something more useful to report, but unfortunately I don't have a clue why the glitching seemingly completely went away months ago - I just hopes it stays that way! If I figure out what did the trick, I will give an update. Until then, GOOD LUCK!

 

[mclaren85]

I have the same issue. Glad to see this topic because I was thinking to create and ask the reason here.
Currently I'm using two PCs, one of us desktop the other one is laptop. Desktop has only Nvidia GPU, but the laptop has Nvidia and internal Intel gpu. The problem persists in every combination. I'm using office 2021

 

[Shou Miko]

At work I use Intel HD graphics on a i5-4790T or something no issue and personally I stopped Office all together just using OnlyOffice instead

 

[The Evil Tharg]

Hi All.

A new member here and, like some others, I joined specifically to comment on this thread. Because I have the same issue but cannot really find anything about it online other than here.

I bought a new Dell XPS 8960 desktop in December 2023, Windows 11 Pro, i7 13th Gen, 16GB ram, 512GB SSD, 2TB HDD, Nvidia 3060ti and Dell S3221QSA 32" 4K monitor. This was an upgrade from a seven year old Inspiron and I use it exclusively for office work, no gaming at all, but I bought the one with a 3036ti because the version with inbuilt graphics didn't have enough storage. Big mistake.

I have the exact same issue you have all described here. I have applied the various 'fixes' that people have talked about, the mouse trail, turning off accelerated graphics system wide, forcing Outlook, Excel and Word to use in built in graphics card (which doesn't stop them using the 3060ti as well) and nothing really works. A few minor improvements but I still get black boxes from time to time and typing is noticeably jerkier since forcing them to use the igpu.

What puzzles me is this. Given the millions of people who run Office on Windows 11 machines with Nvidia cards, how come more of them don't have this problem? It surely can't be system wide or everyone would be complaining abut it. So how come it is affecting so few people and what is it about our setups that's different for us?

 

[neatfeatguy]

Hi All.

A new member here and, like some others, I joined specifically to comment on this thread. Because I have the same issue but cannot really find anything about it online other than here.

I bought a new Dell XPS 8960 desktop in December 2023, Windows 11 Pro, i7 13th Gen, 16GB ram, 512GB SSD, 2TB HDD, Nvidia 3060ti and Dell S3221QSA 32" 4K monitor. This was an upgrade from a seven year old Inspiron and I use it exclusively for office work, no gaming at all, but I bought the one with a 3036ti because the version with inbuilt graphics didn't have enough storage. Big mistake.

I have the exact same issue you have all described here. I have applied the various 'fixes' that people have talked about, the mouse trail, turning off accelerated graphics system wide, forcing Outlook, Excel and Word to use in built in graphics card (which doesn't stop them using the 3060ti as well) and nothing really works. A few minor improvements but I still get black boxes from time to time and typing is noticeably jerkier since forcing them to use the igpu.

What puzzles me is this. Given the millions of people who run Office on Windows 11 machines with Nvidia cards, how come more of them don't have this problem? It surely can't be system wide or everyone would be complaining abut it. So how come it is affecting so few people and what is it about our setups that's different for us?

If your CPU has onboard graphics, you could try removing the 3060Ti and seeing if that resolves your problem. If you have no need for it (not gaming or need it for encoding or anything like that) it might be worth a try.

In the end, if the 3060Ti taken out fixes your issue and you still have no need for it, you could sell it and recoup some money for it.

Just an idea.

 

[Frick]

What puzzles me is this. Given the millions of people who run Office on Windows 11 machines with Nvidia cards, how come more of them don't have this problem? It surely can't be system wide or everyone would be complaining abut it. So how come it is affecting so few people and what is it about our setups that's different for us?

That's the thing with PCs and software. A Windows PC consist of a wide arrange of different hardware, and you can install any kind of software, meaning that even if two computers are superficially similar they are probably very different when you get down to the nitty gritty. Add to this bugs and glitches, and the result is that stuff like this is incredibly hard to nail down. That's the strenght of say Apple computers: no customization, but that can also be a weakness of course.

 

[The Evil Tharg]

If your CPU has onboard graphics, you could try removing the 3060Ti and seeing if that resolves your problem. If you have no need for it (not gaming or need it for encoding or anything like that) it might be worth a try.

In the end, if the 3060Ti taken out fixes your issue and you still have no need for it, you could sell it and recoup some money for it.

Just an idea.

Thanks for the suggestion NFG, however such things are above my pay grade I'm afraid. I wouldn't know where to begin.

 

[neatfeatguy]

Thanks for the suggestion NFG, however such things are above my pay grade I'm afraid. I wouldn't know where to begin.

I only suggested this route because you mention you don't use the computer for gaming so the card is sitting there unused and that seems like a waste. I recall a few posts in this thread that people said if they use the integrated graphics, instead of their Nvidia GPU, the problem goes away.

It appears that Dell 3060Ti cards are selling for around $230-260 right now on ebay.

If you're not comfortable in doing it yourself, that's perfectly understandable, not everyone is. Perhaps you know someone that is good with computers that can check on things for you or even a local computer shop - even if they charge you $75-100 for the work you could then turn around and sell the GPU and get some money back. Just something to think about.

 

[The Evil Tharg]

I only suggested this route because you mention you don't use the computer for gaming so the card is sitting there unused and that seems like a waste. I recall a few posts in this thread that people said if they use the integrated graphics, instead of their Nvidia GPU, the problem goes away.

It appears that Dell 3060Ti cards are selling for around $230-260 right now on ebay.

If you're not comfortable in doing it yourself, that's perfectly understandable, not everyone is. Perhaps you know someone that is good with computers that can check on things for you or even a local computer shop - even if they charge you $75-100 for the work you could then turn around and sell the GPU and get some money back. Just something to think about.

Food for thought indeed and I appreciate you taking the time to point this out to me, maybe a local tech shop is the way to go.

Mind you, I have also read online that some people have issues getting the 770 to output 4k at 60hz, but then someone, somewhere always seems to have an issue of one description or another. Isn't technology wonderful?

 

[Mussels]

Hi All.

A new member here and, like some others, I joined specifically to comment on this thread. Because I have the same issue but cannot really find anything about it online other than here.

I bought a new Dell XPS 8960 desktop in December 2023, Windows 11 Pro, i7 13th Gen, 16GB ram, 512GB SSD, 2TB HDD, Nvidia 3060ti and Dell S3221QSA 32" 4K monitor. This was an upgrade from a seven year old Inspiron and I use it exclusively for office work, no gaming at all, but I bought the one with a 3036ti because the version with inbuilt graphics didn't have enough storage. Big mistake.

I have the exact same issue you have all described here. I have applied the various 'fixes' that people have talked about, the mouse trail, turning off accelerated graphics system wide, forcing Outlook, Excel and Word to use in built in graphics card (which doesn't stop them using the 3060ti as well) and nothing really works. A few minor improvements but I still get black boxes from time to time and typing is noticeably jerkier since forcing them to use the igpu.

What puzzles me is this. Given the millions of people who run Office on Windows 11 machines with Nvidia cards, how come more of them don't have this problem? It surely can't be system wide or everyone would be complaining abut it. So how come it is affecting so few people and what is it about our setups that's different for us?

It's tied in to a combination of things, mostly how the rendering changed in modern versions of 10 and 11.

It's a compatibility issue with certain graphical setups - not the hardware or software, but certain software settings on certain hardware configs - one user may always have a second display active while most people dont, or a video open (even paused) at a framerate not matching their refresh rate, and bam - the issue is there.

They close whatever had the video (or GIF) playing and the issue is gone, and some people never run into it
(Made up example - we dont know quite what's happening here, but that was a trigger on my 3090 to cause it in chrome)

DPI scaling, 10 bit vs 8 bit colour, so many settings in windows, graphics drivers and third party programs that could all conflict here.

 

[ivp]

Have you tried https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...rd-and-outlook-office-365.293195/post-5117418, it works for me.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Funny if this fixes the issue seeing ms uses edge hehe

NVIDIA Releases Hotfix Driver to Fix Stuttering

NVIDIA has released a new GeForce Hotfix Driver Version 551.46 that should fix stuttering issues in some scenarios. According to the release notes, the new hotfix driver fixes micro-stuttering in some games when vertical sync is enabled, as well as stuttering when scrolling in web browser. It...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[The Evil Tharg]

Have you tried https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...rd-and-outlook-office-365.293195/post-5117418, it works for me.

Thanks for the suggestion but I have an Nvidia card, not a Radeon one, so I don't know how to do this I'm afraid.

Hi,
Funny if this fixes the issue seeing ms uses edge hehe

NVIDIA Releases Hotfix Driver to Fix Stuttering

NVIDIA has released a new GeForce Hotfix Driver Version 551.46 that should fix stuttering issues in some scenarios. According to the release notes, the new hotfix driver fixes micro-stuttering in some games when vertical sync is enabled, as well as stuttering when scrolling in web browser. It...

www.techpowerup.com

I am currently running the latest version of the studio driver, 551.23, not the game ready version. I have tried both and there is no difference in the issues I face, so I went with the studio version because I don't play games.