Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Start button keeps flashing

Aug 27, 2008 8:54AM PDT

This is on my Acer Aspire 5100 notebook running Vista HP with SP1. Recently this started; the little round START button flashes on whatever window happens to be onscreen. A VERY fast flash. I've done all I could but it still flashes. Any suggestions?

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
We may need a screenshot.
Aug 28, 2008 12:45AM PDT

Not of the flashing button but what button you are asking about. In Vista the start button vanished with just ONE and only one button on the bottom left of the toolbar which many call what was the start button.

Here's a picture of what we see today -> http://www.cnet.com.au/story_media/339282210/vista-start-menu.jpg

See the Vista flag on the bottom left? Now tell us what button you see flashing.
Bob

- Collapse -
flashing button
Aug 28, 2008 1:38AM PDT

Thank you, Bob; here is a screenshot. It is the round button with the Win logo.

Well, so much for that; I don't see a place to insert a picture in this forum. I have set Vista back to look like XP; got rid of all that "fancy" stuff; I want performance over "pretty" so mine does look a little different from yours.

Even as I type this, that button keeps flashing on this Firefox window.

- Collapse -
While we can't post pictures many
Aug 28, 2008 1:42AM PDT

Use Photobucket.com to put up a screen shot or such. Just edit it a little to point to the item that is flashing.

- Collapse -
Blinking Start Button
May 11, 2009 11:03PM PDT

I'm having the same issue. I tried to take a screen shot again and again, but I'm having no luck. I'll try and describe it. I have my taskbar set on auto hide, and set to classic windows. When the task bar is hide, the a phantom Start Button, just the square shape of the start button with the windows logo, nothing else... will flash all by itself for a second, almost as if the Start Button was a tool tip that pops up when your mouse is over something. The button looks exactly like the actually start button on the task bar, not different in shape, size, and is actually in the same spot where the start button would be if the task bar wasn't auto hide. It flashes quickly, sometimes once, and sometime twice, usually three times. It doesn't actually do anything or cause issues, but it is very distracting!

- Collapse -
Just for your research.
May 11, 2009 11:32PM PDT
- Collapse -
Flashing Phantom Start Button
May 13, 2009 6:03AM PDT

I've played with it some... nothing but shutting off auto hide works. I decided to expand the task bar, it can be enlarged to half the size of the desktop. Now the flashing Start Button is still where it would be at the new englarged task bar... so I have it flashing on the left, half way up my monitor.

... and a note, I just reset my pc to factory image restore, and not sure why it is happening.

Any ideas?

- Collapse -
Flashing start button above auto-hidden taskbar's start butt
Sep 27, 2009 11:13PM PDT

Tried the usual un-hiding the auto-hidden taskbar, even turning off and on the hide unused icons, turning off amnd back on quick start icons, but until I disabled NIS2009's 'Advanced Protection', again nothing seemed to stop the flashing start button appearing just above the auto-hidden taskbar's start button. Again, I had even tried system restore (first a day back, then two, then a week), but until I disabled that feature in NIS2009, nothing worked. Wouldn't surprize me at all if everyone affected is running NIS.

- Collapse -
Blinking/flashing taskbar windows logo
Dec 19, 2009 3:44PM PST

I've been having the same problem as well. Installed all the relevant updates, but still no go. I'm using a Vista Home Premium, with SP2.

Anybody solved this yet?

Thanks in advance.

- Collapse -
I am having the same problem.
Nov 15, 2010 1:35PM PST

Here is a brief video of the problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg2dGQyh_Tk&hd=1

It is more annoying than anything that effects performance.
Looks like this thread is many years old, but I don't see anything that resembles a solution.

How did you resolve it StickMaker?

- Collapse -
Here's a list of fixes.
Nov 15, 2010 2:57PM PST