Zotero makes screen flash black

Jilken
edited March 29, 2023
Everytime I open Zotero, my screen starts flashing uncontrollably. It stops after I minimize Zotero, so I know the problem is related to Zotero. I've tried uninstalling and installing again, but it didn't fix it.
I'm on windows 11.

Is this a known problem? Any way to fix this?

Cheers
  • dstillman
    What graphics card?
  • Jilken
    Thank you for the reply!

    My graphics card is: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop

    Also, this wasn't happening before, maybe a recent update is causing the problem.
  • Jilken
    OK I think I fixed the problem! I had G-SYNC enable for windowed and full screen mode and when I changed it to just full screen mode the flickering stopped.

    Thanks anyway!
  • natema
    I get the same behavior but I'm on Fedora 37, with graphics card NVIDIA RTX A3000.
    Any idea how to fix it?
  • Jilken
    Have you tried what I said in my previous comment?
    Try to disable G-SYNC for windowed mode, that fixed it for me
  • natema
    Thanks for the quick reply.
    I haven't tried disabling g-sync yet, I'm trying to figure out how to do that.
    I'm on Fedora 37 and it seems that I should add some rules in the GUI that opens if I run `nvidia-settings` on the terminal.
  • tnajdek
    edited March 31, 2023
    On Windows it is possible to adjust behavior per-app, the following might help with any issues with Nvidia + G-SYNC without affecting global settings:
    1. Start "Nvidia Control Panel"
    2. From the column on the left select "Manage 3D settings"
    3. Select "Program Settings" tab
    4. Next to "Select a program to customize" press "Add"
    5. Select Zotero on the list or use "Browse" to find it, then confirm with "Add Selected Program"
    6. From the box below "2. Specify the settings for this program", find "Monitor Technology" and select "Fixed Refresh".
    7. Press apply at the bottom of the screen
    8. (Re)start Zotero
  • natema
    Thanks, unfortunately `nvidia-settings` on Linux (Fedora 37) opens a much more minimal GUI that doesn't display all those options.
    I'm still lost in figuring out how to obtain the same result :(
  • tnajdek
    edited March 31, 2023
    I don't have a Linux on my Nvidia machine so I cannot verify but according to this it is possible to disable G-SYNC globally with:

    nvidia-settings -a AllowGSYNC=0

    If this doesn't work, I'd ask on Linux-specific forums as they are more likely to be able to help.

    Also, a little unorthodox, but if you can switch from DisplayPort to HDMI, that will most likely disable G-SYNC (I believe only very recent HDMI standard supports it)
  • natema
    Thank you @tnajdek for your help, I did try similar commands without succeeding, in particular
    ```
    ❯ nvidia-settings -a AllowGSYNC=0
    DEPRECATED: The attribute 'AllowGSYNC' is deprecated, use "AllowVRR" instead.
    ERROR: Error resolving target specification '' (No targets match target
    specification), specified in assignment 'AllowGSYNC=0'.

    ❯ nvidia-settings -a AllowVRR=0
    ERROR: Error resolving target specification '' (No targets match target
    specification), specified in assignment 'AllowVRR=0'.
    ```

    I will now write in some specific forums and write back here as soon as I figure out how to do that.
  • natema
    I found several related posts in the NVIDIA forum, but no luck so far in managing to disable G-SYNC (assuming that it is active and it is indeed the source of the problem).
    I posted there to ask for help: https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/how-to-disable-g-sync-on-fedora-37-gnome-wayland/248417 .
  • natema
    Solved!
    AFAIU, the problem was that I was using the desktop environment Gnome with Wayland as display server. Choosing "Gnome on Xorg" in the login manager not only causes nvidia-settings to show additional information (including those related to G-SYNC), but also makes the Zotero glitches disappear.
  • siyaol
    Thanks!!! Turning off G-Sync for windowed mode fixed the same issue for me.
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