Black rectangle shows up middle of screen- mouse doesnt work within it

RickNCN · 24 Jun 2019

For months now I have been getting a black rectangle in the middle of my screen. Sometimes, depending on the window that's up, it doesn't show as anything - it's transparent, but it's still there. On other windows, it shows up as a rectangular hole in the window that you can see through to the desktop. Regardless of how it manifests, the mouse has no effect within the rectangle. I have to reboot for it to go away. It never goes away on its own. I do some gaming and thought it was related to opening Steam and the game - either PUBG or Ring of Elysium, but it's not. It happened today after a restart and I hadn't done any gaming. I just can't pin it to any activity I perform on the PC. I'll post pictures.
TIA!

Black rectangle shows up middle of screen- mouse doesnt work within it-2019-06-24-15_43_09-new-notification.jpg

Black rectangle shows up middle of screen- mouse doesnt work within it-2019-06-24-15_42_53-start.jpg

Black rectangle shows up middle of screen- mouse doesnt work within it-2019-06-24-15_35_23-start.jpg

Compumind · 24 Jun 2019

@RickNCN -

What Graphics Card or Integrated Graphics are you using?

I would cleanly uninstall (there is usually a specific program for this by the vendor) and reinstall the latest revision of the Graphics Driver set.
(Some vendors have a Clean Uninstall/Reinstall option in their driver software suite.)

Let's go from there.

dalchina · 24 Jun 2019

Assuming it's actually a sort of window, try this program:
WinLister v1.22 - display the list of opened windows on your system

Also try a clean boot and see if it still occurs. Another option would be to create a new user for test purposes, log in as that user, and see if it still happens.

If it is some sort of program being triggered, the two possible sources are shown by
a. Autoruns (free from MS)
and
b. a scheduled task

bro67 · 24 Jun 2019

See if Process Monitor helps to figure this out. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sys...nloads/procmon

RickNCN · 24 Jun 2019

Oh yeah, a few details could've helped.
It's an Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 on an Asus Z87A

Yeah, I did actually do a clean reinstall of the driver. Nvidia has the GeForce experience thing. I ran the driver install for the latest updated driver for my dard and chose the clean install. I also did a full reinstall of all drivers for the Asus board, downloaded direct from Asus of course.

Process Monitor and Winlister - I like that- I'll check them out.

- - - Updated - - -

I ran WinLister (gotta love NirSoft) and it said Microsoft Store and Calculator were open but they weren't. I opened Microsoft Store a few hours ago but closed it. I never opened calculator since my last reboot. So I forced both closed with Winlister. I've also got an Nvidia GeForce overlay which is expected, but also some control panel windows that I dont see either.

Compumind · 24 Jun 2019

A check of running background processes would be a logical next step, as mentioned above.

Have you experienced this in Safe Mode?
What software have you installed very recently?
What do you have plugged into your USB ports?

One more thing...

Right click your Start button and select the Command prompt (Admin) to bring up the elevated Command prompt.
In the Command prompt type sfc /scannow and press enter. Let it complete. Then, restart the computer.

Please post back. Thanks.

Try3 · 24 Jun 2019

What does Task mgr, Processes, Apps show as runnning when this occurs?

Denis

RickNCN · 25 Jun 2019

Have you experienced this in Safe Mode?
-I don't run in safe mode so I couldn't say.

What software have you installed very recently?
-This problem has been going on for months now probably - I forget when it started- but I don't recall what might have been new when it began.

What do you have plugged into your USB ports?
mouse, keyboard, printer, external hdd, webcam

What does Task mgr, Processes, Apps show as runnning when this occurs?
- I'll have to wait for it to happen again and I'll let you know

Thank you

dalchina · 25 Jun 2019

Have you experienced this in Safe Mode?
-I don't run in safe mode so I couldn't say.

Please boot to Safe Mode e.g. via SHIFT + left click Restart and follow through the prompts.
Other means of booting to Safe Mode are widely documented, including in the Tutorial section here.
It's a basic diagnostic step. Thank you.

I have made other suggestions in post #3. You are, naturally, free to set them aside.

Compumind · 25 Jun 2019

RickNCN said:

This problem has been going on for months now probably - I forget when it started- but I don't recall what might have been new when it began.

Did you?

Right click your Start button and select the Command prompt (Admin) to bring up the elevated Command prompt.
In the Command prompt type sfc /scannow and press enter. Let it complete. Then, restart the computer.

Results?