Hello dear community, I hope you can help me discover whats causing the following problem for me, here as follows:

When I enter any DirectDraw based game windows 7 first reverts to non-transparent theme and 16-bit color mode, and then the game executes. So far so good.

Then the screen starts to flicker in black every now and then, very erratic, and its tremendously frustrating to the point that its giving me a migraine (with debilitating aura).

I have tried the following suggestions without any solutions:
* Terminating explorer.exe before launching application
* Using custom DDraw wrappers/patchers
* All compatibility mode check-mark combinations (up to 63!)
* Disabling 32-bit color mode and/or visual themes in windows

My temp fix:
Window mode seems to fix the flickering problem, but this hampers the ability to scroll the screen at the borders, thus rendering RTS games unplayable.

Can someone PLEASE help me to discover whats causing the problem?
I am not asking for any1 to fix this for me, I just want to know whats causing this so I can fix it myself.

PLEASE I hope someone can point me in a direction.

Here some of my specs:

OS: W7 Home Premium SP1, 32-bit
DirectX: 11.0

CPU: QuadCore Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550, 2833 MHz
MOBO: Asus P5Q SE
Chipset: Intel Eaglelake P45
RAM: 3328 MB (DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM)
+ I run my monitors in 60hz

My DxDiag link:
dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14076385/DxDiag.pdf

You should be able to link to pastebin.com without issues. Put the content of your dxdiag log there

i heard of that problem - caused by video drivers

have you tried leaving the graphics properties window open (its different on different versions of windows) but its usually the section where you change colour bit. iv not known it to solve the issue you describe but ive known it solve the graphics issues in games such as the Red Alert / C&C games.
its a totally useless idea but first thing that came to mind, and your sure it doesnt happen with anything else than with the games your using?
any recent changes? recent driver updates?
tried a reinstall of your graphics drivers? tried reverting to an earlier version of your graphics drivers (in case its a compatibility issue)?

His rep points are too low. You can't post links on GOG forums without 10? rep. Something like that.

Nice catch Melhelix :)

He should still be able to put the url on here without the the tags, just pure text.

Truly sorry that this is causing you migraines. That's absolutely dreadful.

A couple of quick questions:
What specific game titles are afflicted by this?
What kind of graphic card do you have?

This sounds really similar to a problem I had last year but that was caused by a Wineskin Wrapper compatibility issue. So definitely not your problem here.

Sry I forgot my pastebin :D so I use my public DB instead :p I have a ATI 6950

I get this problem in both GoG releases and non-GoG unmodded games such as Diablo 2, Total Annihilation, Age of Wonders (lesser known but superior TBS) and the like.
They all use DDraw that is why I suspect that is the culprit.

Thanks again for looking into this.

I know of these esoteric solutions, but they are merely workarounds rather than real solutions. But you are absolutely right, if it works it works :D

I have heard of one where you can fix broken/hallucinogenic colors in DDraw games by right-clicking desktop and going into Personalization, and then highlighting the Personalization window right before the game executes, thus fixing the discoloration!

removing dos from windows was a mistake on MS' part in my opinion... ever since NT it has been so shit to play old games. </rantoff>

~edit~ forgot to say, no didnt work lol

nice, 32 bit OS (x86) with 4 GB of RAM...
you had this problem before? or did some tweaking on drivers?

just reinstall (upgrade to Pro or somethign from tpb) win 7 or win 8 on x64 BITS (please) and then see if this it's still a problem 64-bit-support

Yeah I got CCC 13 I think, I never really got used to it TBH.
I have to mess around with it, I hope thats the problem.

yeah nice lowend pc :p

No custom drivers, tried both stock and new ones. Same result.

Sorry but I think reinstall is overkill.
I upgrade soon anyways, but it would be nice if I could play old games while I wait for new computer parts :D

yep think thats what i was *trying* to explain, sorry it didnt work.
let me have a think and if i can come up with something that hasnt already been mentioned ill update!
i currently am feeling your pain with my own dt and a gfx card issue (i think) and suffer from hemiplegic migraines so believe me when i say i feel your pain.

What is the driver version that you are using with your graphic card. This can be found by opening up catalyst control center->Information-Software and catalyst version.

Catalyst 13.4
2D: 8.01.01.1295
D3D: 9.14.10.0969
OGL: 6.14.10.12217
Catalyst Control Center-version: 2013.0328.2218.38225