Screen flicker after booting Windows

The problem I'm experiencing is that when I boot Windows, when I reach the login screen, my display starts flickering/flashing. (Basically it turns entirely grey or black about once or twice per second.) It also seems to freeze my PC temporarily; while the screen is grey I cannot move the mouse cursor or otherwise interact with Windows. I'm forced to restart my PC and try again. Usually I get lucky after 3-4 restart attempts. When Windows boots into the Advanced Startup Options menu and I select "Continue" (which is Microsoft speak for "reboot"), it almost always boots without the flickering and I'm able to use my PC.

To clarify: The flickering only happens immediately after booting, at the login screen. If it doesn't occur then, it won't occur later either and I'm safe until I reboot. I can even log out and back in without any risk.

I think the problem is related to my graphics driver (AMD), because it (almost) never occurs if I uninstall all AMD software. However, the problem still exists if I install an older version of the graphics driver (one that used to work before this issue appeared), so I'm not 100% sure.

• Flickering either occurs at the login screen or doesn't occur at all


• Sometimes the flickering starts automatically, other times it begins when I interact with the login screen (by clicking or pressing enter)


• Flickering almost never occurs when booting from Advanced Startup Options menu


• Flickering hasn't occured in Safe Mode so far Flickering can occur even in Safe Mode.


• Not sure if relevant, but often after a successful boot, some of the icons in my task bar notification area do not render


• Flickering is limited to Windows; nonexistant on linux (just in case anyone thought it was a hardware problem)


• In order to test if the flickering exists, I have often rebooted my PC without doing anything - boot, login, reboot, login, reboot. This usually let me boot without any problems, which made it difficult to test if a "fix" worked or not. I'm starting to think that the flickering only occurs if I've actually used the PC before rebooting - maybe I have to start a certain program for it to occur?

• Disabled "AMD External Events Utility" service


• Disabled "Windows Error Reporting Service" and "Problem Reports and Solutions Control Panel Support" services


• Disabled all non-windows services


• Reinstalled graphics driver


• Installed older graphics driver


• Disabled graphics card (through device manager -> right click -> disable device)


• Reinstalled Windows (multiple times, but the issue existed every single time)


• Turned on automatic login to bypass the login screen. PC then boots into a black screen instead.

What can I do to fix or further diagnose this problem?