Toolbar in Writer continuously redrawing two times per second

[lxvi]

This is my first time trying to use LibreOffice in Windows. I am running on a Dell Alienware AW17R3 with Windows 10 Pro with the latest updates and just uninstalled and reinstalled the latest JRE. The first issue immediately upon first opening a document (happens to be a docx)
Resident Contract - Illinois (04-19-23) - Churchill Place_Sejda.docx (222.5 KB)
is I was getting blank white rectangles instead of menus. I followed the advice on another post about disabling Skia rendering, which was difficult to accomplish because the only way to see the View tab (or get any updates in the dialog for that matter) was to click and drag on the scrollbar of the tab selectors. After restarting, I tried again to open the docx I want to work on and now the toolbars are constantly redrawing at about 2Hz (ie 120 times per minute!). Another issue is that if I click in a graphic and then click back in a text box, the toolbar for editing graphic stays up and does not switch back to the text toolbar until I click in a second textbox. A third issue is that there are a growing number of little bounding boxes being drawn on the left side of the page that keep increasing as I click between the textboxes and graphics box.

I’m kind of baffled by why LO would behave this way and exhibit issues that have apparently been reported for years.
Details

attribute	value
Processor	Intel(R) Core™ i7-6820HK CPU @ 2.70GHz 2.70 GHz
Installed RAM	32.0 GB (31.9 GB usable)
Device ID	5DCDD895-FCAC-4D0D-A903-EEC315C17C95
Product ID	00330-50089-76616-AAOEM
System type	64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch	No pen or touch input is available for this display

attribute	value
Edition	Windows 10 Pro
Version	22H2
Installed on	‎2023-‎03-‎22
OS build	19045.4291
Experience	Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19056.1000.0

Yay, I’m being blocked when I try to add a screenshot of the About Java window
Version 8 Update 411 (build 1.8.0_411-b09)

Version: 24.2.3.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 433d9c2ded56988e8a90e6b2e771ee4e6a5ab2ba
CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19045; UI render: default; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded
The About LibreOffice dialog window is also being redrawn at 2Hz

[lxvi]

Tried opening it in Safe Mode. At first things seemed ok, but then when I dragged the window onto my second monitor, the 2Hz refresh started happening again.
Dragging it back to the main screen stops the refresh.
Then dragging it back to the second monitor seems to be ok – for now…
Meanwhile, I still don’t always get the correct toolbar when I click into a textbox after clicking in a graphics box.

[EarnestAl]

Rather then disabling Skia, in Tools > Options > LibreOffice > View try enabling both Use Skia for all rendering AND Force Skia software rendering, OK and allow LibreOffice to restart.

It works OK for me (with the settings I suggest) but it took some seconds longer to open, probably because it has 238 frames instead of 238 paragraphs.

Intel HD 630 graphics
Version: 24.2.3.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 433d9c2ded56988e8a90e6b2e771ee4e6a5ab2ba
CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 22631; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: en-NZ (en_NZ); UI: en-GB
Calc: CL threaded

BTW Java is used for Report Writer in Base, not needed for Writer

[lxvi]

Thanks for the response @EarnestAl When I enable Use Skia for all rendering and Force Skia software rendering, I am back to having blank white menu panels and the Options dialog window not updating the right hand side unless the scrollbar on the left hand side is moved.

[ajlittoz]

Hi @lxvi

I looked at your file and it is, well, … “unusual”.

It is exclusively made of frames into which you have either text and images. These frames are manually positioned in the page. By the way, the pages have absolutely no margins, which is not common (at least because most printers have mechanical constraint restricting the printable area).

All text is direct formatted.

Globally, this looks like some physical sheets have been processed by an OCR equipment and turned into a PDF-like file, but under a format manageable by Word or Writer. There is a hard page break between all pages. All lines are terminated by a paragraph break. This implies that paragraph structure is lost (which could confirm conversion from some PDF).

This is not a flow-oriented document which can be globally manipulated or controlled. At best, it is a candidate for desktop publishing (DTP) applications.

Independent from your flickering issue, don’t expect to work smootly and efficiently on this “document”. The huge amount of frames could also contribute to the flicker (by degrading refresh performance, though 238 frames is within Writer grasp IMHO.

[lxvi]

Hello @ajlittoz Yes, it is a PDF to docx conversion by a website called sejda.com and is the one I was thinking of working on since it is the same number of pages as the original pdf. I also have a couple other conversions from other sites, which are more “naturally” flowed, but they are a few pages longer. There will be pain either way, but obviously nowhere near as painful as the odg that LO produces when opening the pdf

At any rate, the format of the document is actually beside the point. The 2Hz redraw happens when I launch Writer with no document. The blank white menus occur that way too.

[EarnestAl]

@lxvi

The 2Hz redraw happens when I launch Writer with no document.

Have you made some setting to prioritise gaming? Especially overclocking. If you have, see if turning it off makes a difference.

I presume your graphics drivers are up to date?

It might be worth checking out asking on intel site, Graphics - Intel Community

[lxvi]

I don’t think I’ve ever done that, as I’ve only used this computer for work-related stuff, but I will check to see if somehow a setting got frobbed by an update. The Device Manager sent me to NVIDIA’s website, and it says I’m up to date, but again, I’ll double check…

[EarnestAl]

LibreOffice will be using the integrated Intel 530 Graphics I think. Does Alienware website list more up-to-date drivers?

On my Acer computer, the Acer software said I was using the most current dirvers for my integrated intel 630 but when I went to their website, I found a much newer driver. After installing that, my graphics driver has been updated by Intel on a regular basis with visible improvement from the initial state. Of course, going straight to Intel might be a bad idea if Alienware have made changes somewhere.

[Edit]
I just looked at the Intel specs for your CPU, it doesn’t look as though the integrated graphics can cope with anything more than 60Hz @ 4K, see https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/88969/intel-core-i76820hk-processor-8m-cache-up-to-3-60-ghz/specifications.html

Another story:
I tried forcing LibreOffice (soffice.bin) to use my nVidia graphics card through the nVidia GForce Experience some time ago but I couldn’t tell if it worked or not, probably not.