Desktop icon flickering

[YaoJung Ho]

Our company has a computer that was originally running Windows 10 22H2 with SEP 14.3 RU6 installed. Recently, we upgraded the operating system to Windows 11 24H2.

After the OS upgrade, we also upgraded SEP to 14.3 RU9 and rebooted the system. That's when a very strange issue occurred…

After logging into Windows post-reboot, every desktop icon started continuously flickering - and the same thing happened to files in File Explorer.

We tried upgrading SEP again to 14.3 RU10 and even ran smc -stop to temporarily disable SEP, but the issue persisted.

So far, the only workaround we've found is to completely uninstall and then reinstall SEP - this seems to stop the flickering.

Has anyone else encountered this unusual issue?

[Russ_V]

Hi YaoJung Ho, 

Thanks for reaching out to the Broadcom Community. 

That is an odd issue for sure. 

According to our public documentation your version of SEP 14.3 RU6 isn't compatible with Windows 11 24H2, so this could have contributed to your issue.  

For more information about which Windows versions are compatible with which specific versions of SEP client, see this link: 
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/163625/windows-compatibility-with-symantec-endp.html

In this case, it would have been better for you to uninstall SEP 14.3 RU6 completely, before you did your Windows 10 upgrade to Windows 11 24H2. 

And later once upgraded successfully, you could of reinstalled the compatible version of SEP including versions 14.3 RU9 or RU10 for best results. 

I would suggest you try this and check to see if the issue persists afterwards.  

If this doesn't solve the issue, and you want to investigate the root cause then kindly open a case with Support to investigate further.

Thanks,

Russ_V

[YaoJung Ho]

Hi Russ_V

The approach you suggested is ideal in theory, but in practice, it's not realistic to ask customers to uninstall and reinstall the old version of SEP on all endpoints-maybe it's doable for one or two machines, but for thousands?

Moreover, due to Microsoft's rollout mechanism, many customer devices have already been automatically upgraded to Windows 11 24H2. I'm fully aware that 24H2 is not compatible with SEP 14.3 RU6, but what's most strange is that everything worked fine after the OS upgrade-the screen flickering only started after upgrading SEP to 14.3 RU9 or RU10.

We've already opened a support case, but two weeks have passed and there's still no progress at all.

[Russ_V]

Hello again, 

Thanks for your response. 

Yeah I get your point. 

But there are many potential factors that could be contributing to this issue as well, aside from SEP.    

To determine root cause you'd need to work with Support.  If additional assistance is needed, work with Support to engage the next level (L2/L3 etc).  

Best,

Russ_V