Windows 11 25H2 Build 26200.9168: Codex Desktop continuously flickers on Ryzen 7 9700X integrated Radeon graphics

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

• #38598
• #38915

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Important new reproduction detail: flicker is network-triggered

I found a highly reproducible condition that changes the behavior:

1. Disconnect the PC from the network.
2. Launch Codex Desktop while offline.
3. The Codex window remains stable and does not flicker.
4. Keep the same Codex process/window open and reconnect the network.
5. Shortly after network connectivity is restored, the full-window flickering starts.
6. While it is flickering, disconnect the network again.
7. The flickering stops.

This behavior is reproducible: offline = stable; online = flickering; disconnect again = flickering stops.

Because the exact same running application, Chromium profile, display driver, GPU, and window are stable while offline and begin flickering when network connectivity is restored, this seems to point away from GPU performance or a purely display-driver issue. It may indicate a network-triggered frontend/state/sync/auth/thread/plugin update loop that causes repeated UI repaint/reload on Windows Build 26200.

This also seems consistent with the earlier observation that --disable-gpu does not change the behavior.

I hope this narrower trigger helps isolate the regression.

Additional narrowing: Settings page is stable; main app page flickers

I found another deterministic toggle while staying online:

1. Launch Codex Desktop while online and remain on the main app/chat/workspace page: the window flickers continuously.
2. Press Ctrl+, to open Settings.
3. The flickering stops immediately and the Settings UI remains stable.
4. Click Back to app to return to the main page.
5. The flickering resumes immediately.
6. Repeating this 2-3 times produces the same result each time.

So, while the network remains connected and the same process/window/GPU/driver stay unchanged:

• Main app/chat/workspace UI = flickers
• Settings UI = stable

This further suggests the problem is tied to logic/content that is active specifically on the main app page, rather than to the entire Electron/Chromium window or a general GPU composition failure.

I also observed a deactivated_workspace error in the main UI. The account previously belonged to a Business workspace that was deactivated, and the account has since joined a different active workspace. This may or may not be related, but it could indicate stale workspace/session state being exercised specifically by the main app page.

Combined with the earlier network trigger (offline = stable, online = flickers, disconnect again = stops), the issue now appears strongly associated with online main-page initialization/sync/state rather than global rendering.

In-app diagnostic feedback submitted

I also submitted this issue through the Codex/ChatGPT Windows app's built-in Submit Feedback flow while the issue was reproducible.

The submission included the available current ChatGPT session logs and browser/tab logs.

Feedback ID: no-active-thread-01a032d1-1e4c-7453-86b2-fa974e9e1931

If maintainers have access to the in-app diagnostic reports, this ID may help correlate the diagnostic logs with this GitHub issue (#39846).

Additional finding: clean re-login fails with Windows os error 10013

While investigating whether stale authentication/workspace state might be related to the flicker, I found that Codex authentication is stored in %USERPROFILE%\.codex\auth.json. Renaming that file (backup only; not deleting it) successfully forced the Windows app into a signed-out state.

However, attempting a fresh Continue with ChatGPT login consistently fails immediately with:

failed to start login server: An attempt was made to access a socket in a way forbidden by its access permissions. (os error 10013)

I ran several isolation tests:

• Switched from the normal network to a completely different mobile hotspot: same 10013.
• Completely exited Clash Verge / Mihomo (local proxy no longer listening): same 10013.
• Tailscale was already disconnected/disabled: same result.
• Ran the Codex/ChatGPT app as Administrator: same 10013.
• Verified that Windows itself can bind/listen on loopback successfully using PowerShell/.NET: 127.0.0.1:8765 entered LISTENING normally.
• ProcMon confirmed codex.exe is running and can perform successful TCP traffic; it also accesses WinSock configuration during the login attempt. A registry ACCESS DENIED was observed when requesting All Access to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinSock2\Parameters, but I have not established that this is causal.
• Windows netsh trace was captured during a reproduction. It did not expose a clear failed bind event / callback port, so I have not modified any WinSock settings or excluded-port ranges.

Windows excluded TCP ranges observed on this machine include:

1421-1520
1743-1842
4061-4160
5357
12394-12793
27339
50000-50059 (managed)

I have deliberately not changed or deleted these ranges because there is not yet evidence that the Codex login callback port overlaps them.

This may be a separate Windows login-server issue from the original UI flicker, but it currently prevents performing the clean-login/new-workspace A/B test that was intended to determine whether stale workspace authentication contributes to the flickering.

Previous in-app diagnostic feedback ID for this report: no-active-thread-01a032d1-1e4c-7453-86b2-fa974e9e1931.

Update: issue resolved after fresh ChatGPT authentication

Update on the reproduction: this morning I retried the ChatGPT login and authentication completed successfully (the os error 10013 login-server failure from the previous day did not recur).

After completing a fresh ChatGPT login, the Codex Windows app is now stable while online. The main app/chat/workspace UI no longer flickers, and it has remained stable during normal use.

The sequence was therefore:

1. Original authentication state: online main UI flickered continuously; Settings UI was stable; offline main UI was stable. A deactivated_workspace response was also observed. The account had previously belonged to a Business workspace that was deactivated and had since joined a new active workspace.
2. Renamed %USERPROFILE%\.codex\auth.json to a backup name, which successfully forced a sign-out.
3. Fresh ChatGPT login initially failed with failed to start login server ... (os error 10013) despite the isolation tests described above.
4. Retried the login the following morning; authentication succeeded normally.
5. After the fresh authentication, the online main UI is stable and the flickering is gone.

This strongly suggests that stale/invalid authentication or workspace state may have been involved in triggering the original flicker, although I cannot prove causality because the successful re-login happened the following day and server/client state may also have changed in the meantime.

For now I am leaving the working configuration unchanged and will report back if the flicker returns.

Additional confirmation: another user reproduced and fixed the issue with fresh authentication

A second user with the same Windows Codex flickering symptoms independently tested the same workaround:

1. Exit Codex Desktop.
2. Rename the existing %USERPROFILE%\.codex\auth.json (backup only) to force sign-out.
3. Launch Codex and complete a fresh ChatGPT login.
4. After successful re-authentication, the main online UI flickering disappeared.

This suggests the issue may be related to stale authentication/workspace/session state rather than GPU rendering, display drivers, or Windows graphics configuration.

The original observations remain consistent:

• Main chat/workspace UI flickered while online.
• Settings UI remained stable.
• Offline mode was stable.
• A fresh authentication state appears to restore normal behavior.

This is not a definitive root cause yet, but it provides another independent reproduction where refreshing authentication state resolved the symptom.

I can reproduce the same continuous flickering issue on another Windows 11 machine.

Environment:

• Windows 11 25H2
• OS Build: 26200.9168
• OpenAI.Codex: 26.820.7780.0
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050

Symptoms:

• The entire ChatGPT/Codex desktop window continuously flickers/repaints after launch.
• The desktop application is effectively unusable.
• ChatGPT works normally in a web browser on the same computer.

Troubleshooting already performed:

• Windows App Repair: no effect
• Windows App Reset: no effect
• Completely uninstalled and reinstalled the application: no effect
• Windows reboot: no effect
• Disabled the virtual display adapter: no effect

The desktop application had previously worked normally on this same computer, and the issue appeared recently.

This appears very similar to this issue, but it still reproduces with OpenAI.Codex 26.820.7780.0 and an NVIDIA RTX 3050.

Thanks for sharing this workaround — I tested it on my system and it worked for me as well.

I exited Codex Desktop, renamed %USERPROFILE%\.codex\auth.json as a backup, then launched Codex and completed a fresh ChatGPT login.

After re-authentication, the flickering on the main online UI disappeared completely.

So this workaround successfully resolved the issue in my case too. This seems to further support that the problem is related to stale authentication/workspace/session state rather than GPU or Windows graphics rendering.