[Python] Pygame Window Flickers / Temporarily Closes When Left-Clicked [duplicate]

Main Issue


Every time I left-click on the Pygame window, it appears to flicker, momentarily disappear, or exit and reopen instantly. No crash is reported, and this only happens with left-click, not middle or right click.

Here is the code I used to troubleshoot this problem:

import pygame
from sys import exit

pygame.init()
screen = pygame.display.set_mode((400,400))
pygame.display.set_caption('Flicker Test')
clock = pygame.time.Clock()

running = True
while running:
for event in pygame.event.get():
print(event) # Logs every event Pygame sees

if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
print("Received QUIT event")
running = False

if event.type == pygame.MOUSEBUTTONDOWN:
print(f"Mouse button {event.button} clicked at {event.pos}")

pygame.display.update()
clock.tick(60)

exit()


There are no pygame.QUIT events being triggered when this happens. Instead, the console logs only show:

<Event(1025-MouseButtonDown {'pos': (243, 136), 'button': 1, 'touch': False, 'window': None})>

Mouse button 1 clicked at (243, 136)

<Event(32770-VideoExpose {})>

<Event(32776-WindowExposed {'window': None})>

<Event(1026-MouseButtonUp {'pos': (243, 136), 'button': 1, 'touch': False, 'window': None})>


Which suggest that the window loses and regains focus, as opposed to crashing, possibly due to a system-level behavior.

What I've Tried So Far (None of These Worked):


1.) Verified It’s Not a Crash

• Wrapped the game loop in a try/except with traceback.print_exc() and input("Press Enter to close...")

2.) Ensured I'm Not Clicking the Red "X"

• Confirmed that I am actually clicking inside the window, not on some layering issue of the close button
• No QUIT event is triggered when the flicker happens.

3.) Ran From Standalone Terminal (CMD)

• Ran the script directly using "python main.py" in Command Prompt.
• Flicker still happens on left-click, so not an IDE issue.

4.) Tried Hardware-Accelerated and Buffered Display Mode

screen = pygame.display.set_mode((400, 400), pygame.HWSURFACE | pygame.DOUBLEBUF)


5.) Reduced/Increased Frame Rate

• Only thing of note is the flickering happens slightly less consistently on uncapped frame rates, and significantly worse/more consistent on lower rates.

6.) Disabled Fullscreen Optimization

• Right-clicked python.exe -> Properties -> Compatibility tab -> Disabled fullscreen optimizations

7.) Set SDL Video Driver to Windib

import os
os.environ["SDL_VIDEODRIVER"] = "windib"


8.) Removed Window Decorations

screen = pygame.display.set_mode((800, 400), pygame.NOFRAME)


9.) Updated GPU Drivers

10.) Used Pygame Community Edition (pygame-ce)

System Info


Laptop

OS: Windows 11 Home 24H2

Python version: 3.10.6

Pygame-ce version: 2.5.3

Display resolution: 1920x1080

GPU: GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop

Monitor: Internal

CPU: 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-13620H 2.40 GHz

TL;DR


Pygame window momentarily flickers or vanishes when left-clicking anywhere inside the window (not on the close button). No crash, no QUIT event, just a weird focus loss and regain cycle. Happens consistently on a Windows laptop. Tried literally everything from buffer modes to video drivers, DPI overrides, pygame-ce, NOFRAME, and SDL_VIDEODRIVER. No fix yet.

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