XP display problems

[ellisonms]

When I turn the machine on, all is well. Then, after a few minutes, small
dashes appear here and there on the screen. The number of these dashes
increase the longer I stay on appearing as if it is some sort of cumulative
problem manifesting itself. As the dashes fill in the screen, they fill in
as columns of dashes from the top of the screen to the bottom, eventually
looking like long zippers and rendering the screen virtually useless. It
doesn't matter what site I'm looking at as they appear on all screens but in
differing places as I change sites.

Further, as the dashes start, the display also has a tendency to freeze up
for 5 to 20 seconds. As it does so, the pictures and text are garbled.
Sometimes when the freeze ends the pics and text are restored, somtimes not
and I need to slide the slider down past the garbled area and then back up to
restore the display.

All in all, I'm about to chuck the whole system at this point. As that
would be an expensive option, I'm thankful for any and all ideas.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

To determine if it is hardware or virus trouble, you would have to scan,
and/or do some swapping with good components, like monitor, and video card.
To me it sounds more like a virus.

--
Was this helpful? Then click the "Yes" button below. Voting helps the web
interface. http://www.microsoft.com/wn3/locales/help/help_en-us.htm#RateAPost

Mark L. Ferguson


"ellisonms" wrote:

> When I turn the machine on, all is well. Then, after a few minutes, small
> dashes appear here and there on the screen. The number of these dashes
> increase the longer I stay on appearing as if it is some sort of cumulative
> problem manifesting itself. As the dashes fill in the screen, they fill in
> as columns of dashes from the top of the screen to the bottom, eventually
> looking like long zippers and rendering the screen virtually useless. It
> doesn't matter what site I'm looking at as they appear on all screens but in
> differing places as I change sites.
>
> Further, as the dashes start, the display also has a tendency to freeze up
> for 5 to 20 seconds. As it does so, the pictures and text are garbled.
> Sometimes when the freeze ends the pics and text are restored, somtimes not
> and I need to slide the slider down past the garbled area and then back up to
> restore the display.
>
> All in all, I'm about to chuck the whole system at this point. As that
> would be an expensive option, I'm thankful for any and all ideas.
>

 

[David B.]

Make/model of computer? Type of graphics card?
Sounds like bad vram.

--

----
Crosspost, do not multipost http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm
How to ask a question http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
_________________________________________________________________________________


"ellisonms" <ellisonms@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FF76819D-7D15-47D0-A2E9-7C1D15A341FC@microsoft.com...
> When I turn the machine on, all is well. Then, after a few minutes, small
> dashes appear here and there on the screen. The number of these dashes
> increase the longer I stay on appearing as if it is some sort of
> cumulative
> problem manifesting itself. As the dashes fill in the screen, they fill
> in
> as columns of dashes from the top of the screen to the bottom, eventually
> looking like long zippers and rendering the screen virtually useless. It
> doesn't matter what site I'm looking at as they appear on all screens but
> in
> differing places as I change sites.
>
> Further, as the dashes start, the display also has a tendency to freeze up
> for 5 to 20 seconds. As it does so, the pictures and text are garbled.
> Sometimes when the freeze ends the pics and text are restored, somtimes
> not
> and I need to slide the slider down past the garbled area and then back up
> to
> restore the display.
>
> All in all, I'm about to chuck the whole system at this point. As that
> would be an expensive option, I'm thankful for any and all ideas.
>

 

[nass]

"ellisonms" wrote:

> When I turn the machine on, all is well. Then, after a few minutes, small
> dashes appear here and there on the screen. The number of these dashes
> increase the longer I stay on appearing as if it is some sort of cumulative
> problem manifesting itself. As the dashes fill in the screen, they fill in
> as columns of dashes from the top of the screen to the bottom, eventually
> looking like long zippers and rendering the screen virtually useless. It
> doesn't matter what site I'm looking at as they appear on all screens but in
> differing places as I change sites.
>
> Further, as the dashes start, the display also has a tendency to freeze up
> for 5 to 20 seconds. As it does so, the pictures and text are garbled.
> Sometimes when the freeze ends the pics and text are restored, somtimes not
> and I need to slide the slider down past the garbled area and then back up to
> restore the display.
>
> All in all, I'm about to chuck the whole system at this point. As that
> would be an expensive option, I'm thankful for any and all ideas.

Could you please chuck some info for us to work with, does this behaviour
appear in Safe mode and does it happen only on the Internet?.
Did you scan your system for Viruses and malware?, when it started?.
It could be your Video card going bad or your monitor given up the ghost!.
HTH.
nass
---
http://www.nasstec.co.uk

 

[ellisonms]

Thanks for the responses.

I've swept the system with Norton Anti-virus three times, each time a week
apart and each time just after a virus definition update as that's waht i
suspected too. No luck. I've defragged and chkdsked as well without any
change.

The monitor seems fine as I use it for all of my cable TV viewing (and have
for the last few years). It doesn't evidence any sign of trouble.

I haven't installed any new software for months other than the automatically
installed Windows updates from Microsoft. And I have Dell Dimension 8200
machine.

 

[DL]

did your auto updates include drivers?
And does the same happen in Safe Mode?

"ellisonms" <ellisonms@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4A84199B-6441-435F-BEA6-077D6DC30B0B@microsoft.com...
> Thanks for the responses.
>
> I've swept the system with Norton Anti-virus three times, each time a week
> apart and each time just after a virus definition update as that's waht i
> suspected too. No luck. I've defragged and chkdsked as well without any
> change.
>
> The monitor seems fine as I use it for all of my cable TV viewing (and
> have
> for the last few years). It doesn't evidence any sign of trouble.
>
> I haven't installed any new software for months other than the
> automatically
> installed Windows updates from Microsoft. And I have Dell Dimension 8200
> machine.
>

 

[VanguardLH]

"ellisonms" wrote in message
news:FF76819D-7D15-47D0-A2E9-7C1D15A341FC@microsoft.com...
> When I turn the machine on, all is well. Then, after a few minutes,
> small
> dashes appear here and there on the screen. The number of these
> dashes
> increase the longer I stay on appearing as if it is some sort of
> cumulative
> problem manifesting itself. As the dashes fill in the screen, they
> fill in
> as columns of dashes from the top of the screen to the bottom,
> eventually
> looking like long zippers and rendering the screen virtually
> useless. It
> doesn't matter what site I'm looking at as they appear on all
> screens but in
> differing places as I change sites.
>
> Further, as the dashes start, the display also has a tendency to
> freeze up
> for 5 to 20 seconds. As it does so, the pictures and text are
> garbled.
> Sometimes when the freeze ends the pics and text are restored,
> somtimes not
> and I need to slide the slider down past the garbled area and then
> back up to
> restore the display.
>
> All in all, I'm about to chuck the whole system at this point. As
> that
> would be an expensive option, I'm thankful for any and all ideas.
>


Are you overclocking the video card? If so, try it without the
overclocking.

Even if you are overclocking, many video cards sold commercially are
overclocked. Users will read the specs and see one brand seems better
than another for the same GPU and buy the better spec card. However,
that card was better because the vendor overclocked that card. For
example, the XFX and BFG brands sell overclocked video cards. If
there is "OC" in the model name or title for the product, it probably
means "OverClocked" but I see that designation is waning as vendors
want to hide why their spec is artificially higher.

Overclocking you motherboard can also result in overclocking the PCI
bus and that would affect your video card.

That it worked before and is now failing is indicative of hardware
fatigue. You never mentioned what is your "machine". If a desktop,
and rather than tossing the entire system, why wouldn't you instead
consider getting the video card replaced (if you can't fix it)? If
you can't handle replacing the video card, pay a tech to do it for
cheaper than buying a whole new system. Have you even tried
installing a new or older version of the video card's driver?

 

[philo]

"ellisonms" <ellisonms@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FF76819D-7D15-47D0-A2E9-7C1D15A341FC@microsoft.com...
> When I turn the machine on, all is well. Then, after a few minutes, small
> dashes appear here and there on the screen. The number of these dashes
> increase the longer I stay on appearing as if it is some sort of
cumulative
> problem manifesting itself. As the dashes fill in the screen, they fill
in
> as columns of dashes from the top of the screen to the bottom, eventually
> looking like long zippers and rendering the screen virtually useless. It
> doesn't matter what site I'm looking at as they appear on all screens but
in
> differing places as I change sites.
>
> Further, as the dashes start, the display also has a tendency to freeze up
> for 5 to 20 seconds. As it does so, the pictures and text are garbled.
> Sometimes when the freeze ends the pics and text are restored, somtimes
not
> and I need to slide the slider down past the garbled area and then back up
to
> restore the display.
>
> All in all, I'm about to chuck the whole system at this point. As that
> would be an expensive option, I'm thankful for any and all ideas.
>


Open the machine and have a look at the video card with the system
running...

good possibility that the cooling fan is bad.

If the fan is OK...then either the video drivers are corrupted...
or the card is just plain bad