XP display problems

  • Thread starter Thread starter ellisonms
  • Start date Start date
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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.
 
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.
 
ellisonms said:
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.
Click to expand...

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
 
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.
 
in message
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.
Click to expand...


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?
 
ellisonms said:
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.
Click to expand...


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
 
It was the fan that cooled the video board. As the machine heated up it
caused a loose connection in the fan to open and stop the fan. I fixed it
today and everything appears to be fine.

Thanks folks! I've never been disappointed by the depth of knowledge and
generosity of this group.

Happy New Year!
 
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