Help with Computer screen

2 possibilities:-

(1) Damaged monitor. Check by trying a different one.

(2) Damaged display card or chipset. Oh dear. Maybe due to overheating (not unknown during game play). If separate card try a different one. If chipset is integrated on mother board, maybe the board has a PCI or AGP socket so you can try a different card?

I can try another monitor, but I don't know about another graphics card. I use an ATI Radeon 9800 pro atm, could I use the onboard graphics and take out the card?

btw, on the back there is only a IOIOI socket that looks like it would fit the monitor plug(except the card one), is this the right one for onboard graphics?

I forgot to ask, what kind of monitor are you using?

Can you get a text mode screen by eg entering BIOS setup, booting MS-DOS, or killing Windows by killing the power so that a "Windows was not shut down properly last time" screen appears at next boot, or hitting F8 for safe mode? If a text screen appears correctly, that might place the blame on the display card.

It sounds like you have a motherboard which has both onboard graphics as well as an AGP or PCI (regular or Express) slot for a display card. If this is so, if you look at the back of the PC you will see more than one socket for a monitor lead. If you power down (as in disconnect AC lead) carefully remove the display card from its slot, connect the monitor lead to the remaining socket, and try to boot up the computer, that should provide some information.

When you move the mouse, does this make a great deal of flickering and "snow" on the screen? I had this happen in Linux when the graphics card was stuck in a bad mode. Therefore it would be useful to know if you can boot to safe mode in Windows.

I am using a DELL LCD monitor which is about 3 years old.

Ok so I went into the BIOS settings, and the screen still looks weird. Are you saying that at this point of the boot it is not using the graphics card, and therefore must be the monitor? I'll try the onboard graphics next. The display has kind of changed now. It looks like this :

It has the tendency to flicker sometimes when things change on the screen (new text is typed, mouse moves, windows are dragged etc) and the lines changed colour randomly. Scrolling is really slow and the screen refreshes in lines going up the page.

When I turn the hardware accelleration to full (Control panel>display>settings>advanced>troubleshoot) it is really bad. When it is at none, the screen is like normal with a layer on black lines and dots on top, but scrolling and moving is normal. I think this setting is how much the graphics card is being used, so does this mean there is something wrong with my graphics card as well as my monitor?

Can't be sure w/out actually hands-on running diagnostics at a test bench, but from what's been posted, I suspect that's actually monitor failure ... you say its about 3 years old, which - for several reasons - further leads me to suspect the problem is in the monitor itself. The absolute first thing I'd do would be try another known-good monitor. Next, if that led nowhere, I'd look at the connection between the 'puter & the monitor, then, if still having trouble, I'd unseat/reseat the video card - but the reported symptoms don't really seem to square with a connection issue - worth a shot to check out that avenue, though.

Woofdog, how did you get that 1280x1024 image that you uploaded to Imageshack? If you got it by performing a screen dump, for example by using a screen capture application like Snagit, or one of the many other methods, in short, if you did it on your computer, as I very much suspect, then the problem MUST be in your video card.

That's because a screen dump captures the contents of your video memory and turns it into a jpeg or bmp or png or whatever format image file. If you had got the image by taking a photograph of your monitor using a camera, then it could still be either monitor or video card. A screen dump shows what is being supplied by the video card. It cannot show a monitor fault. If a screen dump showed a normal desktop when you printed it out or showed it on another screen, then you know the monitor is the faulty link in the chain.

The reason why i asked if you had seen a text screen such as a BIOS setup was that such a screen is the most basic output possible from a video card, with no fancy resolutions or refresh rates, and I thought it might be informative to know if your setup was capable of this, but this was before something went "click" in my head and I realised what must be going on.

If you can try the monitor on another computer or on the onboard graphics of your computer, it would be interesting to know what happens.

I used print screen then saved as PNG in paint, which i think is equivalent to what you are saying.

I can understand what you mean, and I think you are right. I have plugged in an old CRT monitor (atm) and, although I do not know for sure that this monitor is 100% working, the problem is exactly the same.

I will try the onboard graphics now, but first I must lug this huge 17" CRT back into the cupboard - ugh.

It sure sounds like the video card. That screen print gives the game away.

You could try checking that the graphics card is seated properly in its slot. They sometimes rise up slightly over time, due to a process called thermal ratcheting. A GENTLE press on the top may seat it back down again. You could try removing it and gently cleaning the edge contacts with a hard pencil eraser. Do this while the power is off and the AC cord disconnected!!!

From that - the screendump info and the other monitor giving the same result - it appears my first guess was wrong. Definitely puts the focus on the video card. First thing to try, IMO, would be to unseat the card, then reseat it - does it a few times to clean the contacts. If the problem persists following that, odds are the card has failed.


Not sure this will help or not -but after the unseat/reseat trick, you might try actually uninstalling the card in Device Manager, then locate and delete any of its remaining associated files/folders, rebooting, and when prompted install those current drivers you downloaded.

You could look at the fan on the card and see if it is spinning freely and whether it is choked with fluff etc. Don't suck it clean with a vacuum cleaner, you'll overspeed the fan, and if you blow it clean with canned air, do it sparingly and outside the computer case. But it could well be kaput.

Ok so I tried to remove the card but I couldn't because that plug with the black, yellow and red cables was too stiff! I just cleaned the fan and now it works ok. Haven't tried games, but scroling is REALLY slow! The scroll action is really jaggedy on the screen and I can see the page reloading downwards if you know what I mean. Any ideas?

I'm surprised that just cleaning the fan made such a difference, I was just suggesting it as a piece of housekeeping while you had the case open. Especially since gaming does make cards run at the hot end of the scale. It must have been getting pretty hot then. Or maybe your attempts to remove the card have disturbed the edge connector enough to make a difference.

But it's still slow scrolling etc. Let's hope it's not damaged. Are the drivers properly installed? Have you (re)enabled hardware acceleration? [And see below where it says 'just for grins'] What lead with black yellow and red cables? Can't you detach it at its other end or does it come out of the power supply?

Update -

I have done some googling and it seems that radeon 9800s are well known to run hot, lock up, corrupt the screen etc. In fact a dust clogged fan was mentioned on one discussion forum as the cause of a guy's freezes and screen corruption.

Is it a genuine ATI, or a "powered by ATI" card? Some of the cheaper ones have weaker fans, cheaper RAM etc.

Somebody had a corrupted screen, "weird stripes", they said, they did this



I think you need to go into ATI Control Panel for that.

It may that the RAM chips on the display card are getting hot and are going over the edge and anything you can do to make life easier for them will contribute...

Another query about 9800 pro corruption got an answer from a tech guru:-

"What you are describing here with your graphics card sounds like a classic case of screen corruption due to excessive heat buildup. Make sure your graphics card's fan is spinning properly and that the card is relatively free of dust and lint. Then we would recommend you figure out a way to get another intake fan installed in your case somewhere. If you can install a side panel fan that pulls air in directly over the graphics card, that would be ideal. If not, even a simple intake fan installed in the front of your case, where most standard chassis have a mount for one, would probably help your situation a lot. Good air flow is important for any high-end system, especially if you are going to be gaming with that Radeon 9800 Pro, and who wouldn't?"

haha. Anyways, Much thanks for the help. I think all I did while opening the case was cool it off a bit, and whe nI put it back in it worked. Now it doesn't

When I turned on the PC, I heard a fan (probably the graphics card fan) churning loudly before slowly grinding to a halt. This has happened before but I never realised what it was. I gues maybe that particular gaming session I had on the weekend tipped it over the edge. I installed all the new drivers btw.

The cable I was talking about was I think the power cable for the fan, I don't think the card needs any other power... anyway, it was too stiff and connected in a Y with the CD drive and PSW so I couldn't remove the other end.

There is no other branding on the card so I assume it's proper ATI

What is really weird it that now the screen has got lines 'n' stuff on it again, the scrolling is fine??!?!

Overall, I think my graphics card has really broken this time, maybe I'll buy a cheapo ATI1650 pro or something, but this computer's getting a bit old (P4 2.4 Ghz e.t.c) so maybe I can wait to get a new one.

Re: Help with Computer screen


ok re install windows xp

Re: Help with Computer screen


Why would that work?

Re: Help with Computer screen

There's no reason to suspect it might ... and every reason to suspect anyone offering such "advice" hasn't a clue when it comes to dealing with computer problems.

Wolfdog, I gotta agree w/contrex - what you report sure points more and more to card failure, all but ruling out anything else. It certainly does seem the card is doing what it would if it were cooked. Thaose bits you mention about "... I think all I did while opening the case was cool it off a bit, and when I put it back in it worked. Now it doesn't ... " along with your mention of hearing a fan "... churning loudly before slowly grinding to a halt ... " pretty near nails it down.

If you do replace the card, be certain to provide adequate cooling and ventilation; airflow is important - just moving air is not enough. You want to move cool air over heat-generating components then exhaust that heated air, not merely recirculate it within the case. Also, be certain your power supply is up to the job of handling the increased power demand - thats a critical point lotsa folks overlook.


Oh, and as for branding - its pretty hard to mistake an actual ATI-manufacured card; the ATI logo will be prominently displayed in several places, notably on the fan's top plate, the circuit board itself, and on the card's memory chips. Other manufacturer's cards as a rule will not bear those markings.

Re: Help with Computer screen


I heartily agree. I had to do the typing equivalent of biting my tongue when I replied. Could you tell? Obviously hassanwaqar had not read the whole thread. Reinstalling Windows is the one thing that people who know nothing about computers always suggest. How does he even know it's XP that is the OS in question?

Your remarks about ensuring proper ventilation are very much to the point - I had been thinking of saying that if the graphics card fan was choked with stuff, it would be a very good idea indeed to check the other fans - cpu, case, psu etc as well, since they may well have suffered too, and may have contributed to a rise in temperature within the case.

About ATI branding - I had a Radeon 7000 which was actually made by Jetway. It worked fine as it happens, and still is running 4 years later I believe.

Ok I would try and ensure good ventilation + power supply etc. but I'm guessing a Dell is pretty hard to modify? In my opinion they are built more for people who probably will never go inside their systems anyway, (well, the lower end models, the XPSs are probably more modification friendly).

Also, do you guys reckon it is worth replacing the psu, gpu and possibly other fans in a system that's starting to show it's age? Its P4 2.4 Ghz, 512 mb RAM, 2x 80GB in RAID 1 (we already had a hard drive failure before). I've been building up the confidence (and the funds!) to build my own system, but that probably wont happen until next year.

One solution I can think of is buying a cheaper budget card, that hopefully wont make too much of an impact on the psu, and maybe one of those blower fans the fits into an extension card space (above the gpu?)

Oh God it's a Dell. Spend as little as you can. Your solution sounds fine, it should last until you get around to building a system to your own specs.