Crazy Laptop Screen

[mezcal]

hi all

I bought myself a second hand HP Paviliondv6000 for Christmas in excellent condition, having just been over a year old.

About 2 months later about half of the lower start bar (the one at the bottom of the screen) was overlapped by nasty gray lines, who became increasingly dense and large until they obscured the bar completely. The functions are still intact, but I have to "point in the dark" so to speak.

A couple of days ago another set of lines appeared on top of the other, obscuring some more screen space and 1 hr ago an even larger set of lines appeared on top, but seems to have gone away again (but for how long?) The gray lines are now 1cm large.

My question is if this is a software or hardware problem. I think hardware...

What are my options at this point? Should I change the screen? Warranty was 1year...perfect timing as usual...

How much would it cost me?? Do you have any shops to recommend?

Are the gray lines destined to grow more and more?

Would buying a flatscreen be an option? How much would that be?

Hope you can help me out

Thanks a lot!

[BigSnake]

A Laptop is one of many things you don't to buy second hand, my guess it could have been drop or it could very well be older than you think, best just invest in a new one/good one around Bt18500 or if luck a bit less. Seen some nice Acers around for that price, I would give HP a wide berth, bought a HP printer/scanner New mind you and nothing but trouble from day ONE, went Cannon IP1800 three years on now no problem what so ever.

[jackdanielsesq]

Yup - afraid so - HP are bums - having said that, I did finally get them to replace an entire smartfone FOC, but I had to beat on Hurd in Palo Altos for a while. Ya dont mention the O/S even, not much for us to work with. I have never lost a LCD - ever. CRT aplenty.

Try turning the video res down, maybe reboot with a decent Linux ISO and observe the screen - most start in 1200x800 - see if that is good.

A lot of issues revolve around a bunch of small caps on the GPU sub. Leave it off for say a couple hours - time to discharge everything.

BKK HP might work - threaten them with fraud exposure, etc, after being Mr Nice Guy dont work. Take it all apart very carefully, clean all, reassemble.

Is the screen bad after a fresh boot? Look into its warranty service - a lot of issue related to Nvidia GPU, mobo & bad batteries create latent faults.

Luck

BR>Jack

[mezcal]

Thanks for the replies

The OS is Windows Vista. I tried to change the screen resolution, but that didn't change anything. Unfortunately I don't know how to reboot the laptop and I'm afraid I might inadvertently change some important setting...

Anyone had such a problem before?

[Digitalbanana]

I bought a new Vista HP dv6000 series laptop over 2 years ago, so your machine must be at least that old. Mine has worked flawlessly, so disregard the HP detractors replies. You can buy replacement screens in Bangkok for no more than 4000B in places like Pantip but as one other poster said, if you bought second hand there could be anything wrong with it should it have previously been badly handled or dropped.

[mezcal]

Thanks digitalbanana, finally some information I can use!

[xerostar]

My 16 year old nephew's laptop had the same problem as described by the OP. It is a Compaq (HP)

The lower quarter of the screen had a diffuse pattern of lines - changing patterns and colours,

covering up the menus etc.

The OS was very flaky and some programs refused to run.

eg The DOS command window only opened for a split second each time it was called.

So I was unable to achieve anything that way.

The system reported that the Admin. (My Nephew "never changed anything ..") had switched off system restore.

I used a flash drive to try loading an anti-virus program. That failed.

I then placed the flash drive back in my laptop. (also a Compaq)

My anti-virus program immediately reported 3 infections that had tansferred to the flash drive:

Win32:Autorun-AHD worm

Win32:Sality

VBS:Malware-gen

My anti-virus program eliminated them from my computer without further problems (I hope)

Just lately I've had a few strange system stops though - requiring a restore (*^$% Vista)

Kids don't understand or are too lazy to keep the anti-virus programs up to date and they download

every sort of rubbish without a thought!

I tried changing the boot sequence to CD and tried to re-install using a WindowsXP Install CD.

This failed. Even though I used WinXP to do an FDISK on the HD.

Then I looked on the net for anti-virus specific programs and downloaded a few.

I think most are scams designed to install data-loggers really.

Anyway I tried making a CD with these virus killer programs on my laptop - copied them to the bad laptop

but they would not run!

After a few more tries the laptop still starts but only arrives at a DOS screen inviting to start in safe mode etc.

Any of the choices loops back to the same spot within a minute.

So now I can't even access the laptop from any angle except to swap the Hard drive.

I don't know that much about the operating system but I'd be afraid that at least one of these viruses

has infected the ROM chip - or at least one of the programable chips if that's possible.

I've worked with computers for over 30 years but this is the worst case of virus infection I have come across

and the only one that I was unable to beat.

I assume the pattern on the screen is due to the virus infection.

Anyway I'm going to get a new HD and see if that helps - will let you know ..

[NHJ]

maybe the problem belongs to your graphic card, did you try it on an external display?

Edited June 12, 2009 by NHJ

[longball53098]

I don't see anyone suggesting running a diagnostic tool from the CD drive that will boot to that drive and test the hardware and graphics before the PC ever can boot to Windows. May give a clue as to hardware working properly.