Hi

About a week ago I started noticing that white areas of my screen get irregularly placed horizontal dotted lines (please see attached picture, although I am not entirely sure the lines will be visible on another computer - pls confirm if you can see them). These lines appear both on the internal laptop screen and on the external monitor I have hooked up to it. Therefore I assume it is not a connection problem...?

So what is the cause of these lines and what can I do to fix it? I am using a laptop so if it is a graphics card problem I assume I may be screwed. Any other solutions than buying a new computer/graphics card would be very welcome. The graphics card is an ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 and has worked well for three years.

Cheers for your time in advance.

/Meadish

Set your desktop background to all white and see what it looks like then to all black and see what that looks like, rather then looking at it in an application. Possible video memory is having a problem.

hi meadish,

it' either the grafic circuit or the screen, laptop sceens don't last as long as desktop ones

did you try to plug your laptop to another screen?(ext one of course )

francois

hi meadish,

it' either the grafic circuit or the screen, laptop sceens don't last as long as desktop ones

did you try to plug your laptop to another screen?(ext one of course )

francois

both on the internal laptop screen and on the external monitor I have hooked up to it

Sorry francois, guess you missed that.

Set your desktop background to all white and see what it looks like then to all black and see what that looks like, rather then looking at it in an application. Possible video memory is having a problem.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to help out.

The desktop looks fine in both black and white - none of those weird lines. So I guess that means you are right - the video memory is having a problem. Any ideas of how to solve that?

Set your desktop background to all white and see what it looks like then to all black and see what that looks like, rather then looking at it in an application. Possible video memory is having a problem.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to help out.

The desktop looks fine in both black and white - none of those weird lines. So I guess that means you are right - the video memory is having a problem. Any ideas of how to solve that?

Sorry didn't make myself clear. If it doesn't show up on the desktop then it is less likely to be a video memory problem and more in the applications. Might try setting the desktop to red then green then blue and see. It could still be video memory. If you run a paint program (eg. photoshop, paint or other) and try to create large color fills it will stress the memory more and be a little clearer as to where the problem is. Does it show in all applications such as Word, etc..?

Not in Word, no. It does show in Firefox and Firebird (the e-mail client).

Not in Word, no. It does show in Firefox and Firebird (the e-mail client).

Doesn't sound like a video memory problem then. How about trying Internet Explorer to see how it looks. Firefox and Firebird will probably share some code between them (.dll) and maybe a problem there. If it doesn't show up in IE then backup your Firebird e-mail and uninstall both Firebird and Firefox. Reinstall Firefox only and see if the problem is gone, then reinstall Firebird.

I've had radeon graphics memory unexpectedly start dropping out several times where I eventually had to send them for repairs. It looks sort of like that. There is colorful blocky corruption at uniform intervals. However, it is never restricted to a single application or window but rather keeps going right across the entire desktop. The problem comes and goes, gradually getting more persistent as time goes on. If it is your memory going marginal, there is a fix. Download one of the free radeon overclocking tools like riva tuner. But instead of overclocking, *underclock* your card. In my experience it works and gives up just a fraction of performance.

I have had the exact same visual problem. In my case it could be made worse when moving windows or scrolling.

It was a faulty software driver.

Did you install some program or update lately.

Can you try some different settings.

Like choosing a lower/higher resolution or lower/higher color depth.

Today, all of a sudden, everything is back to normal again. I will post again if/when the problem reappears. Thanks a lot for all your helpful suggestions.

meadish,

looking at your screenshot it looked a bit like the outlines of your icons on the desktop - though I would have expected the same on all programs.

do the graphics driver re-install for sure

do you run active desktop ?