Lines on Monitor

I booted up this morning and there are white and grey lines across the screen. Where ever there is writing the line is grey across the screen. Tried a different monitor, same thing. I have a Dell nvidia GeForce 256 AGP video card and think this may be the problem. If I boot up to setup screen or safe mode same thing, lines across the screen. Its seems odd that it would work OK last night and then not work first thing in the morning. Anyone have any ideas. Thank you

 

While booted in safe mode, go to Device Manager and remove the video card. Reboot and it should redetect it and install new drivers. Be prepared to offer them. If this doesn't fix you up and assuming the monitor cable is plugged in firmly, you'll probably need a new card.

 

I don't think it would be software related (drivers etc) if you can see the lines when you are in the BIOS.

I have a similar problem, working fine one day, not the next. Sometimes the lines run vertical, sometimes horizontal, sometimes severe and other times they hardly show up.

After some quite indepth investigations into the problem, both the support crew and I concluded it was the motherboard. Lucky my computer was still in warranty (phew!) and I am getting a replacement one tomorrow.

I have integrated video graphics card. I don't quite know how video is displayed before video card drivers are loaded, i.e. if it bypasses the video card or uses some 'default' motherboard resources or whether it still uses the video card but doesn't use any special card features. If it is the latter, then the second part of Zephyr's comment is true and you probably need a replacement video card. If it is the former.. you might have bigger problems and you might need a new motherboard.

Maybe someone else can enlighten us about how video is handled before the drivers are loaded...

Not much help I know but you have to start somewhere.

Kompiler

 

The motherboard contain the video system for use in DOS. It is separate hardware from your Windows video hardware. The Windows video hardware may also be contained on the Motherboard or can be an auxillary card, as in
4harpers case. Lower priced systems tend to have "onboard" video. The more sophisticated systems have cards.

If you boot to a native DOS session and the video is clear, that gives a clear bill of health to the MOBO dos video at least. I don't see that you did that so why not run that test? Report back what gives.

 

Thanks for the clarification Zephyr.

I thought that 4harpers did perform the test by booting up to setup, which is using the native DOS video isn't?

Kompiler

 

Hi kompiler

I'm not sure what the setup screen term means as it was used. I thought maybe he was using the term to mean the Safe Mode but perhaps I erred.

My rationale was, perhaps the video drivers for the card became corrupt and Windows substituted the default driver as it usually does. Generally that works well enough so that a fix can be made in Windows. Then I thought, maybe his particular card has a disdain for the Windows default driver and gives the symptoms he is showing. All this is pure conjecture of course. The point I arrived at was, why not try removing the reference to the card in Device Manager and let Windows redetect and install the drivers and see what gives. Chicken soup, I figure.

I actually think a new card is in the near future but I may be wrong. Happens.



4harpers If you're comfortable popping the lid on that beast, you can try pulling the video card and reinserting it just for a test. Sometimes that works.

Edit The symptoms almost remind me of smearing caused by loss of high frequency response in the video circuitry that I am familiar with from 100 years ago when I worked on stuff like this.

 

Dell installed a new video card and drivers. Problem solved. Thank you everyone for all your help/feedback.

 

Thanks for posting the end results!

Perhaps your experience will benefit others who read of it.

I'm glad you bit the bullet and had the hardware replaced. We would have had a hard time fixing it over the Internet.

ciao