I have a laptop, and while running a game last night the screen went crazy. It is hard to describe, but there are a bunch of “lines” that flicker around the screen. I exited the game, and it does it in windows as well, the only difference being in the game it is A LOT of lines and they are “moving”, and when in windows only there is quite a few less and they are stationary. The funny thing about it is that when you tap the laptop or otherwise jar it, the lines will go crazy for a second or two until they stop “moving” and go back to being stationary. What could be the problem?
Reload your video drivers, although the raction to tapping makes me wonder if a connector inside there popped loose. This is pretty rare, most of the laptop video connectors have a small screw to fix them in place.
Many laptops share system ram for video, you could have had a ram module go bad or is some how loose in the socket. Try popping the covers and reseating any connections you find and see if it solves your problem.
What you describe indicates corruption in the memory used by the video card. Like drachillix, I’d recommend upgrading your video drivers and checking any RAM cards to make sure they’re properly seated.
Try leaving the laptop off for a while - I’ve seen cases where the video card is overheating and stops functioning normally. Unfortunately, in both cases the problems just got worse until the cards stopped working altogether.
I purchased this laptop in 2003ish and it has been in Iraq for a year of that(HOT). It is an Alienware(got suckered there) and I have taken it apart to some degree, I just don’t really have the tools to get ALL the way into the case. I tried the drivers thing and the turning it off(overnight) and neither helped it. Assuming it is a problem with the video card or ram module or whatever(it is a ATI Radeon Mobile 9***) would it be cost effective to replace it or go with a desktop(I can do most upgrades on a desktop myself)?
If it has a detachable video card its probably worth trying to replace the card. If you are no longer overseas a decent shop might be able to try swapping out video cards (once again if removable) and see if that resolves it. An hour of labor is still prolly going to be cheaper than a replacement. Unfortunately a hefty portion of laptops do not have any kind of detachable video adapter so basically bad video = new mobo = might as well just buy a new machine. You can sometimes find people on ebay and such with a bad laptop you can scavenge for parts but you never know what you’re getting there.
That is one reason I kind of got ripped. I bought the thing and then like 3 months later they started advertising the new removable video cards for laptop. I was po’d to say the least. Anyhow, I am going to try fiddling with as many contacts as I can to see if I can find one thats loose.
Also you may wish to try and get access to some real live compressed air like 80-100psi from a compressor. I had a machine just yesterday that would overheat and shut itself down in 20 minutes from room temperature. I blew the General Woundwort of dust bunnies out of the thing. Free of all of the dust contamination 2 previously presumed dead fans (4 were still working of 6 total in the case) sprung back to life and the machine was now running 25 degrees C cooler.
Thats kind of funny… when I opened the case earlier I found the hugest dust balls… I use canned air on the fans and keyboard so I was surprised to find dust bunnies that big.
I’ve seen the video connector get loose on a number of IBM R40s. Can you make sure that it is connected securly and locked down? Or, if not, try narrowing your tapping to where the connector crosses from laptop to LCD.
I have a really old Dell 3500 that does something like what you’re talking about. Are the lines really like text-drawn likes or are they more like brighter and darker areas of the screen that sort of flash and move around. It that’s the case, your back light is flickering. A tap on the upper left hand side of the screen seemt to get it to stop.