# What the frick is wrong with my monitor?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-frick-is-wrong-with-my-monitor/341993>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 28, 2006, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-frick-is-wrong-with-my-monitor/341993 "2006-01-28T16:01:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-frick-is-wrong-with-my-monitor/341993/1 "2006-01-28T16:01:58Z")

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I’m sorry, I know this is a computer question, but I’ve searched Google and various troubleshooting sites and none of them seems to describe the specific problem I’m having.

Basically, there are these flickering gray lines all over my monitor screen. They aren’t the “1-3 faint gray lines” described as being normal in a lot of the troubleshooting documentation. It seems like any time there is an image or a line of text, a gray bar appears behind the image or text line, and extends horizontally outward to the edges of the screen. All text on the monitor also has weirdly bright/flickery edges and is quite difficult to read.

This seemed to happen around the time I switched desktop themes on the computer, but we’ve gone back to the original settings and even started fresh with the Windows default theme, and it didn’t help. I’ve adjusted brightness, contrast, color, and refresh rate. I’ve degaussed the damn monitor. We even switched monitors in case it was just a broken monitor and the new monitor is doing the same thing. I am at a loss here. Could it be a bad video card or is there just some setting I’m not aware of that needs to be fixed, or what?

Help?

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**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-frick-is-wrong-with-my-monitor/341993/2 "2006-01-28T16:14:15Z")

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If the video card is separate (that is, not part of the motherboard), try reseating it or changing slots. Also, try a different cable.

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-frick-is-wrong-with-my-monitor/341993/3 "2006-01-28T18:03:01Z")

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> [@MsWhatsit](#):
>
> We even switched monitors in case it was just a broken monitor and the new monitor is doing the same thing.

This is the key, here. It’s almost certainly a video card issue. Follow **Mr. Blue Sky** ’s recommendations, if it’s a separate expansion card video adapter. If it’s an onboard video adapter, the only thing you can do is go buy an expansion card and disable the onboard video. You can get them fairly inexpensively if you aren’t running graphics-intensive applications like newer games.

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**Author:** ![Ty\_Cobb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ee59a6/32.png) [@Ty\_Cobb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ty_Cobb)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-frick-is-wrong-with-my-monitor/341993/4 "2006-01-28T21:50:20Z")

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It sounds like a bent pin to me. If your monitor is tethered at one end (the normal case these days for no good reason) that’s the major cause of problems.