# XP laptop screen shimmies

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-laptop-screen-shimmies/248371>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 3, 2004, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-laptop-screen-shimmies/248371 "2004-06-03T01:04:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-laptop-screen-shimmies/248371/1 "2004-06-03T01:04:50Z")

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The other work laptop here has the screen go nuts sometimes. The picture starts vibrating vertically around one or multiple horizontal fold lines. When it’s four lines, the whole picture is contained between each of them, giving five different compressed, vibrating screens of what the computer was showing before. I’ve only been able to beat this by rebooting.

Any bright ideas about the cause out there?

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**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-laptop-screen-shimmies/248371/2 "2004-06-03T01:26:29Z")

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Video card drivers.

Update them, or failing that, replace the card (not sure if you can do that with laptops).

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**Author:** ![Toddly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@Toddly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toddly)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-laptop-screen-shimmies/248371/3 "2004-06-03T03:18:55Z")

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My laptop did similar things at random times. It then got to the point that even rebooting would not always be the cure. I installed newer drivers and haven’t had the problem since. Even if you have the latest drivers just go ahead and install them again. I can’t see that it would hurt.

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**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-laptop-screen-shimmies/248371/4 "2004-06-03T20:43:52Z")

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Thanks. I did that, and it turns out that there is an updated driver from the chip manufacturer. I have to recommend the DriverGuide Toolkit from [www.driverguide.com](http://www.driverguide.com) for finding out exactly what your components are, which drivers you have exactly, and backing up your drivers.

The other laptop has now gone a couple hours without shimmying, and it had already done it twice this morning, so that’s a very good sign. I think I’ll use the new driver on this one, too.