Help!!!!!! Computer issues

[Jonbar18]

I know a lot of people here deal with computers in tgeir day jobs, so I was going someone might be acle to help me. I was reading a thread on here, when my monitor started showing a whole bunch of colorfull lines. This hapened a couple times yesterday, but restarting it usually did the trick. Today I restarted it some ten times and all I see is lines. Even safe mode isn't safe. I know its not a virus- I ran some scans yesterday (in safe mode )does anyone have any ideas what it could be? If this helps, its an hp g61 laptop running win 7. Tia. Ill post the pics as soon as I figure out how to put attachments from my phone.

[Izzy]

Seeing that you started in safe mode and it still did it; it is not a driver issue. I would start at trying an external monitor on it. It seems as though your onboard video has died. If so the external monitor should show similar results.

[Jonbar18]

Originally Posted by Izzy

Seeing that you started in safe mode and it still did it; it is not a driver issue. I would start at trying an external monitor on it. It seems as though your onboard video has died. If so the external monitor should show similar results.

I was running an external monitor along with the laptop screen, and both got the lines. Any suggestions on how to repair it because that does not sound to good

Also, is there a reason that yesterday it still worked after restarting?

Oh, and the actual image is still showing somewhere behind all that crap

[Izzy]

I dont think there is a way to fix it hardware wise. It definitely sounds like your video card died. As a last ditch effort I would run a fresh install and expect nothing. Who knows you could get lucky but I doubt it. I personally would start looking for a new machine. I know this is not what you wanted to hear.

[First Light]

Originally Posted by Jonbar18

I was running an external monitor along with the laptop screen, and both got the lines. Any suggestions on how to repair it because that does not sound to good

Also, is there a reason that yesterday it still worked after restarting?

Oh, and the actual image is still showing somewhere behind all that crap

It's a conspiracy. Shhh ...

[dlambert]

If both your laptop and the external monitor developed lines, it's very likely it's the video card on your laptop. Some laptops have replaceable video cards, but most have them built into the main board. In any event, it sounds like that might be toast. You might see a difference when you boot up cold vs. when the laptop has been running a while and is hot, but either way, it's not going to get better on its own if the hardware is shot.

[Biomech]

^^ what they said :P

[SwissJon]

Do you get these coloured lines at the BIOS screen? If not then perhaps it's not a hardware fault.. If you're getting the same coloured lines on bot internal and external monitors then it sounds like your graphics card has gone kaput.. It may be something as simple as coming loose, and needing reseating, or it could be just old age.

Suggest you get hold of a Linux bootable disk and try booting to that. You can find them on the front of a lot of computer magazines, or downlaod something like Damn Small Linux. If you have no issue booting to Linux, then you can be sure it's not a hardware issue, and Windows has gone skanky.. I reinstall Windows about once every 6 months, just to speed the system up.. If you have Windows 7 and can sill see your desktop through the lines, run Windows Easy Transfer Wizard, export everything to an external hard disk, and then reinstall Windows.

But before you do anything like that, check it with Linux, it'll give you an idea of whether this is a hardware or software issue.

[4umfreak]

Originally Posted by SwissJon

Do you get these coloured lines at the BIOS screen? If not then perhaps it's not a hardware fault.. If you're getting the same coloured lines on bot internal and external monitors then it sounds like your graphics card has gone kaput.. It may be something as simple as coming loose, and needing reseating, or it could be just old age.

Suggest you get hold of a Linux bootable disk and try booting to that. You can find them on the front of a lot of computer magazines, or downlaod something like Damn Small Linux. If you have no issue booting to Linux, then you can be sure it's not a hardware issue, and Windows has gone skanky.. I reinstall Windows about once every 6 months, just to speed the system up.. If you have Windows 7 and can sill see your desktop through the lines, run Windows Easy Transfer Wizard, export everything to an external hard disk, and then reinstall Windows.

But before you do anything like that, check it with Linux, it'll give you an idea of whether this is a hardware or software issue.

Linux bootable CDs are very helpful when troubleshooting a flaky system. If your hardware is a bit older, you may need to get a 32 bit version.

[Donal]

Originally Posted by SwissJon

.. I reinstall Windows about once every 6 months, just to speed the system up..

Hi John,

Does it cause you a lot of issues re-installing Windows? I've got a laptop that isn't fast but it was the first one I bought and it's running XP (sp3).
Now it's getting very slow and I want to speed it up but I'm worried that it'll go "pear shaped" if I try an install.
Any advice.


PS: Sorry for going off the topic of the OP and I would advise that if you even think that your computer is giving trouble, back up everything that matters ASAP. It's hard to do this if you can't read the screen.....