What causes a scrambled screen?

Old Lace

Old Lace

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Joined
Mar 11, 2007
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I can't remember how many times that this has happened but when the desktop is left to idle sometimes the screen does this weird diagonal scrambled line thing and I don't know what causes it. Sometimes I get lucky and I can figure it out and fix it but this makes me scratch my head. Can someone help me out here?

mo001.jpg
 
^That looks like artifacting to me, which may mean a dying mainboard/grapics card. Then again, I'm hopeless at this stuff, so I'll let some of the better members diagnose better :lol:
 
The graphics card overheating can do that too, but shouldn't if it's left to idle.
 
Looks like you're in the market for a new graphics card. :(

When the desktop is left to idle, what exactly happens? Does it do this from just a sitting desktop, screen saver, power save, etc?
 
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^^ mine did (hence my first assumption), but then again I have a badly cooled laptop with fans that suck dust in, hence making them useless.

Yeah, artifacting was the final sign for me to call dell and get my graphics card replaced.
 
I wouldn't be so quick to diagnose that as artifacting...

I've seen that issue with Vista and nVidia cards.

It only happens when the monitor goes to sleep and then wakes up again.
From what I know it's a refresh/sync issue.

You could always just turn off power saving on the monitor if it's the only time yours does it too...
 
3 possible reasons :

1) driver issue - drivers are not compatible with codecs/OS/3rd party programmes. open up dev manager under safe mode and delete your current display adapter's drivers. Check the add/remove programs feature under control panel to double check that the driver has been removed successfully. Re-install with the latest version and see if that can rectify the problem.

2) graphics card issue - nothing much you can do, expect replacing a new graphics card.

3) monitor issue - same as above, nothing much you can do.


You should try and use the monitor on some other PC and see if you get the same problem. If not, then it's definitely 1) or 2).
 
We've used that monitor on an older desktop and it worked fine so that rules it out I think. The graphics card we have in the new desktop is an nVidia one (not sure of the make right now) but I'm not sure if the monitor on power save is the cause. The last time it happened the screen saver was on. The OS is Windows XP that's useful.

I'll try uninstalling the driver and reinstalling a newer version and see if it helps. Thanks everyone!
 
Old Lace said:
We've used that monitor on an older desktop and it worked fine so that rules it out I think. The graphics card we have in the new desktop is an nVidia one (not sure of the make right now) but I'm not sure if the monitor on power save is the cause. The last time it happened the screen saver was on. The OS is Windows XP that's useful.

I'll try uninstalling the driver and reinstalling a newer version and see if it helps. Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...

nvidia.... hm... you should definitely update your drivers then, since their old drivers aren't very stable.

And personally, I never use any screen savers. Most LCD displays nowadays shouldn't give you the old "burn-in" problem. Besides, just switch the power off when you are not using the PC, no need to use hibernate/sleep/energy save mode.
 
Yeah, we usually turn off the monitor or I turn off the computer/put it in standby if no ones using it but I installed the latest driver I could find so here's to hoping that fixed that problem.

Now to figure out why the screen froze earlier today....Could it be related to the graphics card still? X(
 
Old Lace said:
Yeah, we usually turn off the monitor or I turn off the computer/put it in standby if no ones using it but I installed the latest driver I could find so here's to hoping that fixed that problem.

Now to figure out why the screen froze earlier today....Could it be related to the graphics card still? X(
Click to expand...

Could be.

Run programmes like 3DMark and see if you can pass the test without any artifacts or errors.
 
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