Hello all -

Out of nowhere a few weeks ago my computer's display started going nuts. The icons on the desktop may not display properly, text can be almost unreadable, the screen can lock up for 10+ seconds (sometimes comes back, sometimes doesn't and requires a reboot), vertically scrollable pages increment in slow motion when you try to scroll them, etc. Sometimes the display completely blacks out for a second or two and a Windows 2000 dialog box appears on the screen saying that it is finished installing the update (!) and asks if you'd like to reboot.

The above doesn't happen with an regularity - it's very sporadic. I can sometimes get through an entire computer session (1-3 hrs) without a problem, but most of the time not. Rebooting usually fixes the it for the next session.

I've tried the following to determine or fix the problem:

- Checked the 2K event logs. There's nothing there that jumps out as the problem.
- Ran two online virus scans. Nothing was found. (I run a firewall by the way, though do not have an anti-virus program.)
- Reinstalled the latest drivers for my NEC monitor. No effect.
- Reinstalled the last drivers for my ATI 7500 video card. Did not solve the problem, but it did show a dialog box with a message saying something to the effect that a call to the video accelerator did not return the expected confirmation parameter.

Based on the last item above I'm starting to think it's the video card, but I'm also curious why it's not consistent.

Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this? It could be software or hardware related.

Thanks. I've also attached a screen shot of one instance. You can see that the bottom left and right icons are fine but most everything else is messed up.

Greg

Heat could be a factor. If you have a video card with a heatsink and fan, the fan could be malfunctioning or the heatsink clogged with dirt/lint

Garmanma - I removed the video card and it was pretty dusty. The fan runs but it was again dusty. I cleaned everything and reinstalled/reseated it back into the MB and so far so good. Hopefully, this has fixed the problem.

Thks

Gb