What's with the little purple lines running up and down the screen?

October 25, 2007 6:28 PM

Can you tell me why my computer has decided that there should be five columns of little purple lines running up and down the screen?

As you can see from the picture my computer is acting up. I came home today and turned on the computer and these lines started appearing. They don't appear all at once. Some pop up, and then some more and then there's these five columns of lines on my screen. But if I switch to another tab in firefox or open up another program they go away, but they quickly come back.

My computer is running XP Pro SP2, my graphics card is a Radeon X1300. The driver is the Catalyst Control Center. I did a system restore to Monday but the problem wasn't fixed. I thought maybe it was the monitor but I hooked up my tv to the computer and they show up there to. Also, yesterday, I downloaded, but did not install some Microsoft updates.

Anybody know what's going on or how to fix it? Thanks.

posted by nooneyouknow to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

My first premonition is a failing graphics card as you have already tested a different output device. Since displays are RGB a sequence of purple would indicate a problem displaying green. I don't suppose your mobo has inboard video? Perhaps you could get ahold of a cheap video card and see if that doesn't fix the problem.

You mentioned the driver, are you running the latest version?
posted by genial at 6:38 PM on October 25, 2007

He didn't test a different output device, it's still the card. Sounds like a corrupted driver. First, I would completely uninstall the driver, as in completely. You'll have to google that, because it's a pain in the neck. Reboot. Then reinstall the most recent drivers and see if that fixes it.
posted by TomMelee at 6:54 PM on October 25, 2007

Lots of suggestions in a previous thread.

Do check the fan on the video card for dust bunnies and make sure that your power supply is up to the task. The ATI X1300 wants at least a 350 watt power supply, assuming your PC is stuffed with a bunch of other devices.
posted by shinybeast at 7:27 PM on October 25, 2007

check your cables and connectors for loose/bent pins. Also, make sure there aren't strong magnetic fields near the cables. This looks like a cable/connector issue. What happens when you change screen resolutions? Still 5 bars, more, or fewer?
posted by cosmicbandito at 9:48 PM on October 25, 2007

Is that a screencap or an actual picture you took? If it's a screencap that would seem to be something more due to with the OS or driver, maybe, than a hardware issue.
posted by 6550 at 10:09 PM on October 25, 2007

Switch the computer off and walk away from it for an hour. If it's not doing that when you come back, but starts again after a while, it's an overheating graphics card, probably dust-clogged.
posted by flabdablet at 6:35 AM on October 26, 2007