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My 4 year old laptop has started to intermittently produce very closely spaced lines across the screen.

The lines appear mostly in the horizontal but occasionally vertically.

When horizontal the appearance is like a 'trailing shadow/streaking' after the text going off to the right hand side. If there is no further text on a particular 'line', the image reverts back to 'normal', i.e a clear screen.

I've experimented as best I can but there doesn't seem to be any consistent pattern that provokes the problem. For example, I've had the laptop on all day today without any problem, then it manifested itself about an hour ago - now it's cleared itself again.  :-\

I doubt that it's significant but the operating system is Windows XP Pro. Any helpful suggestions would be welcomed please.

I've heard of viruses that can cause this sort of behaviour, but it sounds like the onset of a hardware problem to me.

Hi Mike,

I agree with Nick that it sounds like a hardware problem you have there, which is probably not good news for a 4 year old laptop as it will be well out of its guarantee period by now.
Try clicking on the picture below and downloading one of the images there to suit the resolution of the screen, it is a TV test pattern but it is designed to work the pixels in the screen by changing rapidly from light to dark and it should show up any defects in the tft or LED screen of your laptop. Unfortunately it is not a cure but it should show up the problem.

This could be a ribbon cable that has either come very slightly adrift or is worn due to opening and closing of the laptop, give the case around the base of the screen a tap and see if the problem occurs, this problem would be fairly simple to fix.  The only other problem could be screen failure and would be uneconomical to repair

I had to replace the inverter board to the back light in my laptop, a very simple job and cost £25 for the board, I've also replaced the hard drive, memory, CPU cooling fan, DVD drive for a DVD-rw drive and also a faulty keyboard. Laptops are not that difficult to fix or dismantle as many people believe them to be , but if it's mainboard or LCD screen then the bin beckons.

Thanks for that guys.

I know you can never be complacent, but I'd be severely pissed off if it were a virus as I've got Panda anti-virus, Pareto anti-spyware, RegCure and Prevx all running, latest versions and all regularly updated.

I'll try the 'test card' download tomorrow Remy.

I like the idea of a loose ribbon cable Lea. As a matter of fact the guy who 'does for me' IT wise suggested that when I asked him yesterday for his suggestions for a possible solution. I'll definitely investigate it.

How about the graphics card giving up the ghost - does that happen and is it a viable repair? I really don't want to have to replace the laptop. It's not the cost as much as all the hassle - a new laptop would have a different operating system to my workstation, networking it etc.etc. would be a pain in the arse. It's really annoying 'cos the whole existing set up has been running sweet for ages!!

Anyway, thanks again.

Mike,

I just had to take my laptop ( 2 year old HP) in for repair as the video card overheated and failed. The problem started as vertical lines then a black screen, then nothing. They will have to replace the motherboard. I usually don't buy extended warranty's on anything but I'm glad I did this one time.

I hope your problem isn't as bad as mine.