Static on laptop display

[Allen Schoessler]

Hello all,

I have a Dell Inspiron 8100 that's about 3 or 4 years old... little problem here:

So last night a few friends and I played Star Wars Jedi Academy for a few hours. Nothing weird happened while we were playing, nothing weird at all. I shut down the computer when we were done playing and drove home and connected it to my docking station and booted it.

To my complete and absolute horror, the display had weird lines in it like some computers do when the video card has kicked the bucket, along with something that I've never seen before on a laptop: static. It looks like a TV that is not quite tuned to the right channel. It doesn't just do it in Windows, is happens during POST and when Windows is loading. The static isn't so bad that I can't see what I'm doing.

I turned it off and rebooted without the docking station and on battery power, but it's the same. It rested all night and is still doing it this morning.

I have contemplated two possibilities: Perhaps the video card has given up after one last night of joy, or on the way home, somehow the video cable got partly unplugged. When I get home I'm going to take it apart and check on the cable....

Any other ideas ?

[NoteMe]

Have you tried to overclock the GPU?

When you drove home, was the computer totaly turned off or was in hibernating?



ØØ

[Allen Schoessler]

Have you tried to overclock the GPU?

When you drove home, was the computer totaly turned off or was in hibernating?

I haven't ever tried overclocking... was this a possible solution to the problem or were you making sure that was something I didn't do ?

It was about 2:00 in the morning, but I remember pressing F8 while it was booting to delete restoration data and do a regular boot... so I must have hibernated it because I do distinctly remember pressing F8 while it booted.

I frequently hibernate, and sometimes I forget to delete restoration data while it's booting after I redock, it doesn't really like that (it freezes). And it doesn't like me hibernating while docked and then going somewhere and then coming out, that freezes it too. I had done that earlier when I went to play games, I was in a hurry leaving, so I hibernated, intending to delete the restoration data... but I forgot. It's not the first time... probably like 25% of the time I forget... this couldn't have finally caught up to me, could it have ?

I feel sick....

[dglienna]

Have you shut down completely and rebooted? If that didn't work, you might want to reboot into safe mode to reset the drivers, and then boot normally. You will have to reset the screen configuration. You might have shut down when the game had an odd resolution configured that windows doesn't know what to make of it.

[Allen Schoessler]

I had rebooted and shut down several times... but I think you might be right.

I took the computer to Best Buy, where I work, and no one could figure it out. I had the latest video card drivers, which I reinstalled there, and I had a completely up-to-date version of DirectX.

I brought it home and plugged it in and booted it. I had plugged it into an outlet that is controlled by a light switch, so after about 20 minutes, the computer went to sleep being as it was on battery power. I went to mess with it and I turned on the power and booted the computer and the display was fixed. Poof, just like that.

For some reason I wonder if it is the battery.... I'm not horribly excited about trying to duplicate the problem though to test.... does anyone think it might be the battery? (it's not the power supply because I have two and it did this on both) The battery is the only thing that was constant the whole time....

[dglienna]

Might not be. Sounds like the power management system. You must have let it die to a low power setting and then shut down. I always shut down at 20% left.

[Dreamlax]

It sounds to me as if the LCD is underpowered. When I worked at a games arcade once, Virtua Tennis did the same thing, I diagnosed it to be a bit of dry solder. When the vertical refresh clock signal is underpowered it can make the picture look a little odd, after resoldering it the game worked fine.

LCDs however don't work the same way as a CRT, but they still have a vertical refresh clock and not to mention one or many power inputs. Most laptops use a flat plastic ribbon cable to connect the screen to the motherboard. Take it apart and check the connection both on the screen and the board. Anything loose will need either a resolder or a wire retrack.

LCDs do have limited life though... it could just be nearing its death.

[Allen Schoessler]

Interesting...

So I played Jedi Academy again last night, and when I was done, I completely shut down Windows and the computer. It sat all night in the case, fully powered off. Then this morning, I connected it to the docking station and turned it on. After a few seconds of being in Windows, the display went staticy again. Since it fixed itself last time, I wasn't too terribly worried. It stayed that way for maybe 4 minutes, and then went back to normal. It's been fine all day.

If I turn it off, undock, turn it on, turn it off, dock, and turn it on, it doesn't give the static, so I believe the game could be doing something. But what ? The game should be completely out of the RAM and everything after the computer has sat there off and unpowered all night long.... Some cache or virtual memory problem that I have no idea about the existence of ? This baffles me....

Unless it's just horrible coinceidence that it gave static this morning and I played the game last night and LCD Death is just around the corner... That could be, I suppose....

Thanks for reading and for your insight !

[biaspoint]

I too have a very similar if not the same problem. I posted a picture on my blog. I have a Dell Inspiron 8100

http://jmichaelhoward.blogspot.com/

The screen flickers with static type lines, multicolored and random. If I torque the palm rests it gets better and worse, If I press on top by the keyboard same thing. I have a feeling that since Dell put in such a Hot power supply that some of the solder has shifted and left a loose connection. I have already replaced the motherboard twice, the second time for a similar problem.

I took apart the top of the laptop and removed the keyboard and the screen is a little better for awhile and then it goes back and worse, it seems to worsen with time (like it is heating up).

Any help would be appreciated.

BTW I have 3 Dell pieces of garbage in my house and will never ever ever buy another one...

Mike