Monitor Horizontal Lines -- Laptop Flatpanel

[langsor]

Hardware: HP Compaq Presario 2170US
Platform: Windows XP Pro (clean install)
Video Adapter: Radeon IGP 340M
Driver 6.14.10.6436 (5/15/2004)
Chip RS200M AGP (0x4337) Integrated
64 MB, Internal DAC(400MHz)
Monitor: Digital Flat Panel
60 Hz Refresh Rate (only setting possible)
1024 x 768 resolution, 32 bit color depth, 96 dpi
Video Driver & Control Panel: ATI
Display Driver 8.003.3-040515a-016016C
Control Panel 6.14.10.5102


Issue: Flickering horizontal lines across the monitor.
The flickering is intermittent, it can be gone for weeks or longer without a flicker. Then it will develop and worsen over time until I canÂ’t even see the screen to shut down the computer. It doesnÂ’t seem to matter to the flickering if the computer has been on for a minute or a day.

When I plug in an external monitor, it has perfect display, even when the laptop monitor is unreadable.

Anomalies:
While playing a DVD on ‘Intervideo WinDVD 4’, it displayed perfectly if I didn’t open the player window to full-screen. Once I enlarged the player window past a certain point it would go from clear to (not just lines) huge blocks of rapidly scrolling graphical chunks. Totally scrambled. Before this last use of the player, I could maximize the player window without problems.

Right now I have lines (more prominently off the left edge of the screen) across the screen, but I can still see to work on it. If I place my mouse cursor in the lower-left corner, the whole screen rotates rapidly (bottom to top –or- top to bottom).

History: I acquired this laptop because of the flickering horizontal noise – So far…
I wiped the Hard Drive and reinstalled the OS from a new disc version, twice.
I flashed the BIOS to the newest version I could find from the laptop manufacturer.
I updated the AGP BUS driver and reinstalled the driver, several times.
I performed MemTest86 on the RAM for many passes including fade-testing.
I searched Google far and wide for similar problems to mine.
I contacted HP to no avail ;-)
I opened the box (partially) and re-seated the video monitor cable onto the motherboard.
(At which point it got really bad for a minute then became perfectly clear, for several weeks before it acted up again.)

Summary: Because of the anomalies of using my DVD player and re-seating the monitor cable, I canÂ’t decide if itÂ’s a hardware or software issue. Was the cable thing a coincidence? Was the DVD player just an artifact issue? Is this a refresh issue or ???

If anyone can help me diagnose this, I would be deeply appreciative.

Langsor

 

[Juice Daddy]

If it's a hardware issue then I don't know, but I suggest lowering your refresh rate or the resolution

 

[langsor]

I have tried several other things not listed in my above doc.
I have changed the resolution to 800x600 and also the color depth to 16 bit and lower.
The control panel and settings will not allow me to change the refresh rate unless I want to go out of bounds for the monitor.

I'm hoping this problem will be familiar to someone.
I've talked to a couple computer store techs as well as a HP tech.
I've gotten varied feedback, but I hadn't documented the problem as well as I have here.

Thanks again,

Langsor

 

[Amd64Boy]

well you can eliminate OS/software problems because you said you tried an external monitor and it was fine, so we can eliminate that. The screen is connected to the laptop by a data cable that looks like a piece of film, the cable is most likely connected into a little slot, the slot that the cable connects to may have a spec of dust in it or the cable is loose from the slot. BE VERY CAREFULL WHEN OPENING LAPTOPS THE ARE EXTREMY FRAGILE AND CAN BE RUINED WITH THE SLIGHTEST MISTAKE

 

[langsor]

Thanks for the feedback,

Has anyone heard of this type of thing being caused by the monitor or display adapter?

-or-

Is it most likely a problem with the connecting cable?

 

[PYROLUKE]

Hmm sounds very similar to a problem i am having with my laptop screen, although mine is a toshiba satellite, the "speck on the cable" solution sounds feasible, but that does not explain to me why the screen would work when using intervideo windvd (or in my case windows media player).

Langsor, do you get what appears to be large dead pixels on the screen also?

also if you try to clean the monitor connector cable and it works can you post it here, so that i know to give it a try?

 

[langsor]

Hi PYROLUKE,

I'll keep you posted on my progress. When I save a little $$$ I plan to replace my cable (or at least make certain it's clean and seated correctly) but I still don't understand the Media Player enigma???

If it turns out to be a video-chip (integrated into the motherboard) or monitor issue, then the laptop is worthless, the cost to replace these are more than a working used laptop on eBay identical to mine.

Take care and good luck,

Langsor

 

[langsor]

Just an update:

When I log on to my computer, I get large scrolling blocks (possibly due to the lower resolution of logon screen) until it gets up and running.

When it is running everything looks great, except when I place my mouse in the lower-right hand corner, then the page scrolls top-to-bottom (or v/v) rather rapidly.

Does this progress make sense to anybody? Why would it work better over time then get worse again?


Thanks,


Langsor