Dell Inspiron 6000 Screen Problem

Hey guys,

I hope that you can help me! I've had this Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop now for about 18 months, and it's never had any screen problems before, but this morning these weird sets of pixel lines appeared horizontally across the screen, and I can't work out how to get rid of them.

I've attached a screen-shot below. They change colour depending on what the image is behind them. They also 'drag' down the screen (like spilling paint down a wall) when I scroll down, but that effect disappears when I highlight everything on the page, and also what's quite interesting is that if the cursor rests over them, you can't see them, but that's the only thing that conceals them, which makes me think it's not the screen that is busted.

I tried the old turn it off, turn it back on again trick to see if that worked, but it hasn't. I'm running a virus scan at the moment, but it's nearly finished and has come up negative.

They're really annoying, and I'd just like them gone!

 

Try booting up and going into the BIOS Screen to see if you see any problems there. It's possible it could be a graphics card/motherboard issue instead of a pure LCD issue.

Let me know if you see the funky lines on the BIOS or Boot up screens.

 

The funky lines aren't there on the boot up screens, only when you get to the blue 'Select your user name' Windows welcome screen that they appear.

 

Any chance you'd be able to try booting up with a Linux Live boot disc. You can d/l that for free on the web. Try Slax. This will boot up a graphic interface from the CD (no installation). This way you can see if you get the funky lines in another graphics mode or of it's just some funky windows driver issue.

Keep us posted

 

If I were you, I'd try hooking up an external monitor to the laptop to see if the lines are still displayed. If they aren't - you may need a new LCD screen.

If that's the case, http://www.lcdscreen.com has good prices.