Screen Goes Fuzzy When Booting Up

My son was using my laptop yesterday to copy a word document across for me to have a look at. At some point between then and now a problem with the graphics has developed. I'm not sure what the first signs were at this moment, but could find out tomorrow if it's relevant.

The main problem is that when the computer boots up the screen goes completely blank, except for some fuzzy lines across it. It will then sit at this screen for a seemingly unlimited amount of time, until it is powered off (by holding the power button for five seconds.)

First I tried running Windows repair, which failed. Then I successfully booted the laptop by running Ubuntu 11.10 from my USB stick. Which works perfectly, including using the full graphics resolution (which I think is very relevant,) and has this allowed me to copy off my important data. The computer's hard drive came with a 10GB hidden partition with some Dell software on it that can allegedly return it to it's factory state. This was the next thing that I did and it failed.

The laptop came (to my surprise) with a Windows Vista CD. So I booted from this next and set about reinstalling Windows. It gave me the option of keeping my old files and putting them in a file called 'Windows.old'. I decided against this option in favour of a clean install on the primary partition. The reason being that the Dell 'recovery software' got as far as formatting the primary partition, and also because I wanted a 'clean' install. The 10GB Dell partition still exists.

This was successful and allowed me to boot Windows Vista, connect to the internet etc. It was however missing drivers, most notably the graphics card, as the resolution was set to display everything very large. This was the driver that I went to install first and after it had finished it asked me to reboot Windows. I did this and at this stage the same problem occured, of a blank screen and fuzzy lines. I have a photo of this screen if it's important enough for me to upload. I should note that the screens look very similar, but not identical each time.

The laptop has a dedicated graphics card, that I think (off the top of my head) is an Nvidia Geforce. I will look into this tomorrow, but it's not a quick job I don't think.

Before I installed Windows I thought that drivers or something had been corrupted and that it was a software issue. However, having reinstalled Windows I'm not fearful that it's hardware and that it's the graphics card. However, it confuses me as to how Ubuntu displayed the graphics correctly. Obviously it is using a different driver to display graphics to Windows, so maybe that is it? Or it's bypassing the graphics card, but is still able to display full resolution graphics.

I'm at a bit of a loss about what to do next. I think the first thing will be to do a full format of the entire harddrive, wiping out the Dell partition, and reinstall Windows onto that. It seems a long shot, but I'm wondering is there a virus hiding somewhere that is playing with things? That would rule out that possibility.

The second thing I might try is installing a copy of Windows XP that I own for another machine. I know that it will only last for thirty days without activation, but if it works it will give me more insight.

Thirdly, I might try going onto Nvidia's website and downloading a different version of the graphics driver and trying that. It has occurred to me that the problem could (although unlikely) have been caused by Windows updating the graphics card driver to an incompatible corrupt version. However, I think the fact that tonight when I reinstalled Windows I installed the original graphics card driver from a Dell CD probably rules that out.

I hope that my post contains all of the necessary information, rather than being too long and rambling! I'm open to the fact that the laptop might have seen it's last days. It's a really bad time for me to be replacing it at the moment (is there ever a good time!?), so I'm desperate to get it back up and running again.

Also, I realise that I could just install Ubuntu and use that. Which would be fine for web browsing etc, but I need to use Microsoft Word at home as part of my job, and past experience says that none of the Open Office etc equivalents are up to the task.

Thanks for reading!

 

This was in essence the first thing that I did when I reinstalled Vista. However, after waiting for a four or five minutes I'd had enough. So I cancelled this and instead installed the driver from the Dell Resource CD that came bundled with the laptop.

I don't see why, if the driver from that CD worked when the laptop was bought, it wouldn't work now.

Edit -->

It's also worth noting that when I went into the Control Panel and opened up Device Manager there were only two items with the 'in need of attention' symbol next to them. Neither was related to graphics. One was the ethernet port and the other was the built in SD card reader. Under the graphics tab the name of the graphics card wasn't listed. There was only one entry (that I right clicked on to search for an updated driver), and I don't know off the top of my head what it said. It was something very generic though, along the lines of VGA Graphics Adaptor, or something along those lines.

 

Could we have the full model number of the Dell laptop that you have?

As for some suggestions, I would first try connecting the laptop to another display, a TV or Monitor will do, if you see the same fuzzy lines I would heavily suspect the graphics card but this could either be hardware or software related (device driver).
Since you have a Dell laptop I can't suggest the stock Nvidia driver, generally they suggest against installing them on a Dell laptop, so we'll await the Dell model number for now.

 

It's a Vostro 1510. I've a strong feeling that there is still an old LCD monitor in the loft, so I might well be able to give that a go if you think I should?

I'm slightly sceptical that it will prove or disprove anything though, as surely that will be running via the graphics card too.

Thanks for you reply. If you need any more info let me know.

 

Hi. If a Techie asks you to try something there is always a reason for it.
You haven't a clue what's wrong so why be sceptical?
It is to isolate whether the Graphics Card or the Monitor could possibly be at fault here. :smile2:

 

Just to add to the advice already given. When dealing with a graphics problem on any laptop, one of the first and easiest things to try is to plug in an external monitor. This can in some cases really narrow down the possible problem. Woodyblade suggested doing this in his post. I would recommend following his advice.

If after other checks and trouble shooting you believe you need to update drivers, then I would recommend going to Dell Support. See the link below.

Your laptop will probably have a Service Tag number printed on the underside of the machine. Enter the number in the box provided.

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/uk/en/ukdhs1/DriversHome/NeedProductSelection

 

I'm a little sceptical because the laptop runs Ubuntu in full resolution correctly, which suggests to me that the laptop screen cannot be at fault. Like I said though "[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]I might well be able to give that a go [depending on whether the monitor I have has a DVI or VGA connector] if you think I should?"[/background]


With regards to the link to the drivers, do you think that I should follow this procedure?

1) Reformat HDD.
2) Install Vista from CD
3) Install drivers from website (rather than the Dell Resource CD that I used last time)

 

Right, update.

Tried it with the monitor. The same problem occurred.

 

Ok so we can rule out the laptop display.

You should be fine just uninstalling your current drivers for now rather than go through formatting the HDD again we don't want you to be doing more than is needed, you should be able to use the installer from the Dell site to uninstall the old drivers, restart the laptop then install the latest drivers.
Try again to see if the problem is fixed, if not do try reinstalling the OS as you've mentioned.

If neither option works you may be looking at a hardware fault unfortunately.

 

The problem occurs whilst the laptop is starting up, so I'm unable to start Windows normally.

I'll see if I can get into safe mode tonight, and if that will allow me to swap drivers.

Thanks for the reply, I'll let you know how I get on.


Here's what may be a very complicated question... and I'm struggling to get my head around. Windows is unable to run with the display drivers I stalled. However Ubuntu will run at full resolution. This suggests to me one of two things:

1) Ubuntu is using a suitable, un corrupted driver

2) Ubuntu is somehow bypassing the dedicated graphics card and using the laptop's on board graphics - I have no idea whether number 2 is plausible

 

Are you certain that this machine has a separate graphics card rather than an upgrade from the original offered by Dell? The Vostro specs that I see do not show a second graphics card nor does there seem to be room for one. How many monitor connections does it have on the back (side)?

The fact that it is working with Ubunto gives me reason to believe that the drivers do need to be replaced.

Somewhere above PseFrank asked for the service tag number and showed you how to get it. That will be specific to your machine and may shed light on what is actually there.

 

The issue of a dedicated graphics card is something that I was thinking about today. There was some confusion, and I believe an error on Dell's part, so it may not have dedicated graphics as I stated. I'm nearly certain that there is only one DVI adaptor, I will check later.

Oops, I overlooked the post about the service tag. I will post that later too.

 

Dell tag: G8Y7Q3J

I couldn't find the spec on the Dell link posted above whilst on my mobile. I'll check again later.

 

Thanks, I'll compare the version number of that graphics driver to the version from the Dell Resource CD.

The other thing that I mentioned to mention was that the laptop came with, and is running Vista. Even though that link seems to suggest XP

 

I've now reformatted the entire HDD (the primary and recovery sectors). Then installed Vista again. This was fine and rebooted correctly. It even allowed me to change the screen resolution to the maximum number of pixels its capable of.

Then I installed the driver from the Dell link above (it was an updated version to the one from my Dell Resource CD). At this stage the same error started occurring again.

This is making me lean heavily towards a hardware problem.

My final solution is to attempt a 'full' format of the HDD rather than the 'quick' option that Vista allows. It might be a complete waste of time though.

The other item to consider is whether I could just make use of the laptop without bothering to install the Nvidia driver. Are there any drawbacks to this, other than the obvious drop in performance issues and potential conflicts?