What could cause this? Lines across the screen

[bondbill2k2]

Three machines in the last week have had this problem a couple of times, some can be used for hours before it occurs others have booted up and had the problem straight away, one computer also restarted itself after a few seconds with no signs of why in the event log.

 

I believe its called artifacting and related to overheating GPU? I had a simular experience with an old Xbox 360.

 

Its simular the images below, Im yet to get a picture of our screens but shall do if it happens again.

http://static.wix.com/media/804a236663b1ee2f268553325e4a66a9.wix_mp_256

http://media.photobucket.com/image/artifacting%20screen/ajexfred/th_27112010002.jpg?o=

[MK-2]

i've also seen it with dodgy vga cables. does it go away if you wiggle the vga cable at either end?

[bondbill2k2]

These were DVI but no it didn't go away

[MK-2]

have you tried smacking it around a bit?

[SYNACK]

Easy, stuffed video memory, guessing they probably have shared GPU memory. Pull the RAM and run it through a full test with something like Memtest86+ and chances are it will spew errors at you.

 

Replace the RAM and it should be fine. If you have discrete GPUs (ones with their own built in memory) then it could be a bit more expencive.

[bondbill2k2]

Easy, stuffed video memory, guessing they probably have shared GPU memory. Pull the RAM and run it through a full test with something like Memtest86+ and chances are it will spew errors at you.

 

Replace the RAM and it should be fine. If you have discrete GPUs (ones with their own built in memory) then it could be a bit more expencive.

 

Thanks, all under warrenty anyway will report it asap

[difinity]

Id say it was a faulty screen. Seen lots of similar on the 6400 and 640m models.

[andy_nic]

I had a D620 laptop do that when I plugged the vga cable in to a monitor it worked fine. But the Built-in screen looked like that.

[bondbill2k2]

The one computer i've swapped the monitor over and a few hours later the same happened again, another one was rebooting not longer after the image changed so i'd rule out the screen with that one but it occurs quicker on the rebooter after around 20min, I have had problems with fans on a couple of these machines being very loud and having to be replaced too.