Vista - Glitchy Graphics on Desktop

Mr E

Strange one, guys.

About 2 nights ago, some graphic corruption started on my vista desktop. There are evenly spaced corrupt boxes on my start bar, and there is a strange effect in the title bar of windows that are opened. Sometimes there is corruption around the mouse pointer.

- I've tried changing resolution (800x600 is worse - thick lines down the page)
- I've downloaded latest graphic drivers
- I've downloaded latest monitor drivers
- This issue happens from cold, so I don't think its anything overheating.
- I've run windows update, so the machine is up to date.

It's been running fine for the last 4 or 5 months (since I installed vista) and I haven't installed anything strange in the last week (I installed Vista SP1 at the start of last week, but it was fine for the rest of the week afterwards).

I have a spare screen here in work which I will take home tonight.

I can post up a screenshot later but I'm interested to hear any theories you might have....

Overheal

go to start and run dxdiag

Save All Information in the Text Document and post it here.

Also try and take a screenshot of it - this will rule out whether its hardware or software. Use the Prnt Scrn button and paste into a new Paint file and post that as an attachment to your post.

Mr E

Yep, I was going to do a screenshot anyway,Overheal.
I'll do the dxdiag log too. Cheers.

I'll post both tonight when I get home.

calex71

Does it look that way when you 1st log in or after its been running a while?
Try opening taskmanager and ending the process explorer.exe
Then got to file menu in task manager and select new task and type explorer.exe

Any way see here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932406/en-us
cant hurt to try this.

Oh are you using Opera 9.50 to browse internet by anychance?

I dont think lugging the monitor home from work is going to help you here.

Mr E

Thanks calex.... it happens when I first log in (thats what I meant when I said "from cold"). So I don't think its that GDI issue from your link. The resolution for that is to install SP1, and I have that installed.

And I'm not using Opera....

I'll try restarting explorer tonight, but I don't think it'll help.

calex71

Does it look like this maybe?

Mr E

Not on the main desktop, just on the taskbar. Similar though.... What caused that?

calex71

if you ruled out any kind of virus or other nasty stuff then at a guess the graphics card, but just a guess.

Mr E

I have nod32 installed, so my AV is up to date.
Sounds like it could be the graphics card alright (its a clunky old Radeon 9800).

Overheal

5 years old and I bet it seen some things

For any cash at all really you can find an upgrade for it. Is it AGP or PIC-e ? Either way you'll be able to find a significant upgrade for probably as little as 50 euros.

BKtje

I have nod32 installed, so my AV is up to date.

Doesn't necessarily mean you're virus free but this does sound like a graphics card issue, however having it localised to the taskbar and around the mouse is odd.

Does it change at all when your working away? Could it be a corrupt graphics file?

calex71

id look at all the options b4 thinking of a new card, maybe booting off the dvd and going through the repair process might help. cant hurt to rule it out.
or even running sfc /scannow in the command prompt run as admin.

Mr E

Cool, thanks guys... some stuff to try out later.
I'll let you know how I get on.

Mr E

OK, here are some of the requested files.

DxDiag.txt: http://www.2stepsahead.net/private/DxDiag.txt
Start Menu: http://www.2stepsahead.net/private/taskbar.jpg
Title Bar: http://www.2stepsahead.net/private/capture2.jpg (same with any open windows)
Media Player: http://www.2stepsahead.net/private/capture3.jpg (lots of green dots)

calex71

ok well that does pretty much look like the same corruption i posted only more localised, did you try any of the repairs i mentioned? and rule out virus/nasty-ware with full scans ????? to be honest though im moving more towards my original guess of gfx card problem, what happenes if you turn off all the visuall stuff and go with uber basic looking windows vista? I really dont want to tell you to re-install vista here as im not sure it will help other than a last resort.

Edit : do you get the same issue in safe mode?

Mr E

Yeah its weird that its localised, isn't it? On the login screen and shut down screen there is no corruption at all. I'll do a full system scan when I get home tonight.

BKtje

Don't suppose you can borrow a gfx card from someone to ensure that it ain't software?