BS: Computer help!

Subject: RE: BS: Computer help!
From: olddude
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 11:44 AM

John
Defrag is a great idea ... good call

Subject: RE: BS: Computer help!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 05:02 AM

The description doesn't suggest any common problems, but the speculation might be narrowed a bit if we knew what Operating System and what browser are causing this problem.

Since the obvious suspects might be the graphics card, monitor, graphics driver, or the cable between card and monitor, there might be different interpretations for a CRT monitor than for a flat screen, so I'd suggest letting us know which you're using.

Purely speculatively, a graphics card failure would be a logical guess. A monitor failure seems less likely, but is a possibility. A bad cable or connector can do almost anything bad that you can imagine.

The behavior also suggests a possible memory problem, but the memory causing it could be system RAM, hard drive Temp Space, or dedicated memory on the graphics card. In System RAM or graphics card RAM it would almost have to be a physical problem, but for system Temp memory it could be just a "stuffed too full" sort of thing.

If you haven't done so, close the browser and in Windows Explorer (assuming you're not running a Mac) right click on your system drive (probably C:\) and select Properties and then click Disk Cleanup. You can choose to not delete cookies and logs, but make sure Temporary Files and Temporary Internet Files are both selected, and run the cleanup.

Another "memory choke" point may (rarely) be found in your browser, where deleting browsing history might help, if your browser allows it.

Once you've cleaned up the obvious trash, REBOOT and see if anything is different.

Even when you start from a "clean" machine, some people make a habit of opening lots of windows/tabs when they open the browser. If that's your practice, try closing some of the "automatic" opened ones and see if you're choking the browser temp space with too many windows/tabs.

Older Win Operating Systems were limited to using contiguous free space on the hard drive, so DEFRAG sometimes helped a lot. From WinXP and later Temp space can be fragmented, so it's less important to keep the rest of the drive nicely compacted. In either case, the default settings only allow Temp files to use a small portion (usually about 10%) of the available free disk space, so don't be fooled into thinking the "Free Space" shown for the drive in drive Properties is all available for Temp use.

If a reasonably thorough cleanup doesn't help, you probably are facing graphics card replacement, monitor replacement, or a very rare kind of malware (no malware that I've heard of does this sort of thing, but it's always a possibiity when things go quirky).

John

Subject: RE: BS: Computer help!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jul 10 - 08:02 PM

Video cards are inexpensive, unless you're into the gaming habit, in which case they can run high in a hurry. And you have to match the card to the type of PCI or PCI Express slots your motherboard has.

Back to speculation . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Computer help!
From: olddude
Date: 28 Jul 10 - 07:04 PM

first thing, make sure the chord from the monitor to the PC is tightly connected. Won't be the first time it was a little loose and then the screen messes up.   if that is good try another browser ... I want to see if it is the software or the video card on your PC ... if the same results most likely a going bad video card (assuming that things like digital photographs and other applications give you the same type of results ... if so a video card is very inexpensive to replace yourself.

Subject: RE: BS: Computer help!
From: Noreen
Date: 28 Jul 10 - 04:39 PM

Are you leaning on the - key? Or the space bar?
(Sorry- got to eliminate the obvious first!)

Subject: RE: BS: Computer help!
From: GUEST,999
Date: 28 Jul 10 - 04:02 PM

Log in and ask Bill D or John in Kansas. They are genii. If that ain`t the plural for geniuses, I`m sorry.

Subject: BS: Computer help!
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 28 Jul 10 - 03:59 PM

I've got a computer problem! When my home page opens, and I click in either the address bar or the search engine box, a broken line runs across the space. Any ideas how to stop this happening?