I've been getting these weird green vertical lines on my LCD monitor where the background is black. There are other places where I see green dots. Its seems to be flickering. Its not always present. It generally comes after the computer has been on for a while. Lately I've seen some white dots also appearing. Its only 2-3 dots and it doesn't last long but it appears now and then. What could be the reason for this ? Something wrong with my monitor ?
Hi, Try reseating your video card and see if that helps. If it does not, try swapping your monitor out with another one to see if the problem continues. If the problem carries over to the other monitor, then I would say your video card or the video cable might be causing the problem. If the problem does not carry over to the new monitor, then I would look at the LCD monitor having a problem instead. If the problem happens with both monitors, try switching out the video cable, and if that doesnt help, try swapping the video card out with another known good one. You can also try putting the video card in a different expansion slot if you have another one to see if the current slot is bad. Where the problem seems to happen after being in use for a while, it may be heat releated as well. Make sure the video card is free of dust, and that its fan is working properly and the case fans are working as well. You can also try running it with the side of the case off and using a regular fan to blow into the computer case just to see if heat is an issue. Also make sure the vents on the monitor are not blocked causing it to overheat.
Also here's something I forgot to mention. Sometimes, I get a settings changed message on booting up. Press F1 to continue. This despite me not having fiddled with the bios. Also this message doesn't happen every time when I boot up. Only every once in a while. Also, as of now my system has been on for around 6 hours and I don't see any of those green lines and spots on the screen. Normally it comes after around 30 min.
That could be a sign of a piece of hardware starting to fail when you get that message, or something has become disconnected. Something is not registering correctly so the BIOS is letting you know that is not detecting hardware that it used to see, or something new has been added. I would try reseating all expansion cards in your computer, video, ram, etc as well as all cables and connectors. Blow out any dust inside the case as well. Another possibility could be that your BIOS battery may be starting to go bad. If you unplug your computer for a while, then plug it back in and go into the BIOS, is the clock wrong? If it is, your BIOS battery is starting to die. A BIOS battery going bad shouldnt cause video problems though. If the battery is going, most electronics stores should have them to purchase a replacement.