Colour on lap top gone wonky.

[Kevin Milkins]

I am on holiday and have brought my lap top with me so I can stay in touch with home through a WiFi conection in reception.

Although it is working fine the screen is displaying everything in a funny colour.

It has happened before very briefly but it has been like it for two days now and is a pain in the backside because I want to do some photography.

Any help or advise would be well recieved.

[Connor.]

Right click on your desktop and then click properties(Personalize if you're on Vista). Go to the the last tab(Display Settings if you're on Vista) and then make sure that the colour setting is set to 32-bit colour. If it is already on that setting i suggest updating your video/graphics driver.

Although, if you wait a little bit longer BlueIvy will have an answer for ya

[blueivy]

Although, if you wait a little bit longer BlueIvy will have an answer for ya

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

Although I don't have an answer, I do have a bit of a similar story that may help.

My old HP laptop (about 5 years old) started having this problem a while ago. The screen would suddenly start flashing colours and would generally change most colours to a shade of green. Everything was still visible and everything still worked but just in a nice shade of green.

I tried the suggested things such as resetting the resolution, updated the video driver and looked for any patches from HP for chipsets, BIOS firmware etc. to see if they would again kick things back to normal. No effect.

The problem has come and gone but hasn't reappeared for a while now.

I don't think it was the screen in my case (as everything still worked and looked alright and at bootup everything was fine) but it was a possibility. It was more likely to be the video card / chip in the laptop. Unfortunately the laptop had a built in chip on the motherboard so it would be too expensive to replace the whole motherboard.

So, to end this very long story, if you've tried the usual things (uninstalling any recently installed software, upgrading the video drivers, laptop patches / firmware, etc. etc.) then I would suggest it MAY be the graphics card / chip or the screen - I suspect the card / chip but could be the screen. Another thing to check is to see if you can either case it to happen or cause it to go away by angling the screen at differernt positions - this would indicate a problem with the cable that connects the screen to the graphics card / chip - I have seen this many times before but only with older laptops (I assume laptop designers have overcome this problem now).

If it's under warranty and you don't get it fixed with the above then it may be a case of reloading Windows to PROVE it's hardware related and not a corrupt or badly configured Windows install.

Sorry for the long post but I hope it helps a little.

[Kevin Milkins]

Thank you both for the time to reply to my post.

I have a 4 year old laptop running widows XP.

I think what has happened is the result of traveling and moving it about as it is the third time it has happened when out and about, except this time it has not righted itself.

I think I will leave it untill I get home before diving into the engine though as I need to do some backing up.

Regards

Kevin Milkins

[Kevin Milkins]

I forgot to mention that it has got that green sort of look and it is running on 32 bit.

KM

[blueivy]

I forgot to mention that it has got that green sort of look and it is running on 32 bit.

KM

Sounds too similar to the problem I had (which I forgot to say was intermittent and hasn't appeared for a while now) and your laptop is a similar age. Probably the video card / chip coming to the end of it's life.

[Kevin Milkins]

Sounds too similar to the problem I had (which I forgot to say was intermittent and hasn't appeared for a while now) and your laptop is a similar age. Probably the video card / chip coming to the end of it's life.

Thanks for that Paul
It does not sound terminal so I will see if I can get that sorted when I get home..
Regards KM

[Kevin Milkins]

Sounds too similar to the problem I had (which I forgot to say was intermittent and hasn't appeared for a while now) and your laptop is a similar age. Probably the video card / chip coming to the end of it's life.

Hi Paul.
I am back in Wick now and laptop has not put itself right.

You mentioned a videocard /chip, is that somthing you buy from Tesco and plug it in or is a bit more complicated than that?

Regards KM

[Sapphire2803]

Hi Paul.
I am back in Wick now and laptop has not put itself right.

You mentioned a videocard /chip, is that somthing you buy from Tesco and plug it in or is a bit more complicated than that?

Regards KM

Unfortunately, in a laptop, it's part of the motherboard so the only way to fix it is to completely replace the "guts" of the laptop, which usually isn't cost effective.

[Kevin Milkins]

Unfortunately, in a laptop, it's part of the motherboard so the only way to fix it is to completely replace the "guts" of the laptop, which usually isn't cost effective.

That sounds painfull.
I wonder if I will get used to working in a funny colour?

[Fran]

Kevin, I think the problem is that your laptop has got a bit of sunburn!! Hope you had a great time, i am green with envy, nice to know you are both home again safe and well. xxxx to megan and caspah from bobby

[blueivy]

Unfortunately, in a laptop, it's part of the motherboard so the only way to fix it is to completely replace the "guts" of the laptop, which usually isn't cost effective.

That's not always the case.

Dependent on the graphics card model inside the laptop it may well come as an addin card that plugs into the motherboard (in much the same way as a PC has only a lot smaller and it plugs in parallel with the board as opposed to perpendicular). This allows you to replace or upgrade the card in your laptop just as you would do in a PC. This tends to much more the case today than it was when Kevin's laptop was new.

Because of the age of the laptop it's probably unlikely that the laptop has one of these cards, but it may well do. If it's a high end laptop then that it's more likely than a cheaper one. As you say though, if it's a chip on the motherboard then the board will need replaced which won't really be costy effective for a 4 year old laptop unless Kevin has grown very sentimental and attached to it :-)

You didn't mention which graphics card / chip model it has Kevin?

[Kevin Milkins]

You didn't mention which graphics card / chip model it has Kevin?

Hi Paul
I have had a look around for a graphics card / chip model on my system, but cant find one.
Where would I find that information?
Regards KM

[blueivy]

You didn't mention which graphics card / chip model it has Kevin?

Hi Paul
I have had a look around for a graphics card / chip model on my system, but cant find one.
Where would I find that information?
Regards KM

If you go to Start->Control Panel->Display->Settings tab-> Advanced button->Adapter tab.

Could you also provide the make and model of the laptop?

[Kevin Milkins]

If you go to Start->Control Panel->Display->Settings tab-> Advanced button->Adapter tab.

Could you also provide the make and model of the laptop?

Hi Paul.
Thanks for that info, it says as follows.
Chip type 9600 series agp
Memory size 64 MB
Adapter string mobility M10
Bios information BK-ATI VER008. 001. 097

The type is a Systemax Tourbook 5112 PC PRO APR04.

I bought it in June 04 and it cost me £1162 08, so it's not a cheap one.
Hope it means something to you Regards KM

[Sapphire2803]

Hi Paul.
Thanks for that info, it says as follows.
Chip type 9600 series agp
Memory size 64 MB
Adapter string mobility M10
Bios information BK-ATI VER008. 001. 097

The type is a Systemax Tourbook 5112 PC PRO APR04.

I bought it in June 04 and it cost me £1162 08, so it's not a cheap one.
Hope it means something to you Regards KM

That's a Radeon 9600 mobility. I wouldn't swear to it, but that one may be replaceable (You lucky swine )

But hold on.... We need to back up a bit...

Does your laptop have a socket on it for plugging in a monitor? If it does then use it
If it all shows up fine on another monitor, then it's probably a problem with the laptop screen or the ribbon cable.

[Kodiak]

Just a suggestion this.

Could you connect your LapTop to a seperate Monitor. If you can you will then see if it is your screen or not. If you get a good picture on the Monitor then the problem would be with your Screen. If you still had the problem on the Monitor then it would be a Problem within you LapTop.

If you can do this then at least you would know where your problem lay.

[Kevin Milkins]

Thank you both for the above info,but I am going to sound like even more of a dim wit now.

I have an old tiny pc that is 9 years old and works on Windows 98.

Could I connect it to that and if so what sort of cable do I use.? There seems to be lots of different sockets on the back of my laptop but only 2 on the back of my pc moniter ,one for the power and one from the cpu.

[Kevin Milkins]

Right, I have taken the cable out of the back of the CPU that conects it to the monitor on my PC and it fits Ok ito the back of my laptop.

As yet I can't get anything up on the monitor of my PC other than a small box that says "no signal and fH --. -khz and fV --. -Hz"??

I have had a play about in the control panel and there is not much on the monitor to play with.

[Kodiak]

You need to connect the Monitor direct into the back of the LapTop. CPU satnds for Central Processing Unit, in other words this is the Main Chip in your Computer and should have nothing to do with any connection.

It makes no difference what your PC has as a Operating System as you would not be connecting the computer to the LapTop. Only the Monitor would be connected.

So you would take the Monitor connection out of the back of the PC and Connect this cable to the back of your LapTop, there should only be one place to fit this connection on your LatTop.

Once done fire up your LapTop and you should get a Picture on your Monitor and you should be able to see if it is the same quality as your LapTop screen.