# Red lines appear on screen



## DS Negi (Apr 14, 2008)

Hi, 

Can you help me to find out about the problem with my laptop screen. 

I have got HP Pavilion 9646em, AMD Turin 64 x 2 TL 58 Processor, 1.9 GHz, 1600, MHz FSB, 1 MB Cache, 2 GB, 160 GB, Window Vista (R) Home Premium. The laptop is five months old and has been seldomly used at home. 

My problem is, many red lines have started appearing on the screen of the laptop. Earlier they started appearing on the screen for few moments only but now they always appear on the screen. 

Some times on particular angle of the screen for some moment the red line do not appear, but after some time they start appearing again. I think the problem is getting worse day by day. 

Can u please help me to find out, actually what the problem is & is the problem because of spyware, virus or hardware malfunctioning and what is the solution for the problem. 

Thanks for your expert advise.

Negi


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Hi DS Negi,

I saw the image you attached and I see some red lines like scattered all over. Is that the one you mean? Would it be clearer if you use a different wallpaper?

Try with an external monitor and observe if the red lines still appear. Also go into BIOS settings and also observe if the red lines presents itself in that BIOS settings screen.

Given the image, I think it could be the video card... but then again :grin:


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## DS Negi (Apr 14, 2008)

Hi Trigger finger,

Thanks for your prompt reply. Yes those are the red lines scattered all over the screen. These lines appear even if I use different wall papers although the lines appear with less density in few wall papers, may be because of wall paper background. 

Suprisingly some times they do not appear at all on any angle of the screen, whereas other times they do not disappear on any angle. 

Is there a possibility that video card might have become loose on its port and needs to be put in proper place again, by pressing it (as we do in case of desk top computers, I do not know much about laptops). 

please let me know how to go to BIOS settings. 

Once again thanks for your help. 

Negi


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## scorp1543 (Jul 27, 2008)

I used to have this problem On my old laptop. Make sure no wires going to GFX card are loose Because that was what was rong with mine
Hope this helped.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

what video chip is in it


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

DS Negi said:


> Hi Trigger finger,
> 
> Thanks for your prompt reply. Yes those are the red lines scattered all over the screen. These lines appear even if I use different wall papers although the lines appear with less density in few wall papers, may be because of wall paper background.
> 
> ...


Please provide information needed by *dai*.

To go into BIOS, try tapping on F1 when HP logo appears.

Did you try with an external monitor? If it works well with an external monitor, then you may want to reseat the video cable. This would require you to open the laptop up. Hmmm, wait... is this laptop still under warranty? If so, opening it up would void the warranty. Consider bringing it back to HP for proper repair and replacement (if ever).


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## DS Negi (Apr 14, 2008)

Hi, Scorp1543, Dai & Trigger Finger, Thanks for your replies, 

My laptop has 'NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS' display adaptor. 

Regarding my warranty, HP UK has informed me that my warranty is valid only in UK. I had bought my HP laptop in UK but now I am staying out side of UK.

Earlier I was having Acer 5612 & 1652 laptops that gave me years of trouble free service & I never needed to use warranty for above laptops, but since the day I have bought this HP laptop, I have been facing lot of problems one after one. I do not know if the problem is there with all the HP models. 

Since yesterday, my laptop's screen is not giving any trouble. After the red lines appear again I will try this laptop using some other monitor. 

Thanks once again for your all the expert advises in this regard.

Negi


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

Warranty in UK only? I find that strange not to mention funny. These things are for mobile computing. Unless the meaning of mobile is for within UK only then that would explain it... geez. Or may be they have another offer like an international warranty that you buy separately.. that would also explain why. :grin:


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

have a read of this
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/07/25/nvidia-gpu-update-for-dell-laptop-owners.aspx


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## DS Negi (Apr 14, 2008)

Hi Trigger Finger & Dai, 

Thanks for your expert advise. I read the article - http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archi...op-owners.aspx, you had given to me. I think the article says the truth. There have been temperature fluctuations in my laptop. A few times its CPU was so hot that it was painful/difficult to touch the bottom of the laptop. 

I think this is the reason, why red lines started appearing on my laptop's screen, as the article says.

I am thankful to you for keeping me updated. 

Negi :wave:

ps - I bought & tried to use a special laptop base that has three small fans & it takes power from laptop through USB, but I think my laptop does not produce enough power to run that base. Can u give me some suggestions about external power supply or any other solution to this problem. 

Negi :smile:


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

As for the cooling pad, it depends really on what you have right now. Some cooling pads have an extra female jack aside from the USB so you can plug in a power adapter. Some have 3 USB connectors, 2 on one end and 1 on the other. The single USB connector goes to the cooling pad while the end with two USB connectors plugs into the laptop. Only one is used if power is sufficient but if not you need to use the two together.


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## DS Negi (Apr 14, 2008)

Hi Trigger finger,:wave:

Thanks for your expert advise. 

As you advised me, I checked my laptop with external CVT monitor. There were no red circled lines appearing on external monitor & desktop and other screens were crystal clear whereas at the same time my laptop’s screen was showing red circled lines. I am enclosing here with two types of pictures. Most of the screen picture are bad and have red lines whereas few are good ones. Very rarely, when red circle lines did not appear on my laptop’s screen, I took pictures of good laptop screen. 

Surprisingly if I put a total blue screen (by creating a blue background on the paint and setting that as desktop screen) the red lines do not appear on the screen. Also any programme that has white background like Microsoft word, excel or yahoo messenger, do not show any red circle lines. You can see that only dark blue color area on the desktop screen shows the red circle lines but surprisingly, as I earlier said the blue screen created on paint does not show any red circle lines with in the image. 

Also I have noticed that keeping the laptop switched off for few hours make the red circled lines disappeared for few hours of working, until I switch on the elctric power supply to laptop. May be it is because the laptop gets heated. 

Waiting for your expert advise again as I am Still avoiding to send my laptop by air parcel to HP, UK for service under guarantee, as generally the parcels are mishandled with jerks in transit.

Thanks for your all the help in this regard.:smile:

Negi

PS : I am enclosing herewith few images for your viewing. I have written on the bottom of the images, whether the image is bad or good. 

Negi


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

By the looks of it, it seems you really have a problem with the video card/motherboard. Sometimes this is caused by the LCD but given the information about the problematic video card model on these laptops, I am convinced this has to be connected to that more than it is with the LCD.

You can try what I usually try but it sounds far fetched. But if you are willing to do the extra step just to know that it is not software related, run a liveCD (Knoppix or PCLinuxOS) if you have not done so yet. Try any one of these distros which one would work in your laptop. Observe if the red thingies still show up. Frankly this is very unlikely but if you want to pursue then it could help rule out Windows or Windows drivers.


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