an area from previous screen remains over desktop/everything

[matty]

OS - Win XP Pro SP3

Sometimes, not always, a portion of a previous screen will remain on the
desktop. This visible portion is also visible on top of other active
windows. It's like the ghost of a previous screen.

Example:
I clicked on the ">>" of my QuickLaunch toolbar and selected, for example,
"Outlook Express". Outlook Express is launched but that rectangular portion
(i.e., the highlighted "Outlook Express" option) remains visible
(dismembered from the rest of the QuickLaunch menu) on top of everything on
the screen. When I try and minimize every window, then refresh the desktop,
my ghost image is still there.

This doesn't happen all the time and I don't see a pattern - e.g., if this
happens only when I have a few or a lot of programs running. This doesn't
happen only with the QuickLaunch toolbar. It also happens, sometimes, when I
click on any menu/scrolldown menu - e.g., any open window/program.

Help! So far, the only thing that gets rid of any ghost image is restarting
my PC. Why does it happen and how can I get rid of a ghost image without
having to restart my PC?

 

[BillW50]

In matty typed on Sat, 22 Aug 2009 10:59:57 -0700:

OS - Win XP Pro SP3

Sometimes, not always, a portion of a previous screen will remain on
the desktop. This visible portion is also visible on top of other
active windows. It's like the ghost of a previous screen.

Example:
I clicked on the ">>" of my QuickLaunch toolbar and selected, for
example, "Outlook Express". Outlook Express is launched but that
rectangular portion (i.e., the highlighted "Outlook Express" option)
remains visible (dismembered from the rest of the QuickLaunch menu)
on top of everything on the screen. When I try and minimize every
window, then refresh the desktop, my ghost image is still there.

This doesn't happen all the time and I don't see a pattern - e.g., if
this happens only when I have a few or a lot of programs running.
This doesn't happen only with the QuickLaunch toolbar. It also
happens, sometimes, when I click on any menu/scrolldown menu - e.g.,
any open window/program.
Help! So far, the only thing that gets rid of any ghost image is
restarting my PC. Why does it happen and how can I get rid of a ghost
image without having to restart my PC?

This has always been the fault of the video driver in my experience.
Most would claim to download the latest driver and go from there. Which
sometimes works. But I may add that sometimes an older one works better.
So also keep this in mind.

In the Display Properties you can change the slider under Troubleshoot
(Hardware acceleration) too. Maybe you can find something that doesn't
effect performance too bad and fix the problem too.