Icon and Fonts distorted

[Brandon]

I have three user accounts on this machine. A few days ago we logged out of
one account by clicking Log Off. Instead of the monitor going to black for
only a second, the monitor remained black. However the computer was still on
and functioning because it responded to the DVD/CD-ROM drive ejection button
on the multi-media keyboard. So I turned it off by holding in the power
button.

Upon normal reboot the user account icons were vertically stretched as well
as the icons on everyone's desktops. The gadgets are stretched vertically as
well. Also the Vista fonts are not as clear any more; in other words the
labels on the icons are not as clear, Gmail fonts are not as clear, certain
websites that use normal fonts are not as clear. However the fonts, toolbars,
etc. in Office 2007 programs are just fine, and the graphics in a simulator
like FSX Deluxe look great. I wanted to test the simulators to see if they
were affected; so I went into FSX and set every slider to max, and what's
strange is that it has never looked better.

I have kept the computer up-to-date on the MS updates. Many updates do not
require a reboot but I usually do reboot anyway. I say this because I do not
believe I rebooted the computer on the last update because Microsoft said it
was not necessary.

Any ideas and recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

My setup is as follows:

HP Pavilion
Vista Home Premium (32-bit) SP1
AMD 64 Live Processor
4 Gigs RAM
NVIDIA GEFORCE 7900 GS

Many Thanks,

Brandon

 

[E. Cox]

I had that happen and it was the video card going bad. Check the event log
for errors, check the device manager for hardware problems, run a check of
the hard disks and see if there are any errors (they may already be logged in
the event logs), update the video driver, ensure you have the driver
installed for the monitor and ensure you are using the recommended resolution
as well as refresh rate.

~ E. Cox

 

[Brandon]

Thank you for the suggestions.

The device manager shows no errors, everything including the video card is
fine with no errors. I ran chkdisk and no errors exist on the hard drive. The
event log does show errors occurring right at that time but it does not
mention anything about a video driver or hardware issue. I have the latest
driver from nvidia installed. The monitor settings have not changed, nor the
display settings (pixels, resolution, etc.).

Any more ideas?

Brandon

 

[Malke]

Thank you for the suggestions.

The device manager shows no errors, everything including the video card is
fine with no errors. I ran chkdisk and no errors exist on the hard drive.
The event log does show errors occurring right at that time but it does
not mention anything about a video driver or hardware issue. I have the
latest driver from nvidia installed. The monitor settings have not
changed, nor the display settings (pixels, resolution, etc.).

You entirely missed what "E. Cox" said: this is most probably a hardware
failure. Software solutions - everything you mentioned above - are useless
with hardware errors.

If the computer is a desktop still under warranty, contact HP tech support.
If the computer is a laptop, contact HP tech support.

If the computer is a desktop and you wish to try to fix this yourself, swap
out the video card for a known-working one. If that solves the issue,
discard the original video card.

Malke