Color quality keeps changing back and forth!

[robbie2618]

Greetings,

 

Last week my Dell laptop running XP started changing the color quality setting from 32 bit to 8 bit! It changes back and fourth on its own every few minutes. I recieve no error messages. It has been doing this for a week now. Once I turn on the computer it works fine(screen is normall looking) than after a few minutes the screen blinks to black then comes back at a lower color quality setting. A few minutes later it will blink again sometimes going back to the correct setting and some times it wont and it just repeats every few minutes. The curser recenters to the middle of the screen also when it blinks. Some programs will shut down when it blinks.

 

Does any one have an idea whats going on and how to fix it?

 

Thanks

[danzil]

is this pc using onboard graphics.or a dedicated graphics cards.have you ran all relevant virus scans and spyware scans to make sure you dont have any nasties.

have you also tried updating the graphics card driver.

if you have no anti virus you can download a trial of nod32 from http://www.eset.co.uk. and a good spyware.adware remover is ewido you can get that from http://www.ewido.com

 

let me know so more ifo so we can help more

[robbie2618]

Greetings Danzil,

 

I have ran my virus scan and all is ok, I also downloaded a new driver. As far as the graphics card its what came with the computer, I dont know anything about it. I manualy set my color to Low(8 bit) and it stopped the swithing back and forth but as you know the grafics are horibble now. I had to do that to be able to run programs with out them shutting down each time the screen switched. I will try to remove the driver and reinstall it to see what happens.

[danzil]

it really is pointing to a driver issue or maybe a heat issue.

what is the make of graphics card you have i will get you a link to the latest driver.

to find out what card it is go to start>control panel>system>hardware>device manager. then the make of your card will be under "display adapters". maybe worth downloading a benchmarking programme like sisoft sandra or everest to see if you can find out the temperature of your card when the resolution is set high..

may also be worth reseating the graphics card,stranger things have happened this may rectify the issue...

Try some of the suggestions then let us know and i will see where we can go from there.

[danzil]

another thought have you tried booting into safe mode...f8 at startup to see if it does it in there.....if it doesnt then we are pointing closer to a driver issue.

[robbie2618]

Ok, I removed the driver and restarted the computer. Everything was the same, the screen looked normal then about a minute later "blinked" and the color quality was back to low(8 Bit) I check the system hardware and under display adapter it said "unknown device" or something like that. I down loaded the driver from Dell's websight for the mobility Radeon 9000. After install the device manager displayed the Radeon 9000 and all fine with the device. I installed the driver twice but no good the screen still blinked and would change. Im thinking maybe it could be a hardware failer. If it was a driver problem wouldnt the problem go away after I uninstalled it and the device manager no longer recinized the Radeon 9000? I also dont think its over heating as it happens as soon as i turn on the computer even after it has been sitting several hours.

 

One question, after I removed the Radeon 9000 driver and the device manager no longer displays a display adapter why does the screen still look normal for the first minute before it blinks again? I can manualy reset it to 32 or 24 bit and it all looks normally again for a minute. What display adapter is it running off of if it no longer reginizes the radeon?

 

What should I do from here? I am in China on biz and my computer is in English, i tried to find local help but nobody was familer with English Windows. I leave for Nigeria tomorrow, English is there official language so maybe I can find help there but really dont want to go running around there unless I have to.

 

Thanks

[robbie2618]

When I run it in safe mode the screen looks normal(good) when i check color quality it is at 16 bit, when I try to change it to 24 or 32 bit nothing happens it will not change from 16 bit. I whent online and all looked good at 16 bit. When I go to device manager under display adapter "unavailible" is listed. So I gues it is working in safe mode, none of the problems show up.

[robbie2618]

Ive had stupid problems with every PC I have had in the past 10 years(5). Are Macs better? I dont do anything but surf the web, emails and read artcles thats it simple stuff. I really think im going to try a Mac next im getting tired of this.

[danzil]

each to there own really i like macs and pc's....

yep sounds like a device issue can you try another monitor.is this pc under warrenty...my be an idea to get hold of a old graphics card and check that.or borrow one from a friend if poss.....

the reason why windows can still load a display withou radeon drivers,is because it has its own universal so to speak driver,a generic driver for most well every card i have tried...

you can et a really nice card nowadays for £60 if you look in the right places.

sorry just got re-read your post,,,it doesnt flash about in safe mode...well that really is pointing to a driver...

try this

go to start>run type in "cmd" without qoutes,click on the startup tab then untick all.then restart see if that stop the flicking.