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Wallpaper goes white when exit a program
Hello. I don't know if anyone has seen this problem before, but the desktop on my monitor goes white when I exit a program. I have to start task manager and click on the Show Desktop to get it back, but when I try to exit Task Manager, it goes white again. I have downloaded the latest drivers for my monitor, graphics card and Windows. I would appreciate any insight the community may have on this problem
harbury
213 Posts
0
October 8th, 2009 10:00
I used to get this problem on several IBM ThinkPads but I could always get out of it fairly easily - unfortunately I cannot remember how I used to do it since it is a couple of years ago now since it happened. The laptops were running XP Pro with SP2 I believe. The problem used to happen fairly frequently (a couple of time a week) for a few weeks and then went away - possibly after a video driver update, and then it came back again some while later, but again went away more or less permanently some while later. I also seem to remember it was accompanied by some message about the desktop which did not make a lot of sense, but there were never any untoward consequences like loss of data etc. Sorry to be so vague but its a while ago now and the problem was an annoyance rather than a big issue which prevented me from doing anything.
Bernard
Alexandra_P
2.6K Posts
0
October 8th, 2009 11:00
Knowing if it was Vista or XP would help, but some general troubleshooting suggestions:
1) Did you add or change anything before the white screen problem? Any new Windows updates?
2) Do you get the same white screen in safe mode?
3) Try system restore to a date when it worked correctly (Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - System Restore
4) Malware can hijack your desktop - try a full scan with your antivirus/antispyware program.
5) If this is XP, make sure you aren't using Active Desktop: Start - Control Panel - Display - Desktop - Customize - Web tab. Make sure no web pages are set as your background.
Actually, Google has lots of hits on this, but assuming this is a software problem there's no one solution - one common one is Incredimail and/or the included Magnetic screensavers, but sometimes it's a game, installing IE8 or new IE plugins/add-ons, malware...