GRAPHICS faded out, ghosting bright images, mouse slow

Check to see if the image is OK on an external monitor.  If it is, the LCD screen needs to be replaced.

I'm not able to do this. Only has hdmi output. I don't have any hdmi monitors,. I will try via hdmi through an av receiver to an lg tv, but I already unfpderstand that tv output is not supported by this intel graphics card ,,,, but will give it. A try and report back.

Not sure this is relevant but.... To give you an idea of the ghosting effect.  I can have Control Panel open, with a black wallpaper. Then if I shutdown and restart, when it reboots to the Login screen, I can still see the wallpaper and control panel window from the previous SHUTDOWN session, as a ghostly image behind the login screen.  Clearly the screen is not being "driven, refreshed etc.    Any one any ideas.  I can still just see enough to resent settings etc.

correction,  was able to test.  HDMI utput to a HD TV givese perfect picture. So it seems it's not the graphics card...yes ?

But maybe the laptop screen ???  

One last thing to try is reseating both ends of the cable that runs between the mainboard and screen.  If that doesn't fix the problem, the screen needs to be replaced.

Yeah,,, thought about that, I remembered watching the engineer replace the webcama few months back,  i figure he may have loosened the cable. I am Not sure how to remove the side of the screen,,,but will start there. Cheers.

Yesterday... no end of reboots would resolve the creen issue.... Even shutdown and left alone for an hour or so before retrying... but no joy.

This morning... booted with perfect graphics ??  

Leads me to suspect a temperature issue with hardware.  Cannot be cable.   Any ideas anyone ?

quofiend,

Try running the full diagnostics. It tests for hardware. How to Run the Dell™ Diagnostics Utility

Report back any error messages.

Rick

All diagnostics passed from the Dell "check pc" software Prog run from within windows.  

The Laptop has had perfect graphics for the last 12 hours. I've been using Adobe Premiere  CS 5.5 , Corel PSP, Word, Outlook etc.. All with no probs. But I,ve not let it power down screen or enter sleep mode. so all good.

But after 1 reboot the prob is back. It Took me a few minutes to find the mouse pointer the screen was so bad.

During boot diagnostic test, I can still see the 'shadow' of the prev windows session.

and the blue screen/white text is also fading in and out. Ie. each "window" (dos type window) takes a second to fade in.

Extended diagnostic (via boot) running now.

quofiend,

Maybe try reinstalling the video drivers.

Was the operating system recently install/reinstalled? If yes, were the drivers installed in the correct order? How to Download and Install Drivers in the Correct Order

Rick

Thanks all for suggsestions.   rick, I backed up complete partition , I reinstalled every driver there is. Run all diagnostics. Which were a valid suggestion  ut turned out to be completely pointless because they were based on my subjective input,  Eg did you see a red screen.  Y/N. .   Well yes i did but it faded in slowly, from the prev screen.   eg. Video text test 0.  This test seemed to show a screen full of zeros. I am not sure if this is what it was supposed to show, but the prompt asked me  "is this ok?" ... Well ... I guess so, but how do i know ?   What was expected ?

 Dell sending engineer out to replace the screen. so a few days to wait now.

Cheers all

Kev

Kev,

Thanks for the update. Let us know how things turn out.

Rick

My desktop is doing the same thing.  So let me understand you right.  The engineer came out, replaced your screen and all is well?  I ran 6 different virus programs on my computer thinking I had a virus and all 6 came back with no virus found.