What's going on with my screen?

[WoodieSC]

Lately, these boxes of what appear to be "icons in a box" have been showing up randomly on my laptop screen. I first noticed it when I signed up for a Facebook account to sit in on an online business seminar a few weeks back, but they only showed up after a long day. Now they're showing up fairly early in the day, and last night my screen was literally jumping around as I tried to type a reply.

Is my video starting to fry itself or something?

It's an HP Pavilion dv7 laptop. I almost always have it sitting on a 3-fan cooler, although I can turn the fan speed higher to see if it changes anything.

I assume the video card is on the motherboard since this is a laptop... no?

The fact that all of these blocks appear to be icons of various sorts seems to me to be related to Facebook, even though I don't use their icons very often. Is that possible?

Btw, I've stayed off of Facebook today and it hasn't happened yet. And this does NOT happen (at least not yet) if I go on FB with my desktop PC, fwiw.

I did run a HDD scan last night and nothing in particular showed up.

Any ideas or suggestions, other than to make sure I've got everything fully backed up?

Thanks!

[Rubberhead*]

This is just a guess but do an screen capture <Alt><Ctrl><PrtSc> then paste it into Word or Paint.

If the icons show up in the screen capture - it's probably not your hardware.

[WoodieSC]

Actually, I took a screen print/capture two days ago and this is a small portion of it...



I did a disc scan last night to make sure things were clean. I then stayed off of FB all day today and did NOT see any of these blocks. Late this afternoon I signed on to FB and posted and read some things until I saw some blocks start showing up on my desktop screen (which is what the picture above is from two days ago). When I saw them show up, I signed out of FB, went to dinner and just came back up and the boxes have all disappeared.

Any idea what all that means? And, again, this does not happen on my desktop PC monitor, just the laptop.

Thanks.

[XHailGC]

Woodie, I have come to the conclusion that you screw up more crap than anyone I've ever seen in the history of computers..................


.....

[WoodieSC]

Update...

I just signed on to FB and have been on for about 10-12 minutes. The boxes began to show up and then my screen flickered, went dark, and came back on. Then an 'alert' box popped up in the lower right above the taskbar and said something about like, 'Display driver crashed (?)... AMD... but has recovered...".

My desktop is showing 'hints' of the icon boxes, but since I'm out of FB I guessing they'll clear up.

What the heck could be going on in FB that would be causing something like this? Any idea?

Fwiw, I've only had an active account on FB for a few weeks for some specific reasons so I'm not very familiar with everything that goes on there... or the crap they 'supposedly' pull with your data.

[Rubberhead*]

Did you or some automatic software update the display driver recently?

Go to Control Panel > Device Manager > Display Adapter > Properties > Driver

It should show the date of the driver. If the driver is new that's probably your problem. If it's old you might need to reinstall it.

[Steelin' Ducks]

It seems simple to me....stay the f@ck off Facebook.

[rocketman]

The porn sites have screwed your computer up. Time to buy a new one

[AH HOLY]

To many titties

[SOUTHERN WOODS]

It seems simple to me....stay the f@ck off Facebook.

Yep

[WoodieSC]

It seems simple to me....stay the f@ck off Facebook.

LOL... I stayed off FB for years and only had an inactive account that I used occasionally for contests. I set up a regular one a few weeks back to make contact with old friends to see if I wanted to bother going to a reunion. Time will tell.

Other than touching base with some old friends and a few relatives I rarely see, I'm like you guys in that I don't spend a whole lot of time there, but I sure would like to know why it's fuckin' up my laptop video.

Rubberhead, I'll check that out and let you know.

[CAMO SNOB]

bookface is the debill!!!

[YoungBuckTX]

sounds like a facebook virus to me. probably by clicking an ad somewhere on the side. even if removed, some will show back up after logging back into windows as the same user. try running malwarebytes (free) after booting into safe mode.

more info on facebook viruses here https://www.facebook.com/notes/port-...47039501986645

[millero]

I make a lot of money fixing computers for people like you.

[WoodieSC]

sounds like a facebook virus to me. probably by clicking an ad somewhere on the side. even if removed, some will show back up after logging back into windows as the same user. try running malwarebytes (free) after booting into safe mode.

more info on facebook viruses here https://www.facebook.com/notes/port-...47039501986645

Thanks, YoungBuckTX. I checked things and as I thought I have them pretty well buttoned down and only one 'Sweepstakes' app showing, which is from yesterday, I believe... after the problem started showing up.

Rubberhead, I did an 'update scan' and the video driver I've got installed is the newest version. I'm going to try downloading a copy and reinstalling it.

millero, glad to hear you're doing well! If I could afford you I'd let you fix this shit for me.

Btw, as a general rule for myself, I resist just clicking on any link to any site I'm not familiar with... and the porn sites are for other people to test first... like Mergie!

[millero]

millero, glad to hear you're doing well! If I could afford you I'd let you fix this shit for me.

I was playing.

Do you have antivirus? Download Malwarebytes, update it, and run it. Let it find and fix stuff, then reboot and run it again. See how it works after that. I doubt it will catch everything, but it should put a dent in it.

[Goin Coastal]

I was playing.

Do you have antivirus? Download Malwarebytes, update it, and run it. Let it find and fix stuff, then reboot and run it again. See how it works after that. I doubt it will catch everything, but it should put a dent in it.

That will be $65 please.

[millero]

That will be $65 please.

I'm not a plumber. That is at best $40.

[USMCsilver]

I was playing.

Do you have antivirus? Download Malwarebytes, update it, and run it. Let it find and fix stuff, then reboot and run it again. See how it works after that. I doubt it will catch everything, but it should put a dent in it.

That's what I was about to suggest. Ad-Aware is good, too.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[WoodieSC]

Woodie, I have come to the conclusion that you screw up more crap than anyone I've ever seen in the history of computers..................
.....

LOL... if I didn't already know you were full of it I'd take that as an insult since you said almost the same thing to me last year and then I proved the problem was caused by a software issue that nobody knew about.



Actually, after just doing a search on this forum, going back several years, I find nine threads by me for computer problems and the rest are either phone or cable questions or 'Items of Interest' posted for the rest of you - http://www.scducks.com/forum/search....archid=4301934 -

I've definitely found some interesting threads, but when keeping in mind that my "crap" covers two laptops and an old desktop... helped along by admitted software bug problems in Spybot S&D, Flash, and FireFox Ver. 26.0, etc... I'd say I've tolerated and dealt with more 'crap' fairly well compared to the average, non-IT, "almost 'ol geezer". Good thing I'm a stubborn ol' cuss...

Besides, it's good for you young dudes to test your skills when offered a challenge by a guy like me that finds problems that he doesn't always create himself, yet normally understands the ideas and instructions offered. So thanks for your assistance.

I was playing.

Do you have antivirus? Download Malwarebytes, update it, and run it. Let it find and fix stuff, then reboot and run it again. See how it works after that. I doubt it will catch everything, but it should put a dent in it.

LOL... no problem here. You've been very helpful in the past and I appreciate all of you guys.

Yes, I changed to Avira Anti-Virus after I found AVG to be lacking awhile back. I normally run scheduled scans every week unless the PC's might be turned off for some reason.

Avira did find a virus during normal operation yesterday, but I don't recall the name. It blocked it when it tried to run and quarantined it.

I also run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware scans every few weeks or more often if something is suspect.

The Malwarebytes scan yesterday (in Safe Mode) (also run several times this past week) found a PUP.Optional.ReImage Repair.A, which must have been backloaded on a software download (Foxit PDF software?), because I've never downloaded or used ReImage software... or it came in via FB. As far as I know/recall, it's a scam. I haven't signed back into FB yet to see if that helped things with that screwy screen problem.

And, yes, Spybot Search & Destroy is again on my list of normal tools since they fixed the Windows 7 problem I found and they admitted to on a "Windows Explorer integration“ issue last year. I know run it in 'protection mode' full time to help block any spyware.

The Spybot S&D scan from the other day found 17 miscellaneous items, but nothing of any real consequence. I deleted them anyway.

I just ran another HDD scan on the laptop drive, but it didn't improve performance like it normally does. I'm going to run it again, and than will re-run the SCAN.pst (Inbox Repair Tool) again because both the laptop and Outlook are 'not responding' on a regular basis again.

I also run CrapCleaner whenever I shut down or reboot on both machines, including an occasional Registry scan for any issues (CC is rated pretty well on that), and always save a copy before I let it "fix" anything.

Another one used with CC is ATF-Cleaner for Internet Explorer, etc, since CrapCleaner doesn't do that one well.

Fortunately, the desktop PC, which is set up almost exactly like the laptop, is running fine (knock on wood). I run the same software, scanners, and cleaners, etc, on it.

This shit might be fun if I got paid for it, but it's keeping me from getting my job done so just have to keep plugging.

Any additional suggestions are always welcome... other than shooting it and buying a new one, etc.

Thanks.