Dell 440 lags w/black screen, leaves artifacts

[Bob338]

Screen goes black for about 5 seconds, particularly when trying to start some programs from the start menu. Sometimes there is no lag and the programs load as normal, other times the screen goes black while program loads and after about 5 seconds everything is fine when it does. Microsoft programs such as IE8 seem a bit less affected. There are artifacts left from pop-up screens on websites sometimes and many times artifacts are left on the task bar..

Machine is a Dimension 4400 running Windows XP Home 32 bit that was retired early this year, now used for light computing, light surfing and storage. It's pretty stock except for 1 GB RAM from Crucial added 18 months ago, and a USB 2.0 PCI card. The graphics card, a NVidia GE Force3 Ti 200, was recommended by Dell and installed for about 3 years ago with no problems. After building a computer earlier in the year I cleaned this HD and did a fresh install to use this computer as a back up and for light computing relating to another hobby. Everything was fine for a while except for occasional artifacts and a blinking screen, most noticeable in CCleaner where the pop-up windows wouldn't fully display and then would leave the artifacts after completing the task. Initially I believed the problem to be with a very cheap and old 15" LCD Acer monitor. I just replaced this with a new 19" Acer LCD (on sale at Fry's for $89,) but neither that nor updating drivers changed a thing. Last week I wiped the drive and did another clean install of Windows XP. Same song, different verse. Believing sequence of the install and updates might have some bearing, I did another clean install a couple of days ago. No change. Fans both work, the machine doesn't put out much heat and I've cleaned what little dust there was.

I'm beginning to wonder if it's a power supply or graphics card going south. The machine is functional but extremely aggravating. Any thoughts or suggestions as to how to isolate problem and repair?

[glc]

Install the video driver from Dell. You will find a driver for that card on the support page for the Dimension 4400. Whatever you do, do *NOT* install the optional video driver from Windows Update.

If this doesn't take care of it, the card may be failing - my GeForce 4 Ti4400 crapped out like that when the fan quit. Pull the card and blow all the dust out of the heatsink/fan and verify the fan spins up full speed when you put it back in and fire it up. In my case, it was too late - I got the fan going again but the damage was done.

[Bob338]

Whoops! on the driver from Windows updates! I'll follow the recommendations in the AM and replace it with the Dell, which I saw while checking updates today. Thanks, I'll post results.

[Bob338]

It worked as I was sure it would. You, sir, are a most helpful genius. Thanks!

Had a helluva time getting rid of the old drivers and getting the new one in there, mainly from operator errors and trying to download from Dell using the browser. For some reason even when unzipped the drivers weren't recognized in the "browse" window in their location in My Documents. Then, trying downloading using their download manager just took me back to the earlier download in My Documents. I finally just deleted the download, deleted the Dell cookies, went back to the download and used their download manager and it went right in. Problem solved!!

Not sure if I should continue another related question here. I'm faced with the same problem of trying to get an Acer driver into the computer. XP rejects the downloaded Acer driver advising "there is no better match" than the Plug and Play driver. Going into the Appearance tab in Display, the Properties button is greyed out and not accessible. From the Device Manager XP advises there is NO driver for the monitor when I try to download. I've disable the driver there and even tried Uninstall, where I'm advised there is NO driver installed!

The problem is that there is no adjustment for the proper aspect ratio in the Plug and Play and I therefore have a wider screen than the native resolution of the monitor, which is 1366 x 768. No such resolution appears in the existing options. I'm sure installing the driver will give me the option. Should I post elsewhere, new post, or . . . ????

Thanks for the help and resolution (pun!) on the blinking screen.

[glc]

Bad news, my friend - you need a new video card to support a widescreen monitor. Yours is too old and Nvidia no longer has updated driver support. It's a video card and driver issue, not a monitor driver issue.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130210

For 30 bucks, you will be in business, and Nvidia is still supporting it with drivers.

[Bob338]

Thanks again. After spending $$ on the monitor, not much choice but to spend the money to make it work as it's supposed to. Just ordered the card. Just like like an old car, they can nickel and dime you to death. Hope the new card doesn't cause the same problems as the old one with the blinking.

Incidentally, I WAS able to get the NVidia drivers for the old card and they had the proper screen resolution. I downloaded them through their alternative scan. It was those drivers that were causing the blinking, not those from the Microsoft update site. Hope this new card doesn't give me the blinking and artifacts as did the old one. While they may not actively support the card, or show them or their site, they do download drivers.

[glc]

The drivers that come with the card should be fine. If not, the latest GeForce 175 series drivers are compatible with the 5-series cards and newer.

[Bob338]

Works like a champ! Thanks!

Only problem, the driver CD was defective so the drivers from the NVidia site did the job.