Purple and pink outlines on my screen

Hello, can someone please help?
I'm at wit's end. Dell laptop xps M1210 running Vista. This like the second or third time this has happened but I can't correct it now.(for like a month and a half). The whole computer is run by this. I corrected it by changing fonts. I've deleted all programs installed since the problem started again. Every screen is outlined with pink purple yellow etc... in every program.
I've tried changing DPI settings, no luck. I've tried everything I can think of.
Even restore . No luck. It actually is visible from as soon as the pw page shows when I start the pc up. I've even unplugged and taken the battery out. Still nothing. I've tried reinstalling drivers. Video card is Nvidia GeForce Go 7400. I'm pretty sure that this crap started again when I was playing Inkball whick came with the system. Please help before I float test this piece of crap. Thanks in advance. Also, even the "Start" box on bottom left is hard to read. Which reminds me, I've tried changing fonts with no change. I also have to say that the there is slight flickering. One other note: It seems that when I go to 'advanced' in "display settings", it looks like my settings options that are on my
Home PC with XP operating system and not what my laptop came with. (I transfer files from XP to my laptop every so often.)

 

I would say that it is a hardware problem, and the 'fixes' that worked before may have just been blind luck. However, there is virus going around that disables the users ability to change desktop settings and wallpapers, but it sounds like you can change settings, but they make little to no difference. Have you booted in safe mode? This would tell you if it's a software/driver problem, or a hardware problem. You can also try hooking it up to an external monitor (all laptops have a VGA port on the back or on the side). If you still get the pink/purple in safe mode on an external display, then you have a bad video chip or possibly bad video memory. There's a small chance that your main system RAM is going out, but that seldom results in video issues; when system RAM goes flakey, PCs usually crash or misbehave dramatically. Hopefull the laptop is under warranty. If so, burn the data that you want saved to some discs as there's a very good chance that won't get it back if you ship the PC off for a warranty repair.

 

Connect an external monitor. if you don't hve one, take your laptop to a friend's house and hook your computer up to that monitor.
If everything appears okay on the external monitor, you can be sure it is a hardware problem. If things look strange on the external (colors, not necessarily size) then it is a software problem.

 

Thanks for your responses all,
When I have it connected to my TV, there is no problem on the TV screen, but same problem on my laptop. I tried restarting in safe mode. After a few seconds(60), it was perfect on my laptop. It wouldn't allow me to play videos in safe mode however. So when I restarted normally, the problem came back. I'm still baffled that when I go to personalize, display settings, advanced, modes, it has the same choices that I have on my XP PC(seperale Pc all together). When I first used to go to advanced options on my laptop, it didn't give me so many choices. Could this be the culprit?
Appreciate any ideas. Cheers!

 

If the display is fine in safe mode, then it is most likely a software/driver problem. Locate a newer driver for your display adapter (the info can be found in the Device Manager under Display Adapters), then uninstall the current driver, reboot, run CCleaner on the drive and registry, then install the new driver. It might be a good idea to install an updated chipset driver too. Any drivers should be available from the PC makers web site. If you have trouble, post some details here and we'll try to link you up with the drivers you need.

 

So the first thing I did was download an 'optional' update from dell for the nvidia geforce 7400. (4+ hrs with dial up). I extracted the folder. Still no luck. I then changed a font for 'message box'. No luck. I gave up, shut down. About a couple of hours later, I started it up and it was fixed! I just hope it doesn't happen again. I have to say I did this step first, before your recommendations because I didn't think Dell had any updates for the driver.
Thanks all even though I still don't really know what fixed the problem.
Cheers and Thanks!
PS. I will definitely be back if it happens again.

 

Well, it happened again! Pink and purple (out)lines everywhere. However, this time I loaded the vista cd after going into bios and having my laptop boot from the cd drive. Clicked repair and it seems to have worked! Thank again all!