Gray lines across Monitor Screen

Hi,
My computer was working fine this morning then when I turned in on this afternoon I have gray lines appearing behind any text, text boxes and pictures, and extend all the way across the screen. Each gray line is almost the height of the text or box or picture. My Computer is about 8 yrs. old but is in great working order. I've tried a different monitors and the same thing happens so I know it has nothing to do with the monitor.I tried it in safe mode,still the same gray lines not the drivers. Installed new drivers,still the same, I know I do not have a video card,mind is integrated into the motherboard,( onboard ) can anybody help. If it is the integrated video card ( onboard ) can I still install a Video card if that's the problem,I'll have to check and see if there's a PCI Slot. Maybe there's a quick fix to this,need some help people,any Ideals.

My System is clean,no virus's or Trojans or Malware.


HP
XL 775
Monitor - VX900T
XP Pro
768 MB Ram
40 G Hard Drive

Attached Pic of what I view,

 

You tried different monitors, did you try a different monitor cable?

 

Hi Fred,
Yes when I tried the other monitor I used a different cable as well,,,so it's not the cable or the monitor.

 

I figured you had tried another cable, but every once in a while something simple will resolve a problem. Not the case this time.

 

The good news is you should be able to add an inexpensive PCI card (or maybe an AGP, depending on your motherboard). The even better news is the card will have its own dedicated memory on the card, so the system RAM currently snagged by your on-board graphics will be returned to the pool to be used by your CPU and OS. With more RAM to work with, the OS will not have to shove data out to the slow hard drive's swap file as often. All good things to improve overall performance.

Check you motherboard manual for details on adding a graphics card.

 

Hi Digerati,

Well I opened up my case and had PCI Slots and a AGP Slot. I had and old Gateway about 10 yrs,that my sister was going to though out,but I kept it. I pulled out the AGP Card out of the Gateway and installed it in my HP. All I did was installed the card and fired my computer up and all is working very well and the gray lines have disappeared. I did not to anything to the drivers and it works just perfect. Remember my old video card was integrated into the motherboard,( onboard ) do I have to doing anything else or just leave it the way it is. I have a great screen picture now...

Thank you,
Norby

 

I suspect since Windows has a bunch of popular drivers built in, it was able to detect this new (this this machine) card, and setup drivers for it. The card maker's site may have newer drivers, but if you are happy, and it works, I would leave it.

When you right click on the desktop and select properties > Settings, in the "Display" box, it should say what monitor is on what card. If you click on Advanced > Adapter, again, you should see the card Windows thinks you have.

 

Hi Digerati,

I Checked the settings,correct Monitor and correct card,,,don't know if it's me or not but seems like the internet is a tad faster. Thanks again Digerati,you have been a great help,take care my friend.

Norby

 

As I said, replacing an on-board graphics solution with a card generally improves overall performance.