Display Problems with Inspirion E1505

In the last month I've been having screen issues with my Dell Inspirion E1505. I got the computer in April 2006, and this is the first major problem I've had with it. Also, just for the sake of noting it: it's been treated like a padded princess. It's gone everywhere with me, but it's never been dropped or bumped or had anything spilled on it, etc.

The problem started a few weeks ago, and basically I'll be working and suddenly the screen will fritz into hundreds of irregular line blocks. When it does this, I have to restart my computer, then it works fine until it does it again. Here is an actual picture of my comp fritzing, taken with my cellphone.




At first I thought it might be a hack attempt or some such thing, but I've run every known scan - virus, spyware, vulnerability, etc. etc. and nothing shows up.

Before I took a picture, someone suggested it might be the ribbon cable wearing out. If this is the case, would it be worth the time and expense to have it repaired, or should I start looking for a new laptop?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
~Kitty~

 

Since you mentioned that the computer completely froze and then was fine after a hard reboot, I suspect that the video card is going bad.

Can you hook the laptop up to an external monitor or TV to see if the problem is visible there as well? If it is, the graphics card is defective. If not, then it is probably the LCD or the cabling.

But it does sound like the GPU is going out on you.

 

Ah, video card. Thank you for the heads up. I'll hook it up to the TV and see what happens.

Kitty

 

try reseating the lcd cable under the hinge cover / u can check on the support site for manuals to help u remove the hinge cover

 

Maybe it's heat related with the GPU and a thorough cleaning is in order.........