Strange Screen Behavior

I have a workmate that is having this occur when in the middle of using his keyboard. When he reboots it goes away. It's happened two or three times. Very new Dell computer with XP. Sorry but I cannot put this into words.

Deposit Files

Please advise and thank you!

 

Wow it was worth the wait to D/L the mov file, very cool ads on that site. Does this happen in only one program or combination of programs?
Are the temps good on the Dell?

 

Outlook and Excel where the only two open programs. Actually he was not typing when this last occurred. Temps were well within range.

Additional info: Computer does not have a dedicated graphics card. Monitor VGA plug does not seem to be damaged.

 

Several ideas might be to check the Y adapter on the back of your video card if the card has one, see if you can switch it with another one (I know some of the older Dell models had a special DVI connector that you had to plug a special Y adapter in to get one or two monitors working). If you have a spare video card laying around plug that in and see if it does the same thing, or if not boot the machine into the BIOS and see if it does the same thing. Lastly try a LiveCD of some sort and see if that causes the same issue.

If you want to try a software solution before messing with the hardware, check the video drivers and see if there are any updates, or just uninstall and reinstall the current drivers from Dell's website.

Also does this happen at certain times? Is the computer plugged into a surge protector/suppressor? Could you move the plug from one outlet to another?

Though, to me it sounds like the video card is either failing or overheating (but you said the temps are normal so it's probably not overheating).

And if it's still new, I'd contact Dell support and see what they have to say. If it is hardware you'll want to replace it before the warranty runs out.

Brian