Okay, that was a bad suggestion!!! I do it every 3-4 months. I have created a ghost image from the fresh installation. So, it does not take that much time for me. And i do not keep any data whatsoever in my C Drive.
You MUST work in tech support somewhere. Typical tech support call... ME: Hello? TS: Yes. ME: I just got really angry and put a hammer through my monitor. What should I do to fix it? TS: Reformat and reinstall Windows. ME: But the monitor is broken. How will reinstalling Windows fix that? TS: All I can tell you is that's what it says in my book here. Reinstall Windows. That's all I got!
There are a couple of things you can try BEFORE erasing everything and reinstalling Windows and killing a full day! It sounds like either a driver issue or a hardware issue. Since you are running Windows XP, you can try a system restore to a point before you noticed the problem. If that doesn't work, you can always restore back to today. Since you do NOT experience the problem in SAFE MODE, you can try downloading the latest drivers for you video card from the manufacturer's website. Next, try playing around with the "Hardware Acceleration" settings on the video card. It MAY be the case where only certain components of your video card are defective, so the hardware acceleration settings might clear that up. I don't think it's your refresh rate, but it doesn't take much effort to try another setting and then return to the previous settings.
Erm yes...Dont kick it buddy thebassman - do you know if your video card is built into the motherboard or is it a card installed connecting to the motherboard. I really wouldnt go as far as a reinstall of Windows - IMHO and ccole1968 Im a tech supporter
Ok, I've check the refresh rate - it's ok. Mouse driver seems fine - I switched mice just to make sure, same thing. I tried lowering the color quality from 32M to 16M (the only 2 options). I'm quite sure I have the latest driver for my video card - it's from December 2005. It's the ATI All-In-Wonder 9000 on an Asus Motherboard. Hope that helps.
Had stuff like that happen on win98 but nothing quite like that on xp - I have norton system works which seems to keep things running smoothly. I just got the newest version installed yesterday (this computer didn't have it) cleaned up a ton of registry bugs. Now I need to run speed disk, it helps where normal defrag doesn't even go.
There's a troubleshooter here at the ATI site, Tim: https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=293 That may give you some clues. Have you already tried reseating the card and blowing out the dust, checking the connectors, etc.?
I'll check out that troubleshooting... I've checked the connectors - they look fine, and I've tried to clean out the dusk (carefully). I'm reluctant to reseat it, though, since it's such a big card... I may bring it in to the PC store I bought it from and have them take a look (www.keystroke.ca).
Brought it in - my PC tech ran some tests, turns out the video card was going bad - swapped it out for a new one, and I'm good to go. Thanks for all the suggestions and help!