distorted screen

[Bradley G]

My home page has a wrinkle right across Barry's threadif I scroll around it goes away, what is it /does this happen to anyone else?
Bradley G

[BruteForce]

My home page has a wrinkle right across Barry's threadif I scroll around it goes away, what is it /does this happen to anyone else?
Bradley G

Likely video card drivers. Update them if you know what make/model you have.

[TechHeavy]

My home page has a wrinkle right across Barry's threadif I scroll around it goes away, what is it /does this happen to anyone else?
Bradley G
Bradley, this could be a result of several possible problems.

Questions:

How old is the computer?
Is it the original video card?
What kind of video card?
Does the video card have a small fan on the heatsink?
Does the distortion appear only after the computer has been on for a while?

If the answers to these questions are all, (or mostly) "yes", then the first thing I'd check is to make sure the fan is still spinning freely on the video card. These little fans, (the brushless type) are notorious for locking up, (no longer spin) when they get old and start wearing out. Even if it is still spinning, but slowly, it will cause the video card chipset to get too hot. A video card getting too hot will cause the very symptom you're describing.... and it will continue to get worse.

Let me know if this is your problem and I'll walk you through an easy fix.

[SergntMac]

Got any Xmas decorations sharing the AC power source?

[Bradley G]

The sony 46g W/ windows xp media ed.its one year old still under warranty,for a few more weeks. how do I find out what kind of video card it has. It is the original one . thanks for your reply It doen't do it all the time.I have only seen it starting today.

Bradley G

[Bradley G]

no Mac.we are still working on that
Got any Xmas decorations sharing the AC power source?

[BruteForce]

Assuming that is a VAIO model desktop, you can start here

sony support (http://esupport.sony.com/perl/select-p-n.pl)

There is an auto-detect function there that should help find updates.

[TechHeavy]

The sony 46g W/ windows xp media ed.its one year old still under warranty,for a few more weeks. how do I find out what kind of video card it has. It is the original one . thanks for your reply It doen't do it all the time.I have only seen it starting today.

Bradley G
I can tell you how to find out the video card make and model, but first we should determine if this is in fact the problem, (and if it is a hardware/card problem or software/driver problem).
Your Sony is still under warranty. How long is the warranty for? Do you know if it has a seal, (a piece of metallic colored tape) on the back of the case that will void the warranty if broken? It would say this on the seal if it has one... If it does then you should take it to an authorized Sony distributor for repair. I am, but I don't think you want to drive to MI.
If it doesn't have one, then feel free to open up the side panel, (the panel to the left when looking at the front of the tower) and take a look at the video card. Don't forget to unplug the the power cord before removing the panel. If the video card has a fan, then plug everything back in (with the side panel off) and turn on the system. Watch to see if the fan spins freely. You can compare the fan speed to other fans in the tower for comparison purposes. Let me know...
Like I said, this may not be your problem, but I get in a LOT of computers that are over a year old with frozen fans on video cards. This is a very common problem, and should be the first thing you check.

[Bradley G]

called the sony help line, did a system restore from yesterday.agent claimed if a video driver goes bad, it will affect the screen no matter what is displayed.I hope this is fixed thank you for the input guys.thanks for the PM ;)

Bradley G