Flickering horizontal lines

My laptop has been running great for nearly 2 years. Several weeks ago
it began to have flickering horizontal lines flashing across the screen
a few at first, but as time went on they filled the entire screen, sor
of line the rolling screens of TVs, but much faster. Then, as thoug
this was just too much activity for it, it would suddenly go black, no
like the computer went off, but I couldn't activate anything, except d
a ctrl-alt-deleate restart. It would do that, and sometimes I coul
continue to work.

Sometimes it wouldn't do this for several days. Then it started to d
it more often and I went out and bought a side drive and backed up al
my data files. After I had it backed up, I did all the latest syste
updates, thinking that might help. That didn't seem to help and th
problem continued to get worse, so I decided to take it to the compute
repair store before I had a major crash.

They ran a diagnostic ($40) on it and ruled out a bad video card an
monitor screen. Said they were then going to check to see if it wa
caused by a virus. The next day they called me and said it was a virus
They said they could remove the virus for $129, but they recommende
wiping the drive clean and do a reinstall because they said they though
the drivers were corrupted and even if they removed the virus, othe
files might be corrupted also.

I decided to hold off and ponder my options. I could wipe my system ou
and do a reinstall myself, for free! Or, I could take my chances firs
and try to remove the virus and perhaps be able to manage reinstallin
only what seemed to be corrupted, saving myself countless hours o
trying to reconstruct my entire system, programs, etc.. I decided t
just go get it and do it myself.

When I showed up to pick up my computer, I asked them what virus the
had identified that had corrupted my computer. They said they couldn'
tell me because it was so bad it crashed their virus dectection progra
so they never found out what it was. This sounds fishy to me. How coul
they tell me they could remove my virus if they didn't know what it was

So, before I do anything else, I would like to ask if anyone is awar
of any viruses that would do this, or what other things could be causin
this problem, and finally, what recommendations anyone would have t
restore my computer to stable condition again

Laptop: 17\" LCD Acer Aspire 7720-6155 w/ Intel Core2 Duo Processo
OS: Vista Home Premium OEMAc

--
cvolle

Hi,

Viruses don't cause those symptoms, electrical interference does. They're
full of %$&@ and are only after your wallet. Do you experience the problem
while running on battery or only when plugged in or both? Have you updated
video drivers lately?

Recommending a format and reinstall is their "easy way out".

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
Vote for my shoe: http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"cvolle" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> My laptop has been running great for nearly 2 years. Several weeks ago,
> it began to have flickering horizontal lines flashing across the screen,
> a few at first, but as time went on they filled the entire screen, sort
> of line the rolling screens of TVs, but much faster. Then, as though
> this was just too much activity for it, it would suddenly go black, not
> like the computer went off, but I couldn't activate anything, except do
> a ctrl-alt-deleate restart. It would do that, and sometimes I could
> continue to work.
>
> Sometimes it wouldn't do this for several days. Then it started to do
> it more often and I went out and bought a side drive and backed up all
> my data files. After I had it backed up, I did all the latest system
> updates, thinking that might help. That didn't seem to help and the
> problem continued to get worse, so I decided to take it to the computer
> repair store before I had a major crash.
>
> They ran a diagnostic ($40) on it and ruled out a bad video card and
> monitor screen. Said they were then going to check to see if it was
> caused by a virus. The next day they called me and said it was a virus.
> They said they could remove the virus for $129, but they recommended
> wiping the drive clean and do a reinstall because they said they thought
> the drivers were corrupted and even if they removed the virus, other
> files might be corrupted also.
>
> I decided to hold off and ponder my options. I could wipe my system out
> and do a reinstall myself, for free! Or, I could take my chances first
> and try to remove the virus and perhaps be able to manage reinstalling
> only what seemed to be corrupted, saving myself countless hours of
> trying to reconstruct my entire system, programs, etc.. I decided to
> just go get it and do it myself.
>
> When I showed up to pick up my computer, I asked them what virus they
> had identified that had corrupted my computer. They said they couldn't
> tell me because it was so bad it crashed their virus dectection program
> so they never found out what it was. This sounds fishy to me. How could
> they tell me they could remove my virus if they didn't know what it was?
>
>
> So, before I do anything else, I would like to ask if anyone is aware
> of any viruses that would do this, or what other things could be causing
> this problem, and finally, what recommendations anyone would have to
> restore my computer to stable condition again.
>
> Laptop: 17\" LCD Acer Aspire 7720-6155 w/ Intel Core2 Duo Processor
> OS: Vista Home Premium OEMAct
>
>
> --
> cvolle

Dear friend i also got same problem,
so when flicker starts i will start to press Esc button frequently untill the flicker stop. but its started to not respond for the esc after i reinstalled the OS, so now i am using the key " ` " to stop the flickering i will soon update once i got the solution for this.