This seems to happen to me a lot, from what seems to be games. Researching some more, It could be resolution changes (seeing as it also happens when I plug another monitor in) however, I can't find a fix (other than at that link, but I don't want to install software I haven't heard of, much less an antivirus as it may come in conflict with MSE) Has anyone else ever had this problem? Thanks.
Fill in your system specs so that we might be able to help you out. Any software we may have you install would be the drivers to your system. make sure you have all updates and updated drivers. If you don't know how, set windows to do it for you.
(Step 3 will show you how): Device Installation Settings
Any driver that requires a much needed update may be displayed in the Devices and Printers section (Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers)
Last edited by Brink; 20 Dec 2010 at 23:50. Reason: replaced link
Updated specs. Checking the guide.
Edit: It was in auto-update anyway.
If you can, check the cables and monitor to see if they are good. Perhaps your graphics card isn't powerful enough, although I cannot say for sure, it is just the on board graphics card right? Go into Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Display and click Adjust Resolution on the left and try a lower resolution. then click advanced settings (in blue) at the bottom right and go into the monitor tab. change the screen refresh rate. Start as high as you can (make sure it has "hide modes that this monitor cannot display" checked) and then go lower.
I'm using windows 7 basic, so I don't think it's the graphics card. That, and I've seen the same card run powerful games while recording videos on youtube. I don't know if it could be a corrupted DLL, as an experiment with linux made my windows boot mess up, and I had to use a grub live CD to restore it (not the windows 7 disk as I lost it >_>) After that it kept showing these magenta lines when it started up. I tried the dell restore utility and it still showed the magenta lines. (Could be related to that). Just throwing that as a possibility too.
Well, there you go. Type cmd in start and right click it and click "run as administrator".
Then type sfc /scannow and press enter. Let it finish and see what it finds. If it doesn't work, The disk may be needed to repair or reinstall, to my best guess. Try disabling visual effects despite your graphics card being good.
type event viewer into the start menu and look up any errors: Event Viewer (Local) > custom views > administrative events, and see what it lists in pertaining to this issue. You may need to google them, or wait until someone replies to your posts
The scan succeeded, no files are damaged.
The panel did tell me something about the processor, (the part I'm suspicious of.) "The speed of processor 0 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware. The processor has been in this reduced performance state for 71 seconds since the last report."
So, it's the system firmware? How do I fix this?
Go here: Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options and select Balanced, Power Saver, or High Performance (Hidden). Which ever you select, click the blue words next to it that say "change plan settings." Then at the bottom click the blue words that say "Change advanced power settings." Scroll down to Processor power management and double-click it. you will see minimum processor state, system cooling policy, and maximum processor state. In the maximum processor state, make sure it is set to 100%. If it is already, perhaps settings in your BIOS prevent full processing power (provided that is really the cause).
Also in those power options find PCI Express > Link State Power Management and select off.
type system information in the search and up will pop your system summary. If this hasn't fixed anything (You will need a restart first), post a snapshot of that information so I can read what it says about your CPU
It was at 5%, gonna try and see if it happens again.
edit: whoops, that was the minimum. The maximum was 100%.
edit 2: Nope, didn't work. I did see an option in the BIOS called intel sidestep, or something like that.
Speedstep really shouldn't be the cause of your problems, but you can disable it. You may notice increased performance, but you may also get more heat, so provided your setup can handle it. What it does is it consumes less power and works less when you aren't using your system much, so if you start to use it, it should speed right back up. it allows the system to save power and produce less CPU heat at the cost of a more readily available speedy CPU. Up to you rally, might as well try and see if you notice anything (some reports note a huge difference in speed, but beware the heat. there is a BIOS setting that guards against overheating the CPU, you might leave that on just in case, to ensure you never fry your CPU, I forget what it is called though).
You might try also increasing the minimum processor state to see if it helps any, say to 50% or more
read your motherboard's manual on the internet or that came with your board to find BIOS options that slow down the CPU or reduce it in some way. Do you have any programs you know of that would do this? I can't think of any more system settings that deal with the CPU, someone else may though.
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