Dragging windows/files can cause visual issues

Image of issue:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

When i am dragging windows or files around my desktop it will often leave an artifact like the one shown on the screen. It is caused by the icon windows shows next to your mouse while dragging. The only way to remove the artifact is by rebooting the computer, i can change its location by dragging things around the screen and hoping it gets stuck in a more convenient location of the screen, as i have done in the screenshot.
I have tried closing explorer.exe and dwm.exe in the hope that they may refresh it but with no result.

Thanks for any help,
aljowen

Dragging intact takes a huge amount of resources which may be a problem on lower resource machines. For these PC's I always edit the Visual Effects of fading, dragging intact, selection rectangle, and sliding. See Optimize Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums. Most of these effects are not even noticeable, except when they overtax resources and produce artifacts like you are seeing.

Update your display driver.

Establish a Clean Boot and work through the other Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7.

Are you getting Aero transparent windows? This is an important benchmark if your display is up to snuff for Win7. If not type Aero in Start Search box to run the Troubleshooter to find out why.

Thanks for the response.
Well the thing is I wouldn't class my computer as a lower end machine even if it is getting a little old. It's a 3d rendering and gaming rig that is running an i5 2500k and a gtx560ti.The drivers are pretty new, only a month or two old, this issue has been happening over all the drivers I have had installed, I am using the official drivers too.
I do use aero translucent. windows tells me it should be fine (which it should be with a system like mine) since it gets full marks in the Windows experience score, the cpu gets pretty close too, of course the hard drive causes a lower final score.
I'm not sure what my displays could possibly have to do with it but I have a 1080p main screen and a 1050p one to the right for controlling music, having YouTube open while I work/game etc.

Why would i even want to stress test my GPU because of windows issues, its more than powerful enough to run windows. Its not crashing, its not overheating (according to evga precision x when i monitor it during games occasionally). It certainly isn't overheating while running windows. My CPU is also more than powerful enough.
This does not seem to be a hardware problem. The issue is software (systems software i assume). Whether its an issue with windows or nvidia drivers i have no idea, that is why i am asking here.

I have had a look at performance options and i couldn't find anything about removing the icon for dragging folders without removing other visual features that i would rather keep. The miniature window shown in the image is a firefox thing. But it caused the same issue as windows, i guess this could make it more likely a driver issue but i am still not ruling windows out.

I would be perfectly happy if anyone could suggest a workaround, just a way to remove the icon from the screen without rebooting. Since it only happens once every 2 months or so its not to big a deal.

It's always best to first eliminate hardware as the problem, which you've not done until the tests in the steps are done with the addition of the GPU stress test.

Then the steps will eliminate most possibilities with Win7.

However if you're convinced the problem is with Win7 then work through those steps first. I'd also compare the install you have with the perfect install in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums which is based on what's worked best in tens of thousands of installs we've helped with here.

essenbe said:

aljowen, I can assure you it is not a windows issue. If it were, everyone would be having the same problems. When you reboot the computer, it reloads the drivers, which is most likely your problem. It is either a driver or a hardware problem. There is no other reason for you to be seeing artifacts. I would suggest you run through the troubleshooting steps that gregrocker linked to as well as the Furmark test.

Thanks,
I should probably mention my GPU got replaced by a different revision with lower specs by Gigabyte shortly after i bought it because they got too many complaints about driver instability. They blamed nvidia, nvidia blamed them. You've probably figured that neither party admitted fault and nothing happened.
Drivers did get fixed about a year after purchasing the card, no more daily bsod's after that point. This is the only issue it has had since. Because it is a rare occurrence it hasn't caused me enough bother to fix it yet. Since once you get it rebooted you forget about fixing it and carry on as normal

I will have a go at some furmark testing when i get the chance though since i understand that it pushes the card harder than anything normally would. Will report back once i have done that.

How much RAM exactly? Has it been stress tested 8 passes or overnight with RAM - Test with Memtest86+?

Have you tried swapping out Avast for MSE, per the tutorial?

gregrocker said:

How much RAM exactly? Has it been stress tested 8 passes or overnight with RAM - Test with Memtest86+?

Have you tried swapping out Avast for MSE, per the tutorial?

I have 8gb (2x4gb) 1600mhz. It has not been stress tested, i wouldn't have the time to do a full stress test of the ram to that degree since i sleep next to my pc. But if i get time i will give that a go.

I have uninstalled Avast before to repair it after an update broke it, i couldn't say if it helped or not because of the infrequency of the issue. I also have malwarebytes installed. I primarily use malwarebytes because it does a better job of spotting issues than avast does. But since malwarebytes isn't actually antivirus software i have avast there too just in case.