Flickering Screen Content (not screen itself)

[DAW]

I've had my Compaq since early February. Today when in iTunes it began playing something (I had not asked it to). I clicked on pause, that track stopped but the next began playing. this repeated.

I tried to close iTunes down. No joy. I tried to invoke task manager and the content of the screen began to flicker/flash (not sureof the correct terminology). Nothing was stable. I could get the start menu up but could not move my mouse cursor to shut down. So pressed the off key and re-booted. Event log did not show anything untoward.

All was well till about 3/4 an hour ago when the screen began this again. Managed to shut down but on re-boot nothing is stable.

I've managed to get my virus software running and am checking, but had done that this morning anyway. (I'm using a netbook to write this).

I wanted to run chkdsk, but as soon as I typed 'C' on the start menu it ran something beginning with c which became not responding. On the task bar, I try right mouse and the menu appears briefly but I cannot get the cursor on to the menu item.

I can't do much at the moment as it is virus checking and it is late here in the UK so once that finishes I will turn the PC off. I have no idea what this is about. No new programs added (a safari update whilst in iTunes yesterday), I'd luckily just run a back up to my external hard drive so no data lost if anything goes wrong with the PC hard drive.

I'd be grateful for advice on this. I won't be able to do anything until after work tomorrow but any ideas please post. If any further info is needed please ask, and my thanks are offered to anyone able to help.

 

[DAW]

Virus check ended and nothing found.

I've tried to open system restore to go back in time but the 'permission to proceed' box flashes away erraticallY (so fast as to be unreadable), and I can't access that.

It is as if something is sticking, preventing things staying on screen.



edit

Re-booted and now cannot even input my password to get into the machine. Turned off and given up. Be grateful for any advice that can get me running again.

I know I can get it repaired under warranty, but this is a replacement for a machine I bought last year, used for two weeks and it died, and then the vendor lost it after six weeks of waiting for it to be repaired so I have very little faith in them. I cannot be six weeks without a computer and then find I have to yet again install everything on a new PC and have to buy certain software yet again (it cost me just under £100 last time to replace software that was single licence tied to the PC)

 

[A Guy]

Boot the PC, but before windows loads, boot into safe mode (usually press F8 key repeatedly while boot screen is on). Choose advanced option Safe mode with command prompt. Type in:

%SystemRoot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

System restore should open and you can do your system restore. See if that fixes it.

A Guy

 

[DAW]

Thank you. Tonight I was able to log on - I had an idea overnight that perhaps my keyboard was the cause of this as it seemed as if the return key might be stuck and constantly sending a signal to the PC. Booted, connected an old keyboard, when I opened my favourites list it began to 'jump up and down' on the screen. So I closed everything down, went to control panel and have moved back to a restore point from Friday so fingers crossed. Knowing my luck though . . . .

 

[A Guy]

Good thinking on stuck keys. That can apply to bad mouse (mice? meeses? ) too. I hope you have it sorted now. A Guy

 

[DAW]

It wasn't as easy as a stuck key.

I think (fingers crossed) the problem has stopped. I rolled back to a restore point before last Friday. Reinstalled all my virus updates and the Windows updates. The scan list of programs that would roll back included Safari, Java, Apple Updater and Adobe Flash. So far only Java has asked to be reinstalled and I decided not to for the time being. I want to use the machine till the weekend to see if it behaves. If it does then Java goes back on. I'll reintroduce each of those after a couple of days of no problem. The last to be added was Adobe Flash which may have been the culprit - we shall see.

I will report back if this is successful, or be back for advice if not. thanks.