I am having some trouble with my laptop (Dell Inspiron 8100/WinXP Home), namely a really irritating flicker on the screen.

The best way to describe it is that it looks like bands of buzzing pixels covering the entire screen. So if my menu bar is dark purple, I see flashes of pink. After a few days of bothering me on and off, now it is constant. I have tried the following:

- rebooting, both hot and cold
- changing resolution on Control Panel
- disconnecting AC power supply
- disconnecting peripherals

And nothing seems to be working. Could this be a problem with the refresh rate? Or some device drivers? I'm running out of ideas!

Thanks
Paul

That sounds like a hardware problem - to be more specific, the connection between the screen and the base. I'm afraid that your laptop needs service.

Yes, it does sound like a hardware probem but more specifically, it sounds like a bad video card or possibly a loose connection to the LCD screen. Either way, you'll have to take it in for service. I would NOT recommend opening up a laptop if you've never done it before.