Multi color dashes on external monitor

I hooked the laptop to an external monitor. I got it to work by disconnecting the screen from the laptop. when I turn on the laptop the external monitor has hundreds of multicolor dashes on it. the colors change as it goes through the different screens of the booting process. once it is booted if i touch the mouse pad on the laptop and move the cursor the colors change. could it be a virus or is it my graghics card. i was watching something I downloaded from the internet on the laptop when this trouble started. I do not get any of these multicolored dashes on the laptop screen. just a blue light

Hi

why did you disconnect the screen from the laptop.

does the laptop screen work normally.


when you turn the laptop on do you see the normal screen (splash screen or makers logo etc)

if so have you tried booting in VGA mode (press F8 just after you see the white writing on the screen,

if not then its a good chance its the video card, unlikely that it failed though.