Hi there,

I'm posting this as a 2nd party for someone who is having some display problems with a brand new Acer laptop, so hopefully I have all the information I need to in order to figure out why this is happening.

My friend is getting some break-up of what should be smooth gradiations or solid colors only when certain programs are open. Using the standard Windows XP theme, when she opens IE6, Outlook Express, or Windows Explorer, what should be a solid gray toolbar at the top is appearing a bit blotchy, with areas that are almost purplish.

I asked her to reset the screen background to solid gray, and that appears an even gray, which suggests to me that it's not a screen/pixel problem. Then I had her reset the theme to Windows Classic to see what happens. When she does that, the blue bar at the top becomes pixelated. The blue fades from dark to light in visible, sharp-edged bands.

Here are as many pieces of information as I've gathered so far:

Brand: Acer laptop
OS: Windows XP
Screen: 15.4'' WXGA wide CrystalBrite TFT LCD (1280 x 800)
Display is set to 32 bit color (highest available)
Graphics controller gives us: Video ATI Radeon Xpress1100 Series (0x5975)/DAC-Typ: Internal DAC 400 MHz
Storage: 128 MB

Any thoughts? Suggestions as to what is causing this?

Thanks in advance.