Glitch on display screen

[Doug8765]

Hi -
I did not know where to post this question, since it's a question about a display and not about graphics cards. I picked this discussion since it is a hardware question and graphics cards display their output on a display. The added wrinkle is that my computer is an all-in-one (a Gateway) and so if I cannot stop this problem from getting worse, then I would have to get a new computer. Don't have the money for that.

So here goes:
Until a week ago this had not ever happened on my computer, but a small black rectangle appeared. Somehow, after steps that I don't know how to recreate, the small black rectangle went away and all was normal. Today it happened again and I have uploaded the image to this post. The offending rectangle is circled in red.

I've had this computer for about 5 years. It's a Gateway All-in-one. What is the problem? What can I do about it?

Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Doug8765

 

[holdum323]

Hi! I really don't think it's any thing to worry about. Especially sense it went away. Will it go away if you restart your PC?
Have you added any programs? What are you running?

 

[DavidBailey]

I have a Gateway.
I used to get a ghost-gray battery shaped image in the center of my screen.
It went away & never came back.
Why ? I don't know.
I do keep my display drivers updated.

 

[holdum323]

If I knew why Windows does the strange things it does, I would be a billionaire. I guess we have to live with these things. We don't have a lot of choices. I really doubt if windows ever gets all the glitches out. We can always hope.

 

[Doug8765]

Hi! I really don't think it's any thing to worry about. Especially sense it went away. Will it go away if you restart your PC?
Have you added any programs? What are you running?

 

[Doug8765]

Hi Holdum323 -
Indeed, you are correct - this morning it is gone. Didn't reboot or do anything special.

I worry about it because, as an all-in-one, if there's something wrong seriously with the display then the only recourse is a new computer.

I run Windows 10. The only new program is a DVD player, which I've run once.

Doug

 

[Doug8765]

I have a Gateway.
I used to get a ghost-gray battery shaped image in the center of my screen.
It went away & never came back.
Why ? I don't know.
I do keep my display drivers updated.

Hi DavidBailey -
The display glitch went away without me doing anything to make it happen.

How do you keep your display drivers updated? How do you know there's a new one to update?

Doug765

 

[DavidBailey]

How do you keep your display drivers updated? How do you know there's a new one to update?

I also use the paid version of DriverMax.

 

[holdum323]

Hi @Doug8765 The best place to get your drivers is from the manufacture. Here's link to Gateway.
http://www.gateway.com/gw/en/US/content/drivers-downloads

 

[MaikuTech]

Holdum sounds like a good idea but most manufacturers don't keep recent drivers steadily updated.
http://support.amd.com/en-us/download# AMD/ATI will pick up on it or you can do it manually.
Select which driver version is stable "no beta junk" and best for whatever ati card you have.

 

[holdum323]

Hi @MaikuTech Great site for AMD drivers!(y)

 

[DavidBailey]

@MaikuTech
Nice driver site.

 

[DavidBailey]

It took a while to finish but it did.

Had to restart.

Ran CCleaner then & got error messages about .net framework items were missing.
Downloaded .net framework 4.7.1 from Microsoft & installed it.

The error messages went away.

 

[DavidBailey]

Going to make a Macrium system image now.
I made too many changes to have to redo them if a problem crops up & I have to restore.
Backup. Backup. Backup !!!
You'll thank yourself later.