Inspiron 8000 flickers on certain websites

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Hi all,

Just got a used Dell Inspiron 8000. Works great, has a wireless card,
and 256 MB mem. On certain sites, like symantec.com, ableshoppers.com,
and some other sites, the entire screen flickers. If I close that
browser or navigate away, it will stop. I changed refresh rates from
60 to 70, lowered resolution, and even reinstalled the video driver.
Used to work with desktops a lot, so this one is kind of stumping me.
Anyone hear of this?

Eric
 
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eadmati@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> Just got a used Dell Inspiron 8000. Works great, has a wireless card,
> and 256 MB mem. On certain sites, like symantec.com, ableshoppers.com,
> and some other sites, the entire screen flickers. If I close that
> browser or navigate away, it will stop. I changed refresh rates from
> 60 to 70, lowered resolution, and even reinstalled the video driver.
> Used to work with desktops a lot, so this one is kind of stumping me.
> Anyone hear of this?

What browser? Try a different one...

Notan
 
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eadmati@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> Tried IE 6 - also in Firefox - same thing

Control Panel | Display | Settings

Try changing the Color Quality.

Notan
 
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eadmati@yahoo.com wrote:
> changed from 32 but to 16 bit. Same thing.
>
you say it happens only on certain websites? does it happen when you
first turn on the laptop, or only when it starts getting hot? i had
this problem on my laptop only w/websites that had a white background
and only after my laptop was running for at least 30 min. i figured it
was just overheating issues w/my video card.
 
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On Sat, 30 Apr 2005 11:45:14 -0400, Michael Lee
<gte980p@prism.gatech.edu> wrote:

>eadmati@yahoo.com wrote:
>> changed from 32 but to 16 bit. Same thing.
>>
>you say it happens only on certain websites? does it happen when you
>first turn on the laptop, or only when it starts getting hot? i had
>this problem on my laptop only w/websites that had a white background
>and only after my laptop was running for at least 30 min. i figured it
>was just overheating issues w/my video card.

You don't mention it, but does your system have an ATI video board?
Dell has never admitted it that I know of, but they had a "bug" in
their video driver releases which caused some (but not all) web sites
to have a severe flashing of the entire screen. IIRC, the problem is
related to a Java script on the web site, and if you scroll that
portion of the page off the screen, the flashing will also stop.

I never fond a solution to this problem, but once I learned what it
was, I was able to get most pages to display in a manner that they
were at least somewhat usable. After I learned the problem for my
system, I replaced it with one which didn't have an ATI video board.
 
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Immediately or after some time. Doesn't seem to make a difference.
 
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I do not know if it has an ATI video board or not. I do get the severe
flashing of the entire screen as you mentioned. If I can scroll off an
image, on a page that has enough content to allow that, I can usually
get the flashing to stop. I just went to movielink.com, and there was
the flashing, and no room to "scroll it away". I just closed that
window and the flashing immediately stopped. Do you think I have a bad
motherboard?
 
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On 2 May 2005 22:53:21 -0700, eadmati@yahoo.com wrote:

>... I just closed that window and the flashing immediately stopped.
>Do you think I have a bad motherboard?

No, just a bad video driver. You might be able to resolve it by
getting a newer driver (from someplace other than Dell). If you are
willing to spend a little money, and do a little work, you could buy
a replacement video board and change from ATI to NVidea.
 
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Do you have any suggestions on getting the right driver? I tried 2
drivers from Dell's site. Both produced the same result. I imagine I
have the specs on what kind of video hardware I have, and maybe go to
the manufacturer's site or something like that.
 
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On 7 May 2005 08:47:22 -0700, eadmati@yahoo.com wrote:

>Do you have any suggestions on getting the right driver?

Dell is notorious for providing 2+ year old drivers, and not updating
them to current releases.

You will probably have much better luck with internet resources like
the ones at http://www.omegadrivers.net/ . They provide updated video
drivers for notebook users with ATI and NVidea boards and vendors
which won't "certify" newer drivers. I have not used them because I
replaced that system with a newer one about 2.5 years ago.
 
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I am having the exact problem with my Inspiron 8000. Please let me
know if you find a solution. my email is wenatcheesmiles@msn.com
 
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