HP Laptop Problem

[Dodger666]

My wife recently inherited a HP530 Laptop from our grandson after he replaced it with a new one.

Most of the time the HP laptop works OK but occasionally, on start up, the normal 15.6" widescreen appears with a 2.5" black void on the right of the screen and a 1/2" black void at the bottom. The remaining display looks proportional with everything displayed, just smaller than usual.

The start button in the bottom left corner has a blue tail going downwards and if you drag the mouse down it creates a white stripe in the void. If you move the mouse to the right it goes as far as the edge of of the display but doesn't go into the void.

Has anyone any ideas what's causing this problem?

Any advice would be welcome.

[rccatnap]

How old is the laptop? Is the operating system Windows XP (Service Pack 3)? Does the fault occur when operating from the mains or just the battery?

[Dodger666]

Hi rccatnap, thanks for your reply.

The laptop is about 5-6 years old. It's OS is Vista Home Basic with SP2.

I have just booted it both with and without mains power and the black void was there both times. I did notice that while it was booting up the black void at the bottom wasn't there. It only appeared when the desktop came on. The black void on the right was there both times.

I also noticed that before any display appeared I could see the screen was very dimly illuminated all over, but once the display did appear it was jet black in the void.

I have to go out now so any more replies won't be seen until tomorrow.

[Dodger666]

Thanks for that methyl, I'll do that.

It could well be lack of memory as it takes a while to boot up. I will report back.

[rojash]

Sounds like a video driver problem. Download the latest drivers to suit your operating system from the HP site:

http://tinyurl.com/clqkg6g

[rojash]

There is something seriously wrong with this site.
When I viewed this thread it showed no answers at all!

[Dodger666]

Methyl. Checked the memory and it already has 2GB fitted. Task Manager figures as follows.

Physical Memory 2038
Cached 1350
Free 70
There is no mention of available memory.

Kernel Memory
Total 202
Paged 162
Nonpaged 39.

The major users of the memory are :-

dwm.exe 20360K
explorer.exe 152000k
rapport 150000k

Rojash. Thanks for your suggestion, I will try that next.

[factor-fiction]

Hi rccatnap- you may want to return to the F.A.O. Sir.Prize thread http://www.theanswerb.../Question1177459.html on which you posted on Sunday, as there was some discussion of your contribution

[Dodger666]

Thanks again for your suggestion rojash it's done the trick.

I was a bit apprehensive though when I was told that the driver I was installing was older than the one already installed. Nevertheless I carried on and during the installation the display went to full size. Afterwards I restarted the Laptop and all was OK.

Now all I have to do is find out what causing it to take forever to boot up. If the grandson could find the recovery discs I would use those to go back to square one.

Thanks again.

[Dodger666]

Meryl.

I have already posted the memory usage figures earlier.

When I have the time I will look for the processes I can stop.

[vivandorron]

Hi Dodger.....Completely going back to 'square one' is in my opinion a last resort measure.

Only last week I took a laptop back to it's original factory settings, because I wish to pass it on to relative; without it having installed any rubbish of mine. (mainly a few hundred e/mails.) However,Windows Vista then required more than two hundred 'up-dates' to be installed. A lengthty process involving some hours; plus further time over a few days to re-install programmes such as Open Office, Microsoft Security Essentials, Firefox, etc etc.

Ron.

[Dodger666]

Thanks Ron, I'll bear that in mind.

[Dodger666]

Hi Meryl

I have rapportservices.exe running on another laptop using 22,296k. I will delete it on the other laptop and re-install. Having said that I don't see the wife using it for anything that needs to be protected by Rapport. If she ever does I can install it again.

I will also try MalwareBytes. Thanks for the suggestion.

redfox1939

Was your post meant for me? If so I don't understand it.

[Dodger666]

I have removed Rapport, installed malwarebytes and run it. It found just one item to be removed.

The Laptop is now running much better and I'm in the good books again.

Thanks to all who offered advice.

[vivandorron]

As I understand matters, Malwarebytes will remove 'nasties' but is not a Virus protection programme.

The real Techies in AB suggest having MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials ) as a VPP, along with Malwarebytes. Hope you have installed the free edition of Malwarebytes . MSE costs nothing and can be downloaded from:-

http://windows.micros...s/security-essentials

Ron

[ChuckFickens]

I'll totally contradict Ron statement of "Completely going back to 'square one' is in my opinion a last resort measure." now...

If it's a laptop you've inherited from somebody else taking it back to factory settings is the very first thing to do.