teddy picker
New Member
I have an older Dell Laptop, not sure exact specs, but I think it's a latitude ab 5 yrs old. Recently, the screen has become scrambled making it hard to view. I noticed that when it is plugged in, the problem gets so bad you can't see anything. However, when it's not plugged in, the start menu and taskbar at the bottom are perfectly visible but all the icons and lines (looks like stripes) run vertically on the screen. In addition, the mouse cursor, and all icons are scrambled. Once I open any program, the computer looks like it's perfect (except for the jumbled cursor still). I have been googling around trying to figure this out, and it seems like it could be a lot of different things, but the power supply seems to be the main suspect. Is this a fair assumption? The fact that it gets worse when it's plugged in makes it seem like a no brainer, but I've also seen some articles/posts that lead me to believe it's a mother board thing. Any suggestions? Could it be cause by overheating? Also, right where the power cord meets the male end (into the comp, not the wall) the rubber is worn away and the metal wires are exposed. I have a picture of this that I can upload later when I get home from work if it would be helpful. Thanks in advance.
