Really weird square colors...

Sometimes, when browsing the forums, the screen suddenly filled with fairly big green and some other colored square. It only lasts for a few seconds, and I din’t take a screenshot. If anyone else has had this happen, please tell me I’m not crazy.

I will update with a screenshot if it happens again, it only happened twice in the past 2 days, so it’s pretty rare.

Sounds like a graphics card issue at first sight, but then it would happen elsewhere as well.

Originally posted by Tetsuo_Shima:

Sounds like a graphics card issue at first sight, but then it would happen elsewhere as well.

I have to agree. See if it happens anywhere else. If it does, it is either your graphics card or dying pixels in your monitor. There is no explanation as to why you would be seeing a multicolored square in the forums. Next time it happens, submit a screenshot like you suggested, OP.

Finally got a screeny of it, really odd whatever it is.

I would probably agree with what Sporadic said, it might be your graphics card. That, or maybe by some slimist of the slim chances your browser might be dying?

I noticed that the resolution of the screenshot isn’t the same as the resolution of your screen. Does that mean these colors only appear within a restricted section of your screen, or is it across your entire screen? Is this screenshot taken at 100% zoomlevel or more (or less)? Do these colors restrict themselves to within the browser screen or do they cover the entire screen? If only within the browser, do you have a browser which supports hardware acceleration and do you have that enabled? Does it still do this with the option disabled if it was enabled? When you rightclick the screen when the above happens what kind of menu do you see? Etc, etc,… (more info plz ^^ )
(edit: judging from just the screenshot, at first sight those colors do not look like the typical display of hardware graphics card errors to me btw, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t, they just aren’t typical)

I only took the screenshot of a certain region, that being the browser window. It did not cover the tabs or the bar at the bottom, only the center section of the screen. It was at 100% zoom level. When I right click the screen I get the normal menu depending on what is behind the squares. I am also not sure about the hardware acceleration.

Considering what you just said, I think you can be fairly certain it’s not a graphics card issue. My first suspect would be your browser or some add-on (legit or not). It’s gonna be pretty hard to diagnose this remotely unless someone has had this happen before. I’d try to get someone who knows what he’s doing to look at it in person, because solving this remotely will take either having dealt with this exact issue before, a lucky guess or a month’s worth of posts. But hey, at least you know you don’t have to look for a new graphics card eh (thought that might actually have been easier ^^ ).

Update: I almost think it is graphics card related now that I witnessed something else.

The screen kept flashing green and white (the whole screen) and when I hovered my mouse over say the start menu, I could click it and then see the menu, but everything else was still flashing. Only a power off fixed it and it hasn’t done that again since then.

what is your browser?

Do you have a laptop or a desktop? In case of a desktop, a new graphics card (if that is indeed the problem) can cost as little as a few dozen bucks or as high as a few thousand, depending on your needs, I suspect $50-$100 will be plenty. In case of a laptop I should mention that most of those have graphics cards fixed to their mainboard, which means they cannot be replaced and your only hope is the warranty. Some laptops do have replaceable graphics cards, but those are rare and usually pretty pricey (both the cards and the laptops).

In any case, since you now say you also have issues outside the browser, you can strike that as the main cause. You could try to install new drivers for your graphics card and resetting their settings to default. Re-install direct-x. Check the connection to your screen, etc etc…

Software issue. If it were a hardware monitor issue, you wouldn’t be able to take a screenshot of the problem. Graphics card artifacts look nothing like that. That looks like a silly JPG/PNG image with a gradient.

Could be the browser or graphics driver. Maybe a virus.

I am having the same problem. I am using Chrome & it only happens in-browser. Seems to be some sort of plug-in crashing, but this just started happening with the last update (I think, could have been the one before it though) and the only thing I installed recently is ColorZilla. I don’t know if that helps anyone. Seems to go away for a while if I restart my browser.

Yeah, it does only happen in browser, it only wasn’t on browser once.
The only plug-in’s that I have are Kongregate related as well.

Seems like a virus, but I can’t be sure as I run scans on my laptop all the time as well as CCleaner.

If ColorZilla is a Chrome extension that can draw color gradients and you are both using Chrome… could be related. If you go into Incognito mode (which disables all extensions), does it still happen?

I am getting the same problem and it’s only happening on Google Chrome. ._.

I’m also experiencing this problem. While it doesn’t happen often, when it does I have to close my browser and reopen it. The problem usually occurs when I’m trying to load large web pages, like Postsecret.com or the Sims Social on Facebook (those are the two most plagued by it, so don’t judge my examples… :P ) As others have expressed, I use Chrome and have very very few add-ons, which makes it odd and frustrating as to why it happens.

o wow I use Chrome but haven’t seen anything like that on my screen thank god.