What is wrong with my laptop? [Bad Image]

[BillyBru]

I have Toshiba Satillite L505. I've had it since about 2008. This started happening about a month or so ago.

When I start up my computer a bunch of prompts come up like this.

Then it will screen will start to tweak like this.

And like this.


Then the screen will go black and come back to normal. Then it will freeze and this screen will come up, then the computer will restart.

What is happening here? What are my options?

Click to read more...

 

[Flyn]

Sounds like a corrupted file. Does your dinosaur laptop have a Windows repair feature? It might be on the Windows disk that, hopefully, came with the computer.

Being a 2008 model, it may be time to upgrade to something newer.

I would back up your data to another hard drive before messing with it.

 

[BillyBru]

No disc. Just checked the box it came in. I checked the receipt, it's from 2010, not 2008, my mistake.

 

[Flyn]

I googled this. No idea if it will help.

How to fix a Missing/Corrupt SYSTEM file in Windows XP without the Recovery CD | Tom Jepson

 

[VenomousDSG]

Time to do a fresh install if Windows, lol

Could be some hardware is going bad. After 5 years, it's pretty normal hardware starting to fail. Video card, Hard drive, etc. Just due to use and the heat of operating over time.

 

[02BlueGT]

That error is for the Google toolbar add in...

Start computer in safe mode (usually need to hold f8 durring boot)

search and open msconfig from the start menu search bar.

Then click on the startup programs tab in the msconfig window that pops up.

Uncheck the box next to everything that is not your anti-virus software.

Click apply at bottom of msconfig window.

Restart computer.

Do you get the same error?

 

[BillyBru]

I will do that. The Google bar is just one of them. Every program that starts up as the computer starts pops up. It has to be 25+ programs.

 

[BillyBru]

Thanks guys.

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

Id just go into safe mode, grab whatever files you need (assuming you don't do regular backups) and then just do a full refresh.

 

[VenomousDSG]

I'm going with video card malfunction, which means it's taking a shit. A corrupt program that isn't required for windows to operate won't cause system errors or screen flickering like that. I had a problem like that on my old Toshiba many years ago, and the screen finally just went black. I just ended up selling the thing for parts.

 

[Intel]

Would definately back things up before proceeding further.

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

uninstall chrome. uninstall anything that says google toolbar or google desktop. Reboot. reinstall chrome only. see what happens

just because there is a blue screen does not mean you need to reinstall windows. You can also remove whats causing the conflict.

i would also blow out the fans and verify everything is working (can you hear and feel them blowing) Over heating of the cpu could cause the video distortion

 

[BillyBru]

So the 'bad image' problem was malware, ran a full scan, got rid of the bad stuff, and that no longer happens when opening a program. I also did a bit more research and found a Microsoft fix it program for the screen being messed up. The screen hasn't malfunctioned yet but we'll see.

 

[wombat]

Came in to post that "SearchProtect" is malware. Looks like you've gotten it though. run a rootkit/tdss killer just to be sure. Also run a full malwarebytes scan.

 

[wombat]

Also, atikmdag.sys is an ATI driver file - you may want to look into getting that updated and or reinstalling your graphics driver.

 

[BillyBru]

I re-installed my graphics driver. I noticed it only fucked up when I was scrolling through facebook. We'll see if it helped.