Odd Display Issue on Lenovo T61

[teflontektro]

So I'm having this weird issue on my four year old Lenovo T61 laptop - every 10 or 20 minutes the window that I am using suddenly disappears and another window is displayed on top of it, as if I hit Alt-Tab and switched windows. I didn't though, and I'm technically still in the first window - it happens when I'm typing a word document or email and I can tell because it still keeps typing and producing text, which sort of ... emerges overlaid on the second window, which I wasn't in. Its weird to explain and I didn't have much luck googling the issue so I'm hoping someone can shed some light. It happens randomly and if I move the cursor around, more of the initial window 'appears'. To fix it I just hit alt-tab to bring up another window, then again to go back to what I was initially doing. Its quite annoying though.

I've attached an image at the bottom to help explain. I was modifying a powerpoint presentation when suddenly it switched to firefox, which was also open in the background. You can see how the windows are sort of blending together, each one of the slides on the left popped up when I hovered the mouse over them.

I thought this was a driver issue, so I updated the video drivers from Lenovo's site with no luck. Then I updated the BIOS, still had the same issue. I've also had issues with my wireless Logitech mouse and keyboard MK710 that started around the same time, some mouse lag and keyboard lag and sticking - I wouldn't think they would be related, but who knows. I'm running Windows XP pro on the laptop. This is happening right now through a lcd monitor (I have it set up so I plug in the power and video cord and its like a desktop user experience) but it will happen when I'm using it purely as a laptop away from home too. I'm hoping to figure out an easy or moderate solution as I don't really want to reformat and reinstall now or in the next month, but I'm just out of ideas right now. Any help would be appreciated and let me know if there's other info that could be useful! Thanks!

EDIT: Image isn't very clear, so it can be seen full size here:http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5035/6920329460_5878f9cce7_b.jpg

 

[Bubbaleone]

I'd highly suggest immediately running a thorough virus/malware scan. My first choice for a very fast and effective Desktop scanner is ComboFix. It'll detect and kill malicious processes that most AVs miss.

 

[denis280]

I'd highly suggest immediately running a thorough virus/malware scan. My first choice for a very fast and effective Desktop scanner is ComboFix. It'll detect and kill malicious processes that most AVs miss.

I do agree with Bubbaleone.

 

[teflontektro]

Thanks - I had run AVG and Spybot previously but nothing too suspicious popped up. I'm downloading ComboFix now though and I'll let you know what results I get.

 

[teflontektro]

I ran the program and it completed. I didn't see any obvious flagging of programs, but maybe its not really designed to do that. Should I post the long log file that it generated?

My computer doesn't seem to have done the window switching since but its only been a few minutes. I'll try and reboot and work for a while and see if it comes up again.

 

[teflontektro]

Unfortunately, the screen switching problem is still happening. Also, the keyboard/mouse lag is acting up now too. Any other suggestions on things to try or what it might be?

 

[Bubbaleone]

From your screenshot it looks like you're running XP and MS Office 2007. If that's the case, open a command prompt and run CHKDSK with these switches:

chkdsk C: /v /x /f /r

If nothing's fixed after running CHKDSK, follow the instructions in this tutorial:

Detect and Repair Applications In Microsoft Office 2007

If nothing's fixed after running MS Office Diagnostics, and you have a full version XP installation CD w/valid key, consider running an XP repair installation. Rerun MS Office Diagnostics after reboot.

 

[teflontektro]

So I ran chkdsk, no issues came up. Same with the MS Office diagnostic. The issue seems to happen regardless of what programs I have open, as long as there's at least one window open (though it does it more when there is 2+ open) then it acts up. The mouse/keyboard has been fine the last week but the window switching is still occurring every couple of minutes now.

I do have a valid XP disc and key somewhere so unless anyone else has any suggestions or hypotheses I guess that's the next step. Thanks for the advice though bubbaleone.

 

[jjsbasmt]

By any chance are you using a mouse and have the touch/track pad turned on at the same time? I have had similar things happen when I use a wireless mouse and leave the touchpad on while typing, then unnoticed I would barely touch the pad and undesired results would happen. Turning off the pad prevented similar happenings. Just a thought.

 

[teflontektro]

Update on the status (sorry for reviving such an old thread!) - I ended up formatting the computer and reinstalling XP, had no problems this summer until about two weeks ago and the same problem started again. Its still driving me nuts! Any help would be appreciated. I'm going to also reach out to Lenovo and see if their tech support can offer any help too. Example of the issue again (I had Gmail open, screensaver started, and I come back 15 mins later to this... its like the two windows are bleeding into each other..)

JJsbasmt, I am using an external mouse/keyboard attached to the computer, though the laptop is closed and the trackpad is not accessible. Do you think that just having it on is somehow affecting it? I guess I could turn it off though then I'd have to toggle it on/off every time I took the laptop out of my house (which is every day).