Pixelated Toolbars After Windows 7 Upgrade?

[trainspotting]

I upgraded my daughters Dell laptop from Vista to 7 Home Premium. All went just fine. The system is stable and none the worse for wear from the upgrade process. However I am now getting pixelation and horizontal banding on the borders of programs and jagged lines around desktop icons and gadjets. I've been to the Dell website and have downloaded and installed the most recent drivers. This is rather annoying and not something that can be ignored. I'd hate to think the only way to fix this would be to go back to Vista. Am I chasing down a bad driver here or is it something else? Thanks.:\

 

[imaheadcase]

Could be a video card driver, or laptop can't support aero UI. Did you try reverting desktop to classic UI?

I assume you ran windows update to see if you are missing something that could be related.

 

[tcsenter]

I've been to the Dell website and have downloaded and installed the most recent drivers.

Not wise. Best to get the most recent drivers from the chip makers. e.g. NVIDIA, Intel, AMD, etc.

OEMs are notorious for not providing driver updates much beyond the ship or launch versions. e.g. system ships in 2008, OEM provides one updated version six months later and that's it. Since then, the chip maker has released a dozen or more newer driver versions.

 

[VirtualLarry]

GMA950? (945G chipset?)

 

[trainspotting]

I assume that the PC has an integrated graphics chip. How best to identify the make/model of the chip? I know how to identify a discrete graphics card in a desktop but I'm having trouble finding the specifics through contral panel...any help would be appreciated.

 

[betasub]

Putting Dell model number in OP would be helpful.

Your "display adaptor" (as Microsoft calls it) can be identified in one of many ways.
For example, some ways are: through Device Manager, or through Display Settings(where you adjust screen resolution; you are running native LCD res, right?), or through a utility (e.g. dxdiag, or GPU-z)

 

[trainspotting]

it is a GM45 Chip (thanks VirtualLarry !) . After chasing the driver down on the Intel site it appears that the newest driver is from 2009?? I have tried running the classic desktop and am running at native resolution. I don't know what to do next....

 

[tcsenter]

it is a GM45 Chip (thanks VirtualLarry !) . After chasing the driver down on the Intel site it appears that the newest driver is from 2009??

No, the latest is 2011:

Intel 4 Series Driver for Windows 7 32-bit

Intel 4 Series Driver for Windows 7 64-bit

If it persists, it could be a bad graphics adapter/chipset. If you could upload a screen shot or a photo of the display, it would help.

 

[trainspotting]

THANKS TCSENTER!!! The driver link you sent me corrected the problem! You're awesome. Thanks again!