Desktop Samsung LCD Monitor Doing Weird Things! Black blocks appear.

[Kathy On OBX]

Hi! TIA for any help you can give me!

I have a 9 year old Samsung LCD 23 inch monitor. Intel HD Graphics 630 display adapter.

I also have a 4 year old Lenovo IdeaCentre 510A CPU (desktop computer) with a 3.9 gHz Intel Core i3-7100. SATA HD. Twelve gigs of RAM and 1 Terabyte drive. Also a Passport 1T external drive that has nothing to do with current issues.Win 10 Hom (x64) v.22H2 updated 3 days ago. I run Belarc to check. I have a (USB) wired 82 key generic keyboard and optical mouse. Please let me know what other info you'd like.

PROBLEM: Starting about a week ago out of the blue (nothing had just updated) my monitor began showing large black blocks in random places on the screen that change WITH EVERY KEYSTROKE. So right now, as I type, when I hit each letter on the keyboard, black boxes of various shapes appear, and go away when I type the next letter. But new ones appear. I've managed to get it to just show black boxes instead of random colored boxes so far. I can also click anywhere on my screen with the mouse and make the boxes appear or disappear. This is driving me nuts, of course!

I have changed physical keyboards. I solved the problem of the row of numbers not typing

I do not have another monitor so I can't try a different one. I changed and updated the display drivers, the monitor driver, the keyboard and mouse driver and I've looked at every Win 10 setting for all of those things and experimented with different settings. I reverted my display to the original recommended settings and refresh rate. I started it up in Safe Mode. Nothing odd there. I disabled each addon individually (I only have 3) and tried typing. I disabled my Antivirus/Firewall software and tried typing. I did more than this, too. None of it made any difference.

This only happens when I'm typing. I have no new computer peripherals except the (gaming) keyboard I switched out for the old one, which I tossed out. I have kept meticulous notes of each thing I've done and I always reboot after each thing I try or install. I've had computers since about 1984 and DOS 3 but my human memory isn't what it used to be. I'd sure like to buy more and install it! 😉

***NOTE: I do NOT want to change to Win Edge, Chrome or any other OS. I have Firefox. Suggesting I change is a waste of your time and mine.***

Ideas? Appreciate any help anyone can give. Hit me with your questions! Thanks!

Kathy on the OBX in North Carolina

[Help23]

How do you change the way the calendar looks? After the last update it doesn't look the same, have to scroll through each day to see events.

[Kathy On OBX]

Astronaut, you asked your question by clicking on REPLY to MY question. You need to post your question as a new question please. Hope that helps!

[Sprocket99]

This happens outside of Windows? You didn't make that clear enough.

If its not outside of Windows then the solution is easy as its related to something while the OS is running. If its not fine outside of Windows then its a deeper issue with the display or the GPU.

If its only in Windows, its easier to clean install the OS and if it happens there with nothing else then its an issue with drivers, firmware, or Windows itself. Things can be decided from there such as trying a different OS version, etc. If its fine then check for OS updates and keep checking until all are updated and as it updates see if its still fine or not. If its all fine at the end then restore backups and intall stuff and keep an eye until all done.

Rather simple. Once you get used to that or allow your mind and body to accept doing it, you can solve more difficult problems quickly such as same day.

[Kathy On OBX]

Hi.  Um, I don't know how to use my desktop computer outside of Windows. What are examples of one doing that, please? Are you talking about things like booting in Safe Mode? 

Clean installing the OS sounds mighty painful! By OS are you talking about Windows or my Firefox?  Please excuse my confusion. It's often difficult to understand the way someone else is using phrases.

I already uninstalled my Firefox and d/l a new copy to install. That didn't fix the problem. I also tediously went through the drivers for each peripheral and installed updated versions when there was one. Still problem not fixed.

If you are, indeed, talking about either wiping my hard drive and reinstalling a fresh copy of Windows, I'll just say I was hoping to figure out what is causing this specific problem before just wiping everything and starting over. Otherwise, if it happens again I won't have a solution.  This did just begin out of the blue.

Thanks!

[Kathy On OBX · Accepted solution]

Hi Sprocket,

Thank you for trying to solve my display problem. I was finally able to solve it myself after working on different solutions tediously for almost a month every day.

I have scaling and resolution on my desktop computer monitor set to larger than normal so I can read the screen more easily. I'm 71 years old and my vision isn't what it once was. Nor are my computer skills. LOL.

The solution was that I needed to change ONE very obscure setting in Windows Settings. Win>Settings>System>Display>Scale and Layout> Custom Scale Settings>Set a Custom Scale Factor.  I had to change that custom setting. to 175% with screen res at 1680 x 1050 Landscape.

Then I had to follow the same path, but go one step further by clicking on Advanced Scaling Settings, where I had to  turn off Advanced Scaling for Apps>Let Windows try to fix apps so they are not blurry. That has to be turned off.

On that same Advanced Scaling Settings, I had to set Custom Scaling (below the setting for Advanced Scaling) to 125. 

A simple reboot and I am back in business!  Screen breakup has now vanished!  Yay!

Kathy on OBX