Vertical and horizontal lines on laptop screen randomly

[Ali1871]

I was just playing games like normal when I looked over at my laptop screen since I also have a monitor plugged into it, and I saw that there were black horizontal lines across the screen and colored vertical lines coming down from the top of the screen as well. It happened randomly out of no where whilst I was in a game and nothing I've tried seemed to fix it. I've updated my driver, restarted my laptop and everything else I could try. There is no physical damage to the screen at all, it must be a technical issue inside. The only thing that has happened before in the past were my laptop screen glitching out whenever I clicked or moved my mouse only a couple times, but that was a while ago. 

[Raj_05]

Hi @Ali1871,

Welcome to HP Support Community.

Thank you for posting your query, I will be glad to help you.

It sounds like you're experiencing a display issue that could be related to either the graphics card or the laptop's internal display connection. Since you've already updated the drivers and restarted your laptop, here are a few additional troubleshooting steps you can try.

Check External Display: If you have a monitor plugged in, try disconnecting it to see if the issue persists only on the laptop screen. If the issue goes away, it could point to a graphics-related issue, rather than a problem with the screen itself.

Test in Safe Mode: Boot your laptop into Safe Mode (by pressing F8 or Shift+F8 during boot, depending on your OS). If the lines don't appear in Safe Mode, it might indicate that a third-party driver or software is causing the problem.

Try Reinstalling the Graphics Driver:

• Go to Device Manager > Display Adapters.
• Right-click on your graphics card and select "Uninstall Device."
• Restart your laptop, and Windows will reinstall the driver automatically.
• Alternatively, try installing the latest drivers directly from the HP website or the GPU manufacturer’s site (NVIDIA/AMD).

Run Hardware Diagnostics: HP laptops often come with built-in diagnostics. You can run a hardware test (press F2 during startup) to check for any issues with the graphics card or screen.

Check for Overheating: Sometimes, high temperatures can cause graphical glitches. Ensure your laptop is adequately cooled while gaming. You can use tools like HWMonitor to check your GPU and CPU temperatures.

Screen Cable Connection: There could be an issue with the internal display cable (e.g., a loose connection), especially if you've experienced occasional screen glitches in the past. This might require professional servicing if the problem continues.

Check for Updates: Since you mentioned the issue appeared after some time, it could be linked to a recent software or firmware update. Ensure all of your software, including BIOS, is up-to-date.

If none of these steps resolve the issue, it could be a more serious hardware problem, potentially with the GPU or the internal display connection.

I hope this helps.

Take care and have a good day.

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Alden4

HP Support