Computer Screen Color Altered: What Happened?

[Uterus Chewer]

OK, here is what happened:

1. I was reading the news at Yahoo.
2. I went to take a shower.
3. About 30 minutes later, I returned to my computer and found that the colors of the screen had been strangely altered.

For example, the bars at the very top and very bottom of my screen are normally blue, just as they are on virtually everyone's computer. Right now, though, those bars on my computer are green, blue, purple, yellow, red, and so on. The text and objects within every window I open, the icons on my desktop, my background -- everything that appears on my screen -- are likewise altered. Since this occurred, I haven't encountered any problems with the operation of my computer. Does anyone know what might have caused this? Could this be due to an automatic Windows update (my computer indicated an update)? I'd like to change my screen back to its original appearance as all of these colors make it more difficult for me to read what's on my screen and prevent me from knowing the true colors of any pictures that I look at.

 

[Cyrus]

Sounds like you burned the pixels on your screen by not having a screen saver.

 

[verty]

Wiggle the monitor's cable at the back of the PC, it could be corrosion of the pins or something like that.

 

[Uterus Chewer]

If the problem is burnt out pixels or corrosion of pins, would the discoloration assume an organized pattern on my screen? That's the situation I have here. There's a circular area in the middle of my screen that displays the correct colors, but outside that circle, everything is multicolored. If I have a small window within that circle, I will see the correct colors in that window, but if I move the window outside that circle, the colors inside the window will change.

Also, the capacity for any given color to appear in any given portion of the screen has not been lost. For example, if I take an object of a certain color and move it to a particular part of my screen, then it will appear as, say, red. Then, if I take an object of a different color and move it to that same spot, it will appear as, say, green. In this way, I can get any color I want to appear in spot on the screen.

 

[AlephZero]

If it's a CRT monitor (not LCD) try degaussing it. There should be a command in the setup to do this. Powering the monitor off and on may do it automatically.

And check if some joker put a strong permanent magnet near your monitor while you were away.

 

[Uterus Chewer]

Well, I just turned the monitor off and on, and that did the trick. Thank you for your advice, AlephZero.

Any idea what likely caused these strange color changes?

 

[FredGarvin]

You don't happen to have some strong speakers anywhere near your monitor, do you?

 

[verty]

It sounds like someone did that with a magnet.

 

[Uterus Chewer]

I think what must have caused this problem is that my friend used his laptop computer on my computer desk. He placed his laptop directly in front of my computer. My computer was off at the time, and when I used my computer after he had left, the screen correctly displayed colors. It was an hour or so later that the problem arose. Still, this is the only type of cause resembling the types that have been proposed here, so I'm assuming the laptop is what brought this about.

 

[braindred]

yepp, battery power, magnetic, shouldv been the problem?
maby it started charging up while you where away, and that created a small magnetic field that messed with your screen