Window goes to grayscale - games, jpg's, visualizations..??

02befree · Sep 4, 2010

A while back something strange happened when my kids tried to play Purble Place on my HP dv6607 laptop. The graphics would go to grayscale when the mouse pointer was on the game, but would go back to color when pointing to the taskbar. I noticed the same symptoms when viewing digital pics, and visualizations on Windows Media Player, but as I said, everything looks normal if the mouse pointer is off the object and pointed to the taskbar at the bottom (sometimes you have to click on the taskbar to get it out of grayscale). This has me stumped because the taskbar and window border is if full color, and I've searched the web for others with this problem, but can't find a solution. I run a tech service, so I've tried the simple solutions.
Most probable solution - I turned off some services shortly before this happened, to speed up my sluggish laptop. I only used services that were supposedly safe to turn off. I have since turned back on anything I thought was remotely related to this. Before I turn them all back on, thought I'd check here....

Lorien · Sep 4, 2010

You may be having troubles with your device drivers, firmware, and/or software. Go to Device Manager by going to start / search box and type device manager and enter and then double-click on the program icon that appears. Check each device for a red x, yellow ! or white ?. These identify devices with problems (probably drivers, but also conflicts or something else). Click on each for further details and troubleshooting tips. If you need to get drivers (and you should get them for your mouse, monitor, and video card at least (even if they show they are working and even if they appear to be up-to-date - there could be some corruption and doing this will remove that as a potential cause) and any others you have time to do - they may help in ways beyond just resolving this problem), do so from the computer vendor or device manufacturer (NOT from Microsoft Updates). In fact, you should turn off automatic driver updates from Windows Update as follows: http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/how-to-disable-automatic-driver-installation-in-windows-vista/. Proceed as follows to get the drivers: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/driverssupport/ht/driverdlmfgr.htm. Once you have the drivers, you can install them through Device Manager as follows: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/193584-device-manager-install-driver.html.

If that doesn't work, try a clean boot http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135. If the problem goes away then it's just a matter of tracking down the culprit causing the problem. Follow the procedures in the article. Once found, delete, remove, deactivate, or uninstall it. Once done be sure to reset Vista back to normal status as explained in the procedures. If the problem occurs in clean mode then just restore the system to normal status and reboot - this solution is not going to work.

Boot into Safe mode with networking and see if the problem occurs there. Either result helps us narrow down the search for the cause. Report back if the problem occurs there or not.

If that doesn't work, do you have another mouse you can try? Swap the mice and see if the problem moves. See if the new mouse causes the same problem or if the problem is resolved. If the problem is resolved and you updated the mouse drivers on the old mouse, then you probably need to replace the mouse as it is likely that the mouse itself has become defective. If the problem persists, chances are the mouse is fine and it is something else.

I hope this helps. If not, post back and we'll try some other options to try to identify the cause and resolve the problem - most likely some more general troubleshooting steps - but we'll cross that bridge if we come to it.

Good luck!

Window goes to grayscale - games, jpg's, visualizations..??

02befree

My Computer

System One

Lorien

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My Computer

System One