Small black squares all over screen

cheaterslick · Wednesday at 11:38 AM

highstream said:
Will you stop already! You can be sure that if they return, I'll pick up this thread. I've got 30 days, now 28 to return the laptop.

Relax, I only popped into this thread just now. You asked for help.

And I've also had to return defective machines, before. It's been awhile since that's happened, but I've been through it so I know what a hassle it is. But it might be less of a hassle doing just that since the seller has already agreed to accept the return.

I hope you saved the original box in case you have to do it. The seller should agree to pay for the return postage. Just make sure you don't leave any personal info on it before returning it.

Good luck

highstream · Wednesday at 1:22 PM

cheaterslick said:
Relax, I only popped into this thread just now. You asked for help.

And I've also had to return defective machines, before. It's been awhile since that's happened, but I've been through it so I know what a hassle it is. But it might be less of a hassle doing just that since the seller has already agreed to accept the return.

I hope you saved the original box in case you have to do it. The seller should agree to pay for the return postage. Just make sure you don't leave any personal info on it before returning it.

Good luck

It does help to read back at least a few posts. As I mentioned above, the bigger hassle would be needing to return it. I’m taking what’s likely to be a two to three week medical trip to Houston (from MT) on Aug 4. With that, including my traveling companion needing a laptop and Windows 10 soon running out, it seemed time to replace my 13 year old 11.6” Win 7 Zenbook that’s limping along on Win 10. Having to find and set up another compact used laptop with an OS that’s just enough different to be a PITA is not something I need this month.

highstream · Wednesday at 4:52 PM

Someone yesterday asked if the black dots (or rectangles) were occurring elsewhere than browsers. I mentioned a OneDrive pop up (notification tray). as the only time I'd seen one. Since following garlin's last shot suggestion last night to run Cleanup-Image / Restore Health, I haven't seen any in browsers. But I am seeing a few *in passing* in utilities. A couple of examples are attached (the Recovery Drive ones were flickering). Don't know if anything more can be done with these.

gunrunnerjohn · Wednesday at 5:26 PM

I guess maybe my suggestion to return it wasn't all that stupid after all.

I fail to see why you're resisting it so, but now you know why I never buy refurbished computers. This is likely to get worse, stuff like this rarely fixes itself!

highstream · Wednesday at 5:34 PM

It wasn't stupid. It's just a matter of options, under a time crunch. If the photos just above are the worst I'm going to face, it's something I can easily live with (there is a 1-year warranty on the laptop and about 6 months more on the Lenovo warranty). If I can replace it right away, then it might be another matter. Buying new would be a total waste of money relative to my usage (I paid <$400 for the Lenovo). Plus it doesn't appear that buying new I'd be able to find what I'm looking for: preferably ~13" max, right at 3 lbs,, 16 GB RAM, and a decently fast processor (11.6" and 2.5 lbs were the right size and weight for me). Bigger and heavier are not better for my purposes.

highstream · Wednesday at 6:49 PM

So, looking at the photos in post #43, is there anything more to try?

garlin · Wednesday at 6:57 PM

I'm going to speculate you have bad video memory, either on the mobile GPU itself or mapped memory used for VRAM. Symptoms of a bad driver are more likely to be BSOD crashes and freezing, and you don't have any of that.

highstream · Wednesday at 11:10 PM

garlin said:
I'm going to speculate you have bad video memory, either on the mobile GPU itself or mapped memory used for VRAM. Symptoms of a bad driver are more likely to be BSOD crashes and freezing, and you don't have any of that.

Your speculative comment got me thinking that it's not worth the chance of further deterioration, so the laptop is going back. In the meantime, I picked up a more recent open box ThinkPad of similar specs with Win 11 Pro and a three year warranty for not that much more.

gunrunnerjohn · 2025-07-03T09:31:56-0400

highstream said:
Your speculative comment got me thinking that it's not worth the chance of further deterioration, so the laptop is going back. In the meantime, I picked up a more recent open box ThinkPad of similar specs with Win 11 Pro and a three year warranty for not that much more.

I feel positively vindicated. :lmao:

highstream · 2025-07-03T10:13:23-0400

gunrunnerjohn said:
I feel positively vindicated.

Silly me. I thought this forum was about problem solving.

gunrunnerjohn · 2025-07-03T10:29:05-0400

highstream said:
Silly me. I thought this forum was about problem solving.

It is, but it was clear, at least to me, that what you were seeing was most likely a hardware failure. That being the case, returning it while you had the option seemed like the clear solution to me. Wishing a problem away rarely works.

cheaterslick · 2025-07-04T15:21:13-0400

highstream said:
Silly me. I thought this forum was about problem solving.

Sometimes the answer is simple. Return it!

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