[z3185]

Hi,
Need some help with my laptop:

IBM T41
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1 2002.

Norton Full version, Black Ice and Spydoctor protect the computer.

My Problem: At various times while working or while computer is just sitting there on the internet or not my screen goes blank or colored with white stripes. A colored square shows up where my cursor was and I cannot do anything except to reboot the laptop by holding the start button down for a couple of secs (to shutdown) then hit again to start up and get back to my work. Will happen at various times and days. Will go for several days with no problem then right in the middle of something important..>WHAM!

Now here is the kicker....At times, when I go to reboot my laptop it will not reboot. I get no reaction from the start button. I then have to remove the battery, unplug the power, plug power back in without the battery in and then try for 20 minutes to hit the start key before it finally boots up. I then put my battery back in and I am good for a week or so until the it starts again.

Any help ??? THANKS!

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You don't say what specific Norton product is installed (AV or firewall, or both?), but if BlackIce is either Antivirus or firewall, and Norton is also doing the same job as BlackIce, that could cause the system to become unstable. You mustn't have two AV applications running at same time.

[pip22]

You don't say what specific Norton product is installed (AV or firewall, or both?), but if BlackIce is either Antivirus or firewall, and Norton is also doing the same job as BlackIce, that could cause the system to become unstable. You mustn't have two AV applications running at same time.

[z3185]

Thanks for the response. Black Ice is a Firewall protection that stops TCP Probes, UDP Port probes etc. It does have an applicaiton setting but I do not have it on. I only use it to stop probing of ports.

Norton is the full version and I have all options on. I will turn off my Black Ice Engine protection and try this for a couple of days and then come back with a reply.

Thanks

[z3185]

OK, I removed the Black Ice software via the correct software removal technique and after a week of working perfectly, this morning I had the same blank screen all of a sudden with a square where my pointer was and it happened 4 times.......

So, I can rule out any dual software issues causing the problem....

Any other possibilities ?

Thanks

[Kurenai]

That kind of artifacting is usually a hardware problem, dying video card.