Why is my PC monitor going crazy? Help!

[Hathor]

Can you help?
My PC was OK until today, then the screen went all multi-coloured and mixed up, with text and things on top of each other. I have tried switching on and off and removing any nearby electrical gadgets and re-siting cables. Rebooted and it is the same. It is a Dell PC, quite new and the antivirus doesn't say anything is wrong.

What could this be and how can I fix it?

It did suddenly get a bit better when I touched the box - I wonder if it is static build up? No IT department here. Any help gratefully received!

?

It sounds as if your monitor cannot cope with the output from the computer.

Did you increase the number of pixels displayed on the screen yesterday ?

Have you a spare (old) monitor at all ?

I assume it is pretty awkward to use at present, but if you can register to use LogMeIn.com on two machines (ie the affected one and the one you typed on) then you might be able to remote control the affected screen and change the screen resolution to a lower level (eg 1024x800) and see if the monitor copes OK with that.

The screen is OK if plugged into a different pc (laptop). Currently running a "Dell diagnostic check" by pushing F12 at startup. Will try changing screen resolution after that, but it hasn't been altered lately as far as I know.
The screen looks a mess, with colours bleeding across, separated colours and text moved.

The colour separation etc sounds like the output is outside the acceptable range for the monitor. There are some settings where a high refresh rate causes this, I think.

Some of my monitors will handle refresh at 60 Hz but if the rate goes above 90 Hz they cannot cope, and one gets the type of breakup you describe.

How old is the display (is it LCD or CRT) ? I suppose there's a chance that there has been a component failure causing it to go unstable. Sorry, rather more of a guess as things stand.

Thanks for your help. It has now mysteriously gone back to normal. No idea what was the problem.