I have a Dell Insprion 8600 laptop running windows xp HOME. Not too long ago, I re-installed windows and all the drivers, because something was wrong with it (you had to select "start at last good configuration" at start up, meaning i could not install anyhting new, etc)

occasionally the screen will start to get very blurry, and then start blinking the screen shot over and over. I have to hold the on/off button down to get it to re-boot and stop.

any ideas on how to fix this? not sure if its a hardware prob or what?  :-?Have you tried a lower screen resolution?

Have you tried updating,or reinstalling the video
drivers?

.....and of course,What does it do with an external
monitor ?
I have not thought about hooking it up to an external monitor yet. Good idea! UM, I'm not quite sure how I'd go about that. I'm guessing if I just plug it in it will install itself using plug -n- play. I will try that...  

Also, I'm not too CLEAR on how the resloution works. I have played around with it a bit, changing it to different settings, but it seems to still do it. How do you know what resolution it should be set at?

I pretty much re-built this laptop- i re-installed windows and all the drivers so I dont knwo what it was originally set at. Can someone clear that up for me? What is the typical setting? How do you know if you have the right setting?  :-?

Another weird, kinda off topic, thing is that the windows media player will not play videos or dvds. it has a dvd burner in it, and before i re-did everything media player would play a dvd, but not anymore. i can play video files through my wimamp program.

i will try to update or re-install the drivers and see if that works. I think i tried updating the sound card drivers, but not the video. I will try that this weekend, and let you know how it went.

thanks for the help!  When connecting an external display it often will automatically detect it if it doesn't you may have to press a FN or function key on your keyboard in combination with a key with a monitor on it to switch from laptop to monitor display.

Your resolution is dependent on the video card and display you have. Your laptop should be capable of running at 1024 x 768 (or a close range to that). That's a typical resolution. However, for troubleshooting you may wan to DROP it down to 800 x 600.

Unfortunately based off your description of the issue I'd say it's likely your LCD (display) is going bad, possibly even the video/mother board.

For your DVD try playing the DVD using VLC. It a free media player and sure fire way to get almost any media file going with little or no hassle. It's found at:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

If it works then if you really wish to you can continue to trouble shoot the other media players.