Using a linux bootdisc with ClamAv on to scan for viruses wouldn't do any harm (it's not necessarily malware but some viruses can screw with the screen like that).

In deed  you might get a taste for linux (you can duel boot Windows with Ubuntu and get the best of both worlds).

It may just be a dodgy video driver.

Try looking up video driver problems for your model.

Try hooking up another monitor to the vga port. If it keeps doing that, your video card is fried, if it doesn't it's the notebook's display.

I'm not an expert, this is just my two cents based on experience: I had an Acer notebook fail on me twice because of a factory problem with the main board. Turns out it couldn't stand high temperatures, and by high I mean above the freezing point of water.

red5-626 said:

I just hope I do not fry the other monitor as that would be another expense.

IMHO, not very likely.

Is it possible there is a bad connection between where the laptop folds down? 

That's a big possibility. In fact, I have an old HP Pavillion laptop that has two coloured vertical lines on the right side of the screen. I'm assuming these are dead rows of pixels. I was able to trace the cause in my careless use of the screen itself, I used to open it too much, to a point where it should've stopped, it was almost 180° relative to the laptop! I first noticed one line appear, thought nothing of it. The other one appeared, and after that I stopped spreading that poor thing, and no more lines have appeared.

red5-626 said:

Thanks for the info.
I have scanned with Norton Internet Security and I only found tracking cookies. I deleted them.
The laptop is not currently having the problem but if it happens again  I will try plugging it in to another monitor.

I just hope I do not fry the other monitor as that would be another expense.

Is it possible there is a bad connection between where the laptop folds down? 

 

Stop shouting at me!

He isn't shouting he is boldly going.

It seems that all laptop manufacturers go through bad patches; HP's laptop build quality has been crap in recent years.

If you want to check this, go on to eBay and search laptops by brand. Filter by "condition: used" and then "condition: for parts or not working" and make a note of the ratio. Last time I looked at this HP and Acer were the worst, Dell and Toshiba had better reliability.

It's probably the connection in the screen. I have a similar laptop, had to replace a broken screen. It's really easy and reletively cheap ($40?). I would follow the directions you can find to replace the screen, but just make sure everything is tight/not bent or broken.