You seem to have multiple issues/questions in this thread. Is it still on the maintenance effort or you are focusing on fixing the grainy screen? Is that resolved? What does "grainy" mean?
Ok, so I did a little test. Hooked up another monitor to the laptop on th output and the other monitor is clear as day. That leads me to think the screen on this laptop is the issue. Any thoughts on that? Edit: sorry about the ADD in this thread. That was the initial concern but I have fixed the performance issues. The main focus now is the screen, it is very hard to explain but it is not a resolution issue or clarity but the screen is garbled and grainy. There are verticle distorted lines running thru the taskbar and open windows, I'm sure there is a term for this. Really seems like the screen itself is on its way out.
Also, just took another Dell laptop and pulled the keyboard so could hook its monitor (which is fine) to the bad monitor's mobo and the screen on the good monitor is doing the same thing, while the seperately connected monitor is fine. So tested bad computer with good monitor=same results.
I think I understand what you said here: But I am totally confused with this new information: I think the issue is with the video card inside the laptop. Could be the LCD screen itself on the laptop but more likely the video card/chip.
basically I just seperated the 2 laptops and their monitors and wired the "good" laptop's screen to the "bad" laptop's mobo and got the same grainty flickering screen. The monitor that is connected to the ext plug to allow dual screens has a perfect picture so it must be something with the internal video connections. Seems like it is a mobo/vid card issue like you said. Thanks for the help guys