[Wild_Ronin]

My friends laptop is acting funny. It is an old Dell Inspiron 8200 Laptop running Windows XP SP2. It is flashing like an old Nintendo system (pictures below). He says that when he puts some pressure on the i,o,p area on the keyboard it returns to normal but it is not working anymore. When I opened up the laptop I find the CPU under the i,o,p area of the keyboard and I suspect a pin is loose or burnt out or there maybe too much dust in there. Is there anyway I can find out for sure if that is the problem or if the problem is somewhere else? If anyone has run across this problem or has any kind of information that can help me I will appreciate it.

[idowindows]

This looks more like a display problem. Let's say it is the CPU for a moment, other than the display, How is the laptop's performance otherwise? If everything is good, then it points to the display. How'bout connecting a monitor to the laptop? Can you try that?

[Wild_Ronin]

I tried connecting it to a monitor and it is the same as before. I suspected it was the cpu because sometimes funny characters would flash on and off the screen not just normal letters or number or it could be something on the motherboard. Performance seems to be the same as before this problem occurred. My friend also told me he has slammed on the keyboard a few time and dropped it once or twice.

[Wild_Ronin]

Anyone else have any clue whats wrong?