How do I get rid of lines of red dots across my monitor?

[idata]

I recently purchased a computer in Sept 2012 from Dino PC. It has been running very well apart from an irritating red dot problem.

My pc has an Intel i5 3570k processor (not over clocked) which has no additional graphics card and runs using the on board graphics HD 4000. I do not have a separate graphics card and do not play computer games. The line of dots only appears horizontally and in red on dark screens.

I have my monitor (a Hanns G HG 216D) connected to the pc with a VGA connection. I have connected the monitor to the pc with an HDMI cable and the red dots still appear. These red dots didn't appear immediately when I first had the pc. I believe that they began to appear once I started updating my pc with the latest windows 7 updates (x64) and after the intel updates below.

I have only downloaded 3 optional Intel updates since I got my new computer in Sept this year as follows:-

1. Intel corporation - Display - Intel (R) HD Graphics 4000 on 23 Sept 2012.

2. Intel - Other hardware - Intel (R) Management Engine Interface on 21 Oct 2012

3. Intel corporation - Graphics adapter WDDM1.1, Graphics adapter WDDM1.2 - Intel (R) HD Graphics 4000 on 5 Nov 2012.

The red dots appear each time I switch on the pc at the very bottom edge of the screen then when the Asus screen appears (motherboard is Asus p8z77-V LX) across the middle of the screen, then again across the middle of the screen when the windows 7 start up screen appears.

They then appear again if I have an image in the centre of the screen which is a dark block. In this case they are grouped together in a horizontal block to the centre right of the dark area.

Occasionally I have seen the same lines of dots on a light coloured block in the centre right of the screen when the dots are pale blue and in the same formation.

If I move the mouse over the red dots when they appear in a centre block of a dark colour the red dots momentarily disappear.

I have connected my monitor to another computer using an HDMI cable to check that my monitor or cables were not at fault and the lines of red dots do not appear. I have also connected my pc to the TV using an HDMI cable but the connection was so quick at start up that I missed seeing the red dots on the initial start up screen, Asus screen and Widows 7 screens (see below).

I have also tried to roll back my intel drivers via device manager and display adapters on my pc. It made no difference the red dots still appear.

Following viewing the troubleshooting page on Intel Technical support I have also run a Test report which I have copied below.

Any advice on how to remove these dots would be gratefully appreciated.

Regards

Richard

Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000

Report Date: 11/11/2012

Report Time[hh:mm:ss]: 11:36:36

Driver Version: 8.15.10.2696

Operating System: Windows 7 Service Pack 1(6.1.7601)

Default Language: English (United Kingdom)

DirectX* Version: 11.0

Physical Memory: 7883 MB

Minimum Graphics Memory: 256 MB

Maximum Graphics Memory: 1760 MB

Graphics Memory in Use: 150 MB

Processor: Intel64 Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9

Processor Speed: 3410 MHz

Vendor ID: 8086

Device ID: 0162

Device Revision: 09

* Processor Graphics Information *

Processor Graphics in Use: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000

Video BIOS: 2124.0

Current Graphics Mode: 1680 by 1050

* Devices Connected to the Graphics Accelerator *

Active Monitors: 1

* Monitor *

Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor

Display Type: Analog

Gamma Value: 2.2

DDC2 Protocol: Supported

Maximum Image Size:

Horizontal: 18.50 inches

Vertical: 11.42 inches

Monitor Supported Modes:

640 by 480 (67 Hz)

640 by 480 (75 Hz)

640 by 480 (72 Hz)

640 by 480 (60 Hz)

720 by 400 (70 Hz)

800 by 600 (72 Hz)

800 by 600 (75 Hz)

800 by 600 (56 Hz)

800 by 600 (60 Hz)

832 by 624 (75 Hz)

1024 by 768 (75 Hz)

1024 by 768 (70 Hz)

1024 by 768 (60 Hz)

1152 by 864 (75 Hz)

1152 by 870 (75 Hz)

1280 by 960 (60 Hz)

1280 by 1024 (75 Hz)

1280 by 1024 (60 Hz)

1440 by 900 (60 Hz)

1440 by 900 (75 Hz)

1680 by 1050 (60 Hz)

Display Power Management Support:

Standby Mode: Not Supported

Suspend Mode: Not Supported

Active Off Mode: Supported

Raw EDID:

00 FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 22 64 A3 1C 01 01 01 01

21 11 01 03 68 2F 1D 78 2A E5 25 A6 54 44 A1 25

14 50 54 BF EF 80 81 80 71 4F 81 40 95 0F 95 00

01 01 01 01 01 01 21 39 90 30 62 1A 27 40 68 B0

36 00 E0 0E 11 00 00 1C 00 00 00 FF 00 37 33 33

4D 48 33 4A 59 35 34 33 30 35 00 00 00 FD 00 32

4B 1E 52 0F 00 0A 20 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 00 FC

00 48 47 32 31 36 0A 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 00 3D

* Other names and brands are the property of their respective owners. *

[NICHOLAS_F_Intel]

Hi Richard,

If the issue still persists after rolling back to the drivers which you previously had no issue with; it's not likely the driver to be causing the issue. The problem initially sounded like it was with the original monitor, but you dispelled that when you said the issue didn't happen when connected to another computer. However, since the issue IS still happening on your new machine using both VGA and HDMI, it may be that there is a hardware issue with either the motherboard or the Intel® processor. My suggestion, is that since you have a computer with a 3 year warranty with Dino PC, that you send it back to them for service.

Thanks,

-Nic

[idata]

Hi Nic

Thanks for your reply. I have also been thinking of uninstalling my intel programs from the computer with a view to downloading them again in case that made a difference, but after checking they all appeared to have been installed when I first fired up my pc on 18 Sept 2012 apart from one on 5 Nov 2012, and the red dot problem began occurring before after 18 Sept and before 5 Nov.

I will be phoning Dino pc tomorrow.

Regards

Richard