Horizontal Line Across My Screen
 

This might not be a "Linux" question, but... I suddenly have a horizontal line across the screen on my laptop. Hmmm. Not at all sure what caused it to appear suddenly, and why it doesn't go away. My first guess is humidity?

Del Inspiron 1300 laptop, running Ubuntu 7 Feisty.

Thank you.

could be a loose connection in where the screen connects to the motherboard. Usually this happens with laptops after about a year of regular use...

I still have the line. I've contacted a tech, and he suggests connecting my laptop to an external monitor, because he thinks the problem is my video card.

* The line does not appear in any screenshot.png I create.
* The line has color in it, but out of sync with the rest of the screen.
* The color in the line changes when the screen changes.

Dell Inspiron 1300, Ubuntu Feisty

After I plug in the external monitor, is there extensive set-up to be done? Any tricks or hazards I need to know beforehand?

thanks,
R-

Usually there is a Key combination using one of the deys at the bottom and one of the Function Keys to switch to the external monitor.
The change of color on the line sort of rules out a bad lcd screen (I would expect to see a black line if it were the LCD itself)
Did you boot to "Safe" mode to see if a TSR is a causal factor?

What is "TSR" ?

I don't know how to boot to safe mode either.

OK. I figured out how to boot to safe mode, but the line is still there, and all I get on the screen in safe mode is text.

I'll take the laptop into town and find an external monitor to connect with it to see if the line is on the external monitor.

My apologies TSR is terminate and Stay Resident (MSDOS artifact) please disregard

It sounds like this is a defect in the LCD, especially if it does not appear in screenshots. :(

Except: the line has color in it that changes as the screen image changes. I'll connect it to an external monitor and see what happens.