Using Libre Writer - with hardware questions

users
#1

I've been encouraged to post here re: my hardware travails!

Here goes...

I booted up my older Toshiba laptop running Windows 7 which for years had
been working fine.

Then, one day I booted up and got these vertical color bands where you
couldn't see anything else bu the bands.

I then re-booted and opened Word 2003 (as Libre Office take a longer time
to open and the laptop would just shut Word
  down, then when I re-booted it would shut the laptop down while I was
writing in Word.

Then, I tried opening Libre Writer and it just froze – never opened so
  I had to press the power button to re-boot.

  I moved the laptop power adapter from the power strip to the UPS then
  moved the laptop so it’s connected directly into a wall outlet in
  another room. Still no good. I then powered the laptop in an outlet in
  the top outlet (not the bottom one even though the last testing showed
  the outlet (top/bottom)were both fine.

I then brought the laptop to work and got the same results when trying to
run it.

Someone said I might have to delete all my video drivers and r-install them.

I have no idea where to find those drivers on my laptop, nor which ones to
delete nor where I would find the correct replacement video drivers nor if
that's even a correct solution.

I've got 3 GB Ram running.

It's a nice 17" screen so I don't want to toss the laptop and it ran for 3+
hours at a friend's work space - with 4 programs open at the same time -
Publisher, GIMP, the Brave browser running a YouTube video and another
program to test the laptop and it all worked fine.

Thanks for your thoughts/ suggestions.

#2

This sounds more like a hardware problem then a LibreOffice/software problem.

Some manufacturers have built in hardware diagnostics, run them if available.

If you have the ability to add a external monitor to the laptop.

Although it varies from *laptop* to *laptop*, some can turn on the *external monitor* by hitting the *Function Key* (*Fn*) plus the F5 *key*. On the *Toshiba*, continually hitting *Fn*-F5 , skips between the various *monitor* options including *screen* duplication and *screen* extension.

https://www.google.com/search?ei=cAQvXub9LKqd_Qb5nKbwBg&q=toshiba+laptop+external+monitor+function+key&oq=toshiba+laptop+second+monitor+key&gs_l=psy-ab.3.0.0i22i30.427589.447202..449066...5.2..0.189.2795.35j3…0…1…gws-wiz…0i71j0i273j0i131i273j0j0i131j0i67j0i131i67j0i22i10i30j33i22i29i30j33i160j0i13.VDP2nfMeXEU

This information can be confirmed from your laptop owners manual.

If you have the ability to create a Linux OS disk like Ubuntu, boot it and see the screen problem goes away. This may help to confirm a Windows driver problem.

https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/try-ubuntu-before-you-install#0

It also will allow you to do a memory check.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/591488/how-do-i-run-memtest86

Go to a different computer and look for search engine listings of your laptop model having similar problems.  Youtube videos can tell you a lot about what may be happening.

Google "YouTube Toshiba vertical banding"

Hope this helps.

Paul

#3

Hi Charles,

Have you tried running LibreOffice as a portable app? I'm not sure if this
will help or not, but it might exclude a few problems. Portable apps don't
'install' and are a little less dependant on the system settings.

https://www.libreoffice.org/download/portable-versions/

If the portable app does work, you might try these steps to fix your issue:
1. uninstall the installed version of LibreOffice
2. create another user account on your laptop
3. Install LibreOffice STABLE (not the FRESH version) while logged into the
second user account.

Hope this helps!

Michael