Member Avatar for papps44

Hello everyone,

I am new to the forum and would be greatful for assistance on the following problem.

I have a pc running xp pro and just recently the graphics on some of the folder icons have changed colour and appearance dramatically. You would compare the change in appearence to when you view folder icons in safe mode but with worse graphics. The folder opens with no problems.

I have a Nvidia 64mb Geforce4 card as far as I can recall. :eek:

My antivirus has detected nothing unusual and a online scan with pcpitstop.com showed nothing either.

Any advice or assistance would help.

Thanks.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by drblbaqker

Dani AI

Generated

Both and are on the right track — this is most likely a display-rendering issue rather than a damaged folder. The steps below focus on safe, practical diagnostics and fixes that help distinguish a settings/driver problem from corrupt icon resources or failing video hardware.

  • Disable 2D hardware acceleration to test GPU rendering: Right‑click Desktop -> Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> Troubleshooting -> move Hardware acceleration to None, apply and reboot. If the icons normalize, acceleration/driver is the culprit.
  • Rebuild the icon cache: use Microsoft's TweakUI "Repair icons" or manually remove the icon cache (show hidden/protected files, delete the icon cache file in your Local Settings/Application Data for your user) and restart Explorer. This fixes corrupted cached icon images.
  • Repair core shell resources: run System File Checker (Start -> Run -> sfc /scannow) to restore icon resources inside system DLLs (you may need the Windows CD).
  • Do a clean driver cycle: boot Safe Mode, uninstall the display driver fully (use Device Manager or a driver-clean tool), then install a clean, vendor‑recommended driver version compatible with the card (for older cards, use the last legacy release).
  • Isolate hardware: try another monitor/cable, swap the card into a different machine, or boot a Linux live USB. If the artifacting shows up outside Windows (BIOS screens, other OS), the GPU or its memory is likely failing.
  • Check logs and add-ons: look in Event Viewer (System) for driver errors and uninstall any third‑party theming/shell utilities that replace icons.

Recommended order: hardware-accel test, icon-cache + SFC, clean driver reinstall, then hardware-swap. If symptoms persist across OSes, plan for hardware replacement.

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Member Avatar for Yzk

have you checked the amount of colors you are using? 16 colors, 256 colors, 16-bit, 24-bit or 32-but?

Member Avatar for Yzk

srry but=bit

Member Avatar for drblbaqker

Check your screen color resolution first. Make sure it is set to at least 256 colors. If no success, I suggest you remove and reinstall your video driver.

You may want to reset the view options for your folders to default and then change them to the preferred settings.

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