Pink cast on desktop

A couple of days ago, I booted up my XP Pro x64 machine, which I'd used just the day before with no issues, and found that the desktop and all programs I tried to run from it had a deep pink cast, and the other colours were all screwed up too.

I know this can be caused by issues with the video card or monitor, but I don't think that's the problem here. For a monitor, I use a TV, which is connected to the computer via a HDMI cable, and there's nothing wrong with the colour balance on the TV using other inputs, or even another device (Blu-Ray player) on the same input as the computer is normally connected to. As for it being the video card, when the computer boots up, the colour balance on the Windows splash screen seems OK, and the cast begins when it goes to the log-in screen.

Just on the off-chance that it was the video card driver, I reinstalled it with a fresh download of the most up-to-date version, but that's not helped. Neither has restoring Windows to a date a couple of days before the problem began. I've also tried a different HDMI cable, which I know is OK, and that's not helped either.

I certainly didn't change any settings or install any new software, so it's a mystery to me why it's happened. It does seem like it's more a problem with Windows, rather than a hardware issue, but what and why?...

So can anyone tell me what's happened and how I fix it?

System spec:

Dell Optiplex 780 SFF

Intel Core 2 Quad 2.2GHz

4GB RAM

1TB SATA HDD

Nvidia GT 710 2GB

Windows XP Pro x64

Hi, unfortunately this would be the Video Card end of life.  So this was released around 2008.

(note this one am on is from 2008 but has been upgraded over the years. It produces heat and sucks power)

Considering that the last drivers and things for it are from 2013 it is time to move on to a new system that will support Win11. 

No idea of your small form setup but would need another video card to test.      If still get pink then is motherboard related if runs fine then is the card.  Is 2gig card. is from 2016.  Also end of life.

You could try DDU and remove your drivers and install your drivers from here : https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-ca/product-support/product/optiplex-780/drivers

Would use a lower version of drivers as per the NVIDIA site.  You are running Drivers that your card is incapable to use.

Need to run :

https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/105041/en-us/    in Experience turn off updating, if in Task Manager delete it.  Do not update further.

Let us know how your doing.

OK, to answer your comments:

Already have two machines running Windows 10, but use this machine to run essential older programs that will not run properly (or at all) on W10 and don't have a later version available (why is it that I always have to explain this kind of thing whenever I post here with problems with one of my older machines?... ) - and no upgrade to W11 planned as neither W10 machine is high spec enough to run it and I can't afford to upgrade them. 

DDU is listed as W7 upwards, and the Dell link you posted doesn't include GT 710 drivers, so that doesn't look like an option.

Video card driver is already v368.81, and has been all along, downloaded from the link you posted.

Replacement video card has been on order from yesterday just in case (found a suitable still-sealed GT 710 on eBay). But, as I stated, the colour cast is NOT on the splash screen, which you would probably expect if it was a hardware issue related to the video card, and doesn't appear until the log-in screen appears.

I'd really like to run through all software-related possibilities before I get into hardware replacement.

Can you remove the video card and try the integrated graphics?

If you do not like putting in system information add it to your signature file.

 

Already have two machines running Windows 10, but use this machine to run essential older programs that will not run properly (or at all) on W10 and don't have a later version available (why is it that I always have to explain this kind of thing whenever I post here with problems with one of my older machines?... ) - and no upgrade to W11 planned as neither W10 machine is high spec enough to run it and I can't afford to upgrade them.

We are not mind readers nor do we know a thing unless you tell us about it.  Telling us about it provides clues to go forward.  There are other forums available.

If you do not like putting in system information add it to your signature file.

 

 

Already have two machines running Windows 10, but use this machine to run essential older programs that will not run properly (or at all) on W10 and don't have a later version available (why is it that I always have to explain this kind of thing whenever I post here with problems with one of my older machines?... ) - and no upgrade to W11 planned as neither W10 machine is high spec enough to run it and I can't afford to upgrade them.

We are not mind readers nor do we know a thing unless you tell us about it.  Telling us about it provides clues to go forward.  There are other forums available.

What other machines I have is irrelevant to the issue at hand here, so why should I waste time and space detailing machines that are unrelated to and unaffected by this problem? All details relevant to the hardware of the machine in question were posted - my other machines (of which I have eight others not counting tablets, etc) are unaffected and so irrelevant to the issue at hand.

And, whenever someone posts with an issue about an older machine, one of the first things a lot of replies say is "that's a really old machine - you really should upgrade". The assumption is made, often incorrectly, that the machine having issues is that person's only computer, the person must be some kind of dummy when it comes to computers, and some of the suggestions about how it's important to upgrade really can come across as quite insulting - especially to those of us who have been around computers for a long time but still appreciate the advantages of older machines compared to some of the newer ones.

FYI, my first computer - which I still have and use occasionally when I want a bit of nostalgia - was a Commodore C64 which I've had since it was given to me as a Christmas present the first year they came out in the early 1980s. I also still have my first PC, which is a 386-based machine running DOS 6.2 and Windows 3.1 on a 20Mb HDD... As for the Internet, I've been using that since university in the early 1990s, way back in the days of 56k dial-up, when I also had to study computer interfacing for data capture, plus learn to program in Pascal, Fortran 77, Forth and C++ (having already learned programming in BBC Basic on the old Model B while I was still at school in the mid-1980s). So, as you can see, I do know a fair bit about computers - it's just I may not always know the finer points of how Windows works and things like that.

Yes, there are other forums around where I could post - but, conversely, you don't have to post replies here either...

Can you remove the video card and try the integrated graphics?

I could do, but may not need to - for now, at least..

Having not touched the machine for a couple of days, I've just decided to boot it up again. As there seemed to be no cast on the Windows splash screen, I decided to see if the BIOS screens were similarly free of it. Not only were they also free of it, like the splash screen, as soon as it got to the log-in screen, I was amazed to see that the cast has totally vanished and all colours are back to how they should be. Just in case it was some sort of fluke, I've re-booted several times, and each time has been the same, with the colour balance back to normal.

So it appears that, whatever the problem was, it seems to have corrected itself. No idea what it was causing it, and maybe never will, but all seems OK for now.

I still have the replacement video card on order, so I'll hang on to it just in case. And, if I don't need it for the machine in question, I've got another I can always drop it into.

 

I was amazed to see that the cast has totally vanished and all colours are back to how they should be.

I have seen this with a dodgy or loose cable as well.