Anyone know how to use netflix?

Does anyone know what this gray screen means on my laptop?

• My husband and I have a feeling that our laptop is going. For the longest time I was thinking it was a virus, but we ran virus checks and it all came back with no viruses. Let me explain: When we turn on our laptop there is this gray screen and sometimes it has some white or sometimes black lines going down from the screen. It happens when we turn on our laptop, I was playing a game on it and it interrupted the game with the gray screen. I was watching something on Netflix and the gray screen appeared suddenly and I couldn't pause it. When the laptop goes to the black screen because it's not used for a while and we try to turn it on by pressing a button it goes to the gray screen. In order to make the gray screen disappear we have to shake the laptop a little bit and it sometimes works. I'm saying sometimes because it doesn't always work. The other day I was doing that and the gray screen didn't go away, so I tapped the screen a couple times and then it went away and let us use the laptop. When there is the gray screen it doesn't make any weird noise or anything it's just quiet but the gray screen gets annoying. Anyone know what this is, and is it a sign that our laptop is going? Thank you.

• Answer:

  Sounds like a graphics card overheating issue. You and your husband feared right, it looks like it is on its last leg. You can try to open it up and make sure the graphics card is seated all the way into the motherboard, but more than likely it is soldered in. It could have hairline fractures in the solder, which are why it will work with some persuasion, but the actual connection is going in and out and these are impossible to solder by hand (I have tried). They come from the factory with a special ball tip type machine solder than cannot be duplicated or repaired by hand. A temporary fix I got to work on one computer was to put a bunch of strips of tape on top of the graphics card so that when the case is on the case and tape push down on the graphics card enough to pressure it into place. Unless you can take the graphics card off of the motherboard there is no solution except replacement.