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Refreshing the Screen

A refresh is a "redraw" of the computer screen.

Using the video card inside, the computer sends information to the monitor to display on the screen. Sometimes the information sent to the screen is not updated and is displayed incorrectly.

If this happens, you may need to refresh your screen manually. When on the Internet, it is easy. There is a button dedicated to this task on the toolbar at the top of your screen. It look like a circular arrow. (All Internet programs have a button for Refresh. Internet Explorer's button is at the top. AOL's button is to the left of the address bar.)

A common example involves the Internet. Web sites are transmitted to your computer via your Internet connection (phone line or broadband connection). Sometimes a part of the transmission fails and the information sent to the screen is incomplete. Using the Refresh Button forces your computer to re-download the information and redisplay it on the screen.

A more difficult situation to explain (and fix) occurs irregularly on some computers. Sometimes, when you are not online, the screen is still displayed incorrectly. It could be that a picture inserted into a Word document does not fully appear or a block of information appears to "float over" your work.

This is far less common and more difficult to fix. One solution is to save your work, exit the program, and then restart the program. If that doesn't fix the display, shut down and restart the computer.

This sort of display problem results from confusion between your computer hardware and the software instructions that operate the hardware.

One long term solution is to update video drivers. Video drivers are the software instructions created by the video card manufacturer for the particular brand of video card in your computer. These drivers are available at either the computer manufacturer's web site or the video card manufacturer's web site. (If you don't know the video card manufacturer, look through the documentation or invoice that came with the computer.)

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