Computer causing screen issues

[10smom]

Hello

I have a 17' unibody attached to a dell 24 inch monitor

I will attached image of what I am seeing. I thought it was the internets but it happens in all offline windows as well. I have the CPU stats on my menu bar but I do not see anything taking up resources.

Basically I see the attached image in every window, especially when I try and scroll the page. Can someone tell me what could be causing the problem and what I can do to fix?

Obviously this does not happen all the time and if I restart then it is fine for a long while.

I sometimes leave application on I use a lot on for a long while. including Macspeech. Can something like that cause t his type of problem even though it shows no problem in the CPU stats?

TIA for the help

 

[Tomorrow]

You may have checked all of these, but this is how I'd troubleshoot it:

Does the resolution sent from the Mac to the monitor match the resolution of the monitor?

Has this arrangement ever worked? Or is this the first time you're hooking it up, and it hasn't ever worked?

What type of connectors are you using to connect to the monitor? (VGA, DVI, etc.)

Are you able to connect a different monitor?

I'd hate to think it's the video adapter, because I suspect if it were, you wouldn't get a usable screen on the MBP, either.

 

[10smom]

Thanks for the reply!

It is not just the monitor but both screens are showing these in opened windows. Been working fine since I restarted before I posted this question. I have not opened too many applications. So not sure what is causing it.