Could very well be your video card. The HP Pavilion was the worst laptop decision my wife and I have ever made. NOTHING but problems from this thing. There are 1000's of reports out there about faulty video cards, sound cards, and motherboards. I spoke with a repair tech not too long ago (old friend of ours) and he joked with me.., and the said the laptop problems we're having is "we bought an HP Pavilion" There was a recall on several HP Pavilion models too.., and the problems all had to do with bad video cards and faulty motherboards. I was told by a tech that ONE huge problem with HP Pav laptops is actually a program that does not like to work with ANYTHING.., (not even itself). That program is the HP desktop manager. It's HUGE.., is always running and has MANY MANY MANY software glitches that cause the system to run poorly.

Good luck and I hope you get your HP Pav back up and running. My wife said she'll never buy another one (and she's very proficient with computers too.., tons of computer prog. courses (not basic classes either--real courses like Cobalt, C++ and other programing course.. She can run speak and program DOS in her sleep too)