Black squares that goes away when hovering mouse or clicking on it

Question

As the images below shows(Sorry, links, I need 10 rep to post images), I'm having problems with black squares. I have noticed it happening in MonoDevelop and on my windows start button.

The one happening in MonoDevelop goes away only if I click on it (hovering mouse doesn't work) and happens 100% of the time. As soon as MonoDevelop tries to show that window, it shows up as black.

The one on my windows start button goes away by hovering on it. It happens when I change my screen resolution or extend the display to another screen.

Yesterday it was fine, I worked all day long without a problem. This morning this is happening. It's frustrating because i can't work like that, it is slowing me down immensely.

Here's what happened though.. Yesterday, during the evening, after work, I decided to play Tomb Raider 2 (on steam) but couldn't because of a bug (abnormal program termination). So I uninstalled Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 redist x86 and x64 and reinstalled them, then did the same for my graphic card drivers but nothing helped so I just went to sleep.

Since I reinstalled all of those things, I assumed it wasn't a problem but I thought I'd share the info anyway. Right after posting this, i'll reinstall them again and see if it helps. [EDIT] I just did repair both x86 and x64 c++ redist and my graphic card drivers but the black squares are still happening.

I was wondering if any of you had that problem or a similar problem before, I would greatly appreciate any pointers!

(I'm using Windows 7 64bit with a two-way sli GeForce and two monitors)

Answer 1

From : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2004729

After changing the color depth in Windows 7 to High Color (16-bit), a black box may appear around the Start button on the taskbar.

This problem only occurs on some systems after setting the color depth to High Color (16bit). The effect is cosmetic in nature and does affect the performance of Windows or the Start button.

To work around this behavior, use one of the following steps below:

Change the color depth in Windows to True Color (32-bit).

Drag the mouse over the Start button. This should cause the Start button to get repainted and display correctly.

That was indeed the problem. While trying to make that game work, I did change the color depth to 16-bit.

Changing it to 32-bit fixed the problem.