I was using my laptop (Dell Inspiron 8600)when all of a sudden it froze in a destorted, bad resolution. I hit esc then a white screen came up with different colored lines on it. I turned it off and tried turning it back on - it works for awhile - resolution still doesn't look quite right - then lines start coming on screen - vertical that are in rows of about 1" - 1 1'2" accross then a skip an more lines. Red, green, blue etc

Try hooking the laptop up to an external monitor. The should be a blue VGA monitor port somewhere on one of the sides. If the picture comes through that clearly, then something is either wrong with the display or the connection between the display and motherboard. The connection can either come undone or break completely if the laptop has suffered any kind of physical abuse (being dropped etc.) IF the picture on the external monitor is also bad, then that means that graphics chip on the motherboard is bad. This will require a new motherboard, which in turn means the costs will add up to it being a better idea to just buy another laptop.
If you don't know what you're doing in troubleshooting inside the laptop, then take it to a computer shop. Lots of stuff you can do wrong, here.

Hello,

It sounds like either the screen or the signal cable connecting it to the motherboard is defective. The screen is going to need to be replaced.

Hope this helps.