Well it just gets more and more interesting as I go along here. The night before last and last night, during a reboot to try to sort things out for a little while, I saw all kinds of weird colours and strange symbols written on them in other colours across the top and the middle of the Windows XP boot up screen. I haven't seen anything like that since my old Mattel Intellivision. I used to see that stuff sometimes when a game would crash.

Can anyone tell me what it is that I'm seeing, and whether it is more likely software or hardware related?

After bootup the desktop had the plaid lines all over it, and UT2k4 was a disaster to try and play.

I opened up the case and got it ready to go for my next round with Dell India. While I had it open I disconnected the power cable from the vid card, and the cpu fan. The noise is definitely from the power supply.

Interestingly, the vid card fan still ran after I disconnected the power cable. It always stopped running before. While at least it should not be a heat issue with the vid card.......
Can anyone tell me if all new drivers can instruct a vid card to draw power from the PCI bus for the fan instead of the power cable?

Here is there site to check up on drivers nameless
http://www.ati.com/

I've had cards that had fans powered from the MOBO and not through a power cable before but still, your situation is different apparently. Borrow a card from someone already and lay this to rest. I say it is hardware and it is your video card unless the monitor is crapping out. Borrow a card for a day from a friend and let us know. Later!

Alas, That reminds me of a nvidia card that I once had. I am afraid it is the hardware. There are no drivers running when you boot up. Only after Windows loads.

If it is still under warrenty, get Dell to fix it. You want a new card. If they do not have one like the one in the system, then a X850XT will do... and it better be FREE!

Good luck.

I still say it's just the drugs.