Video Card or Driver or What?

[JoeMoses]

I'm having abunch of problems with my computer that all stemmed from one problem and me trying to fix it. While playing a game about a week ago, my screen formed these distorted color lines about five big ones vertically, and much smaller, but many more horizontal ones. I restarted my computer and let it slide then, but finally it got to a point where it would happen every time i power up. I tried reloading my video drives, but that didnt help. I took my card out of my tower, then put it back in to make sure it was in tight, and that fixed it for a while. Now i think its starting to show up again, kind of slowly. Maybe my video card is loose, or maybe its something else. Any help would be appreciated.

Specs:
Radeon 9700 All-In-Wonder 128MB (with newest ATI drivers)

[chade]

Sounds like a failing video card - it's hard to be sure whether it's due to RAM, other physical failure, or overheating.

Since overheating is fixable - try and find out if it's that first.  Leave your case open when you boot up, and point a decent desk fan straight at the card. See if that fixes things on a temprary basis - you could replace the heat sinks/fans on the graphics card for a premanant fix if this is the case.

[Raptor]

Are you overclocking? If you think the card is loose, why not have a look?

Did you properly uninstall videocard drivers? As in uninstalling first, cleaning registry and then installing updated ones.

Did you check to see if your monitor is capable of achieving the refresh rate you have it set to?