Why is my LCD monitor showing odd patterns if I launch Windows?

Q My Windows XP PC recently started displaying strange patterns on its LCD monitor. It seems fine if I launch Windows in Safe Mode but otherwise the screen starts looking weird.

Do I have a nasty virus lodged in the Bios or is this a failing graphics card? It’s a 128MB ATI Radeon 9800.
Peter Matthew

A From what you tell us this problem occurs only when Windows is fully launched. If the graphics card was failing the same issue would occur in Safe Mode or even as Windows launches.

So, it seems unlikely to us that the graphics card is faulty. Instead, it seems much more likely that the card’s driver has somehow become corrupted. This would explain why the problem does not occur in Safe Mode, where Windows uses its own (basic) graphics card driver.

Our advice, then, is to download and re-install the latest graphics driver. AMD (the company that now owns ATI) is no longer developing the Windows XP drivers for ATI graphics cards but an archive of all past drivers is available.