New build artifacting issues

[Gester4498]

Build stats:

CPU: Intel C2D E6600 2.4g
MB: Asus p5b-e
RAM: Corsair XMS2 DDR-800 (2x 1gig sticks)
HD: Western Digital 150gig Raptor 10000rpm
Vid card: Ati Radeon x1950Pro 512mb - Cat 7.3 drivers
PSU: BFG 650w - Running 2x 12v@20a - 38a combined
OS: WinXP SP2

K here goes with the problem.

Small diagonal boxes with graphic distortions. At first its only a few boxes. If I move the screen after the distortions start or open a menu, they only get worse and tearing starts to occur.

I tried on lower video settings and the problem actually started to occur faster than normal. If I max out every setting it takes almost an hour before the distortions start. If I put the settings to minimum in the CCC control panel the distortions start almost immedietly after starting a game.

Once the distortions start they persist into windows until I do a quick reset. After the reset I can play for a while again before the distortions start.

According to Riva tuner the core temp on the video card never rises above 45C. The core CPU temp never rises above 45C as well according to Sisoftware Sandra.

I have tried adjusting Video settings - both in and out of games - Winxp settings etc. If I run the tests in Dxdiag before the artifacting occurs they run smooth and normal. If I run them after artifacting occurs I get some odd results.

Before artifacting all tests normal.

After artifacting -
Ddraw Test 1 - Squares alternating black and white - normal
Ddraw Test 2 - Moving white square with black background (not full screen) Normal
Ddraw Test 3 - Moving white square with black background (full screen) - The squre moves at INSANE speeds, its just a blur.

D3d test 1-7 - Directx rotating square - moves faster than it should and shows artifacting.
D3d test 2-8 - Directx rotating square - Extremely distorted and blurred looks like 4 squares moving at immense speeds that are too fast for me to make out.
D3d test 3-9 - Not run

This entire Issue has me completely stumped. If anyone has any ideas i'd greatly appreciate it.

[juppy]

Have you tried going to a previous version of the catalyst drivers other than 7.3? That would be my first thing to try, if you haven't already. Be sure to totally uninstall the previous driver from your system (7.3) before installing the new one (7.2, 7.1, etc).

[Gester4498]

I've tried drivers 6.11 through 7.3

I have the omega drivers but I havn't tried them yet. Not sure if that would even resolve the issue.

[juppy]

Probably not, if you've tried that many other drivers already. Worth a shot though I guess, because I honestly don't know what else would cause that problem.

You DID install the .NET architecture before installing the CCC, right? I don't think the CCC will install without it anyway, but I'm not sure on that one.