Help with strange 'scrambled' effect

[RetroUO]

Not sure where exactly this should go, but as I'm hoping it's a software issue, I'll put it here.
Starting a few days ago every once in a while my screens scramble. It appears to happen totally randomly. The only way to fix it is to reboot, so it's very annoying when it comes up right in the middle of something. Here are some screenshots. The first one is the overall screeny of both monitors, just shrunk down to 20% and the second is a full size picture cropped out of the top left corner of my main monitor. You'll probably have to copy and paste the URL to see the pics, cause apparently geocities doesn't like it if I link directly to them...
http://www.geocities.com/retro_rahl/ScrambledShrunk.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/retro_rahl/ScrambledCropped.JPG

As I was able to get a screenshot of it, it's not my monitors, it has to be the vid card or something. I did install new drivers for my Radeon 9800 Pro... I have no idea what the problem is, can anyone help me? If I left out any pertinent information, please just ask.

Thanks

 

[dicecca112]

is the video card overclocked? If it is then lower the clock, if you have a spare card lying around, throw that in and lower the clock. If it isn't try unistalling the drivers, and install the last set of drivers that worked best for you but first find a program that completely removes any remnance of the drivers to be sure that there are no traces left.

 

[RetroUO]

Not overclocked, and I actually never changed drivers since my last re-format months ago. So the last drivers that worked for me are the same as the drivers I had running when it started doing it... So, I tried updating the drivers and that didn't fix it either.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

The JPG files are corrupted.

 

[Drec]

there not corrupted lol thats what is on his monitor...sorry man but the same thing happend to my old TnT2 just before it hit the crapper...im afraid its most likly your vid card....test it out on another machine and see if it is,

 

[diehrd]

Check the moniters connection to the card as well as the AGP slot it is mounted in.

 

[RetroUO]

ok, this morning the scrambled effect happened and when i rebooted it didn't fix it. Multiple reboots didn't fix it. So I'm now running on an old Geforce 2 I had lying around. So far it hasn't happened. If it doesn't happen by later this afternoon I'm gonna assume it was the vid card and do my final check by putting my Radeon 9800 Pro into the family computer to see if it works. Also, if I can get a screenshot of it it's not my monitors... If it was the connection to my monitors the screenshot would be normal, but since I can screenshot it that means thats what the vid card is actually putting out. The AGP slot could be it, which is something I'll check if this card does do it, but if this card doesn't and a re-seat my old card and it does do it... Then the final test will be placing it in another system and if it does it I guess it's fried and there's nothing I can do about it?
Anyways, this stinks if it's my vid card, anyone have any idea what happened? Maybe I'll post that in the vid card forum... I'd like to know if something happened to it or maybe if I did something wrong (sure can't think of anything). I've had the card less than a year, it shouldn't have messed up yet.

 

[Zerileous]

that bytes man, at least you have the trusty old gf4mx440, along with an excuse to spend all that money you have been saving up on an x800xtpe