Display problems, please help!!!

Though I don't want to come across as someone who disses Dell for the hell of it, I do seem to have drawn the short straw with my Inspiron 8600. After finally getting my laptop back again after a two month wait for the Dell customer service to replace my motherboard, my display is starting to play up
I had this problem about half a year back as well, though it seemed to go away on its own after a while. The problem in question is I seem to be getting these really strange sets of vertical lines accross my display. I plugged in an external monitor, I get the same lines on there as well so I guess its not the screen itself. I tried unplugging the monitor from the computer bit and cleaning the connection, but didn't work either. This is what it looks like:
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/5187/displayproblem0sf.jpg
The lines/boxes change color and change in number as I scroll around with the mouse, or type something. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as it is getting quite frustrating.
Thanks!

 

Not sure whether this comes under hardware or software,so apologies if I got it wrong

 

Oh yeah, its an Inspiron 8600 laptop, 1.69 GHz, 512MB RAM, ATI Radeon Mobility 9600. I'm guessing its got something to do with the graphics card?

 

I'm guessing so too!!!!

And since the video is onboard (built into the motherboard)....I would be giving dell a little ring-a-ling, if ya know what I mean, pardner!!!! If they just did the work it should still be warranted for atleast 30 days I would think...so I would do my best to get them to get on it!!!!

Roger

 

one tip try changeing the resolution and/or the refresh rate

 

because with my moniter if i have it in 1280x1024 at 60 Hertz it does wierd stuff like that and if i put to 75 Hertz all is fine

 

Have you tried updating your drivers?

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/index.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

 

MY card once had this.. IT WAS BROKEN :-(

 

Have updated all relevant driversand still the problem persists. Strange thing is I can't seem to change my refresh rate to anything other than 60 Hz. Maybe I'm just being stupid, but looked everywhere n can't seem to change it. Guess I'd better get on the phone again...

 

Oh yeah, something I noticed last night, the lines go away completely when the laptop is running on the battery. Its only when I plug in the AC adapter that the lines start coming up again. Faulty adapter maybe?