it might be the drivers, before the 6800 i had a 9800 all in one that died honorable thermal death at the age of two... just when the warranty expired, how nice... anyways the thing is it never gave me that trouble... things you could try include installing the newest drivers, reinstalling the older drivers that came with the card, you could also want to check the overlay settings of the driver or, as you did, just ignoring image planes and use a plane with the texture on it...