[editor-surveyor]

>> “Try booting into safe mode.” <<

.
I did that one better, I booted the machine in MS DOS 6.2, and ran a complex high resolution AutoCAD rendering, and it displays perfectly.

The hardware is fine.

This thing is “intelligent.” It turns the blue title bar at the top of the program windows into a diagonal scrolling rainbow, but only the bar, nothing else is like that. The rest of the screen (’desktop’) is faded horizontal bars.

[Delmarksman]

Try f-secure.com free scanner.

[jennychase]

Install new graphic driver. Check whether nvdia and Microsoft (default) driver are conflicting.
Or check registry whether yellow mark is present.

[mmichaels1970]

I did that one better, I booted the machine in MS DOS 6.2, and ran a complex high resolution AutoCAD rendering, and it displays perfectly.

Impressive. Then I'd suspect a rootkit and try combofix. If you can pull off running AutoCAD rendering from an MS Dos 6.2 boot, combofix shouldn't intimidate you at all.