satman

Hi Ocko,. sorry first about the late update but this hopefully will help if youre still having problems.
If you remember I had exactly the same problem with my X57,. colours morphing, unstable display etc.
The fix was sucessful when the following was carried out.
1. Get the hard disc totally wiped so that all traces of data are completely destroyed, this means everything and not a simple overwrite as with a reinstallation.
2. The ORIGINAL version of Vista (32bit only !!!)for your machine (ultimate) needs to be reinstalled, so find a kind soul to assist (since youve now no back up of Vista on your HDD) You can use your own serial no on the base of your laptop since original vista software isnt sensitive disc/serial no.
3. Using the disc that came with the laptop reinstall all the necessary drivers that match up to your machine. 7400 graphics etc,.+ others
4. Get the machine running properly as per factory spec before installing more software.

It turns out that the X57 has a bad attitude problem with the 7400 graphix set up and vista combination, and some corruption occours which causes the screen instability,. its nothing more than that,.and if all goes well the above will definitely take it back to "out of the box" condition.

As a matter of interest there are no easy ways around using XP Pro with the X57, even though XP is the more favoured. The X57 was built specifically for Vista and thats why drivers for the graphics are as good as non existant.

Hope this helps