display between boot and login is corrupted - HELP

Hi,

I've posted in a few threads about this already but I wanted to restart it bc there's been no resolution yet and I'm worried something may be corrupted. My original thread is here and a conversation with Sniper, who reported the same problem, is here .

I have Windows XP and FC5 on a dual boot. The grub screen is fine (now, it had some issues when first installed), and if I choose XP all proceeds as normal. If I choose FC5, the next screen (which should be telling me about the lvm's and uncompressing the kernel) doesn't display properly - the text shows up only as rows of dots (Sniper pointed out that it looks like braille). I know all is loading ok because the dots are green, not red. Once it gets to the login screen it is perfectly normal, and I have no further complications when using FC5. When it shuts down though instead of the screen where it says what's happening I get a multicoloured line display. One time the monitor shut off completely during this time. This only happens every 3 out of 4 boots which is why I know what the screen is supposed to say.

Grub works fine, so it isn't grub I am told. The video card hasn't kicked in yet so it's not the video card (once again I am told). Sniper had the same problem and tried it on several different screens so it isn't the monitor. FC5 has been on my computer for less than a week and has been doing this since install (I installed off ISO files from a hard drive). So is my kernel corrupted and needs drastic action or is this just a weird who-knows and nothing really to worry about?!

This is ONLY in between telling grub which OS to boot and logging into FC5.

My hardware:
two hard drives, one 60 GB (the dual boot), and one 20 GB (slave); both unmounted, both fat32
Pentium 3 at 866 MHz w. 384 MB SD RAM
nVidia GeForce FX 5500 AGP 2X w. 256 MB DDR RAM
Samsung SyncMaster 750s CRT

Really appreciate any thoughts!