Artifacts on winXp backdrop with HD3870

Hi there,

Just bought a Sapphire HD3870 Ultimate Edition. After installing the new card I get gfx-artifacts on the backdrop image after WinXP has started. I see this issue on virtually every boot, and the "dirt" stays on the backdrop image until a new backdrop is set or the system is rebooted.

Screenshot:
http://cid-28ccb6a5492fbde7.skydri [...] ifacts.jpg


The artifacts usually displays as a distorted horizontal line (complete or partial) and it looks similar to if you overclock the GPU or the memory above its limits. However, I have not tampered with overcloking for this card. The issue came "out of the box".

I get the artifacts with both Catalyst 8.12 & 9.1 and I used DriverCleaner before installing the drivers. (I was unable to install older drivers for some strange reason).

Are there any other HD3870 owners out there experiencing similar issues, or would you suggest that my particular piece/unit is malfunctioning? :-|
I'm not seeing similar artifacts when playing games or running programs.

Any help is appreciated.
Thanks