Video Flickering with AMD Radeon HD6870 on Alienware M17XR3

Hello,

This is my first post on these forums, so I apologize if this is in the wrong location or format and whatnot.  Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

I have an Alienware M17XR3 with switchable graphics; AMD Radeon HD 6870 (9.3.0.0) and Intel IGP HD 3000.

While using the AMD Card, I get horizontal video flickering along the top and bottom half inch (estimated) of the screen.  When I switch to the IGP, the graphics are fine (other than not being able to run any graphics-intensive applications).

There are slightly newer drivers, but as soon as they are installed, Windows Update attempts to "update" to the version mentioned above.  This is a common complaint with the switchable graphics models.

Now here's where it gets weird.  I started running some diagnostics using the "ATI-Tool" -> "Scan For Artifacts", and as soon as I kick that off, the flickering goes away.  Up until this discovery, I assumed the card simply become unseated or something.  And perhaps that is still the case.  But this is definitely odd.

So, if I use the AMD driver, while running the ATI tool, I can run any application, aside from the fact that the GPU usage spikes to just under 100%, which is undesirable for other reasons.

Does anyone have any idea of what these symptoms could point to?

Thanks again.