Could it be a monitor setting like contrast or is that what you meant by changing the brightness to %150? Have you tried changing things like your refresh rate and the like. What type of monitor and other hardware do you have? Also, if you can get your hands on one, try a different video card. Maybe there is something wrong with the one you are using. Doing that should narrow down what the cause could be. If a different vid card does the same thing, then you know it is not the vid card. Let us know what is up.

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