Windows boots with 4 colours - why?

[cimurray]

I bought a new system for my daughter which is occasionally booting up with only four colours on the screen - specs are detailed below. The issue goes away after a couple of reboots and it behaves perfectly thereafter for the rest of the day. The system was purchased pre-built and all I have done is to install Windows XP on to it. Anyone got any idea why it would do this and, more importantly, how do I stop it?

Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.40GHz (800FSB)
- Asus P5K SE Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
- Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 DHX PC2-6400C5DHX TwinX (2x1GB)
- OcUK GeForce 9600 GT 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Daul DVI (PCI-Express)
- Corsair 650W SLI TX Power Supply
- Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
- Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVDRW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black)

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Make sure you have installed the latest P35 chipset drivers and NVIDIA video drivers in that order.

Then make head off into the NVIDIA control panel and change the video setting to optimal.

If the problem persists then check the video cable is ok by swapping it with a known working one.
There could be a loose connection.