T61 video flicker/tearing

I have a T61 that's had problems with full screen video flicker since I first got it. In Windows Media Player, normal widescreen TV shows play back fine without any problems. Full screen and really wide aspect videos (like movies) often have a flickering or tearing problem in full screen. It basically makes them unwatchable. Sometimes re-opening the video a few times helps, but a lot of the time, I just can't watch it full screen. In VLC the issue is less noticeable, but there is still tearing all the time. This is using ffdshow for playback.

 

I'm sorry, I am not describing this very well. Tearing is not the correct term. In VLC for instance, the "flickering" is basically a large portion of the screen flashing rapidly during full screen playback of a full frame video. Windows Media Player with ffdshow does the same thing, except the pattern is a bit different.

I have NEVER had the problem with a normal widescreen video. It's entirely limited to full screen and really wide aspects. I have not run into this problem on any other computer, even running the same versions of WMP, VLC, ffdshow, etc. The video drivers on my T61 are up to date.

I'd really appreciate some help on this. It's been a constant problem since the day I bought the laptop, and I've never been able to isolate the cause.

 

Could you post more info about your T61, type and model?