[dba-Tech] Display Problem

Dear Lists:
 
After two years of flawless service the display on my Dell XPS 8300 went
wonky over the weekend.  Screens black.  
 
I have two monitors - one connected via HDMI, one DVI.  I reconnected one
with VGA and was able to get one display working - though ugly.  
 
So I went to Frys and got an MSI board, and spent two days with MSI tech
support trying to get it to work (BTW - they're next to useless).  
 
Finally decided to take it back and I put the old video board in the comp
and fired it up and lo and behold it's working - almost.
 
The problem is the same one I had with the MSI when we finally got the point
where I had dual monitors working again - I don't get all the colors on some
apps.
 
Desktop shows all colors.  
Access app shows no colors except objects that are embedded graphics. Text
is in black in spite of the forecolor set in the properties sheet.
My colorful CPU usage monitor which shows all eight cores in a different
color - no colors on the bar graph, but the line graph at the bottom does
show colors.
Outlook is missing some colors.
Most web pages do not display correctly. 
 
The video is AMD Radeon HD 6450. I don't think it is the problem since I had
the same problem with the colors with the MSI video card.  And windows
determined that the driver is up to date. As are the drivers for the
displays.
 
I tried to do a system restore but the last one in the list is from October
6 and it will not restore - has some kind of error.
 
I am at a loss as to what to do.  I do have a set of restore disks I made
when I got the box but I'd like to avoid the nuclear option and save the two
days it would take to get everything back on line. 
 
I do have backups of everything important (Ghosted the system a couple of
days ago).
 
I am open to all suggestions.  
 
MMTIA,
 
Rocky