ATI 5970 Intermittent Freezing

Alright, so i've googled the sh*t out of this...so apologies if someone has posted already.

Problem lies in watching video, whether it be VLC with dvd's or xvids or just youtube...i frequently get freezing. The audio will continue in the background while a still image of the video and desktop remains. In this state i'm able to move the mouse but clicking icons etc. doesn't work.
After a few seconds of this state, the screen will go black and the audio will stop...then screen comes straight back on, audio continues from where it stopped and all icons clicked in the frozen state come into effect i.e. web browser opens etc. and gives the caution "ATI driver stopped responding and has recovered". This happens on an irregular basis but is constant at 10-15 min intervals. Games are fine.

I'm running the 10.2 catalyst, and it's been happening since I've had the card at 9.11. A million reinstalls and driver updates, so that's not it.

System stuff:

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
MOBO: Gigabyte EX58-UD3R
Processor: Intel i7 920 STOCK
Memory: 6144MB RAM

Anything else you need to know, just ask.

Below is an image from GPU-Z. You can see the clockspeed rising as it starts to choke, but with no load? As it peaks thats when my screen goes blank...then it comes back on and all is good. WTF!?


Thanks for your help in advance guys...as you can imagine i'm ripping my hair out trying to watch stuff!! And with a $1000AUS card!