Flashing Color Bars - major frustration

I'm a recent convert from Final Cut Express to Final Cut Pro. I've got a brand new setup using my 15" Powerbook, a Miglia Director's Cut SCART to convert my Firewire to analog video for use with an external video monitor. I'm currently working in PAL with a PAL monitor.
I just created my first project in FCP; it's set up as DV PAL and I've imported just one PAL DV clip into the timeline.
My problem: about every 57 seconds I get about a one second flash of colorbars on my external monitor. This is driving me bonkers. It doesn't matter if FCP is playing back the clip, or simply sitting idle.
I've discovered if I start another app and FCP is no longer the active app, these same bars come on the external monitor all the time. When FCP again becomes the active app, my external monitor again correctly shows video...but with that once a minute color bar flash.
These bars also don't look like what I'm familiar with in the past. They consist of a single row...there's no second or third row of patches. The first column is half-width and white, followed by the colors and last column is half-width black.
This flashing is driving me nuts. Does anyone have any idea what's going on here?...and how to stop this?
Thanks
Doug
1.67 GHz 15" Powerbook   Mac OS X (10.4.5)   2 GB RAM

Andy, your response is well thought out. Shortly after my last post, I discovered for myself these bars are indeed being output by the Miglia box. When I shut down the computer for the evening, only the Miglia box and monitor remained on...and you guessed it...I still had bars on the screen. So the bars themselves are coming from the Miglia box.
Also, as you deduced, this apparently occurs when the box receives no input. The next logical deduction is that Firewire communication is being interfered with. I was suspicious of that myself. At the moment, I have no anti-virus software installed. Furthermore, I was certain to have all programs shut down and used Activity Monitor to insure any unnecessary processes were shut down as well. (The only thing running was Snaps Pro, which I shut down; everything else appeared to be system stuff.)
I've used two different cables and two different Firewire inputs. One configuration had the Miglia box on its own bus with nothing else connected. None of this made any difference.
So at this point, I'm getting suspicious about the Miglia box itself. I'll give them a call today and see what they have to say.
Thanks,
Doug
1.67 GHz 15" Powerbook   Mac OS X (10.4.5)   2 GB RAM

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