Video tearing on my 24" iMac

I have been having an issue with my 24" iMac for the past couple of months and I was wondering if you have heard of this issue before. I am getting what I guess would be described as video tearing. On occasion, and with no obvious pattern to it, I will get a weird horizontal line of noise that goes across just a certain open window, not the entire screen. I have been able to take screenshots of this, but I don't think I can post those in the discussions.
Anyhow, it happens in Firefox, Word, Mail, etc. There does not seem to be any program that is immune to this issue, and it doesn't happen all the time. It appears to be quite random.
I have checked the Apple Support site and the only thing I found were some old discussions about a tearing issue with previous generation iMacs. If I remember correctly, they were pretty old iMacs. Nothing about this issue in the recent past.
The video tearing sometimes goes away if I scroll up/down the window, and sometimes it doesn't. Though, more often than not, it goes away by scrolling.
My machine is coming up on a year old next month, so if I need to use my warranty, I need to do it soon.
Have you heard about this issue at all? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
My system specs are as follows:
24" Intel iMac purchased 9/06
2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
1 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
I have not upgraded the hardware in anyway.
Thanks again for your help!

Hello lizardsrdizzy!
Did this video tearing issue for sure just start happening, or did you just notice it for the first time? I ask only because this sounds like the known Apple/ATI issue that many of us with ATI video cards have had, but only eventually noticed.
HOWEVER, since you do NOT have an ATI video card, I'd definitely recommend you need to pursue this flaw immediately within warranty/AppleCare.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86823
I strongly recommend adding AppleCare to maintain the value of your iMac, either for your own use, or for eventual resale. Considering the original cost of your setup and the still rather high cost of replacing a 24-inch display, at full cost AppleCare will be a bargain and that cost will either be fully returned to you the first time you need to use it, or when you resell your iMac. Discounted it's available from Amazon and various Mac sellers.
If you need to get a bigger bargain, occasionally they show up, but give yourself time to find one on eBay, and refer to my recent post here:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=4980575#4980575
Best of luck, and please return to let us know the resolution of the matter.
Message was edited by: myhighway

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