I'm sorry that I can't contribute anything useful but I really have to say that I laughed my a.. off after Lou's post.
Best one of 2011 so far.  ;D

Ah, maybe one comment. Could it be that the latency or whatever related graphics corruption has the same source as the former artifacts and flashes on the 707 which were ruled out by 1.2?
Some systems experienced them, others not.
I've read about sound problems when going for bufferpools tweaks as they seem to stress the bus load which is the only transfer line for all CPU to GPU, SATA and Sound actions. Increased and time sensible load there might trigger some things to drop. Seems like the sound is one of the obvious and first ones then and acts as a clear sign for too much load there with other symptoms to follow.

I think Bojote explained the increased bus load coming with his bufferpools tweak.
I don't know if you run those tweaks but a test without them might help to clear things and error sources then.