Had an annoying issue with Splinter Cell: Conviction on the PC in that when I started the game I could hear the audio playing, but my monitor came up with an 'Out of Range' message as though the resolution was set too high, or the resolution was set to an obscure setting which my monitor didn't support.

After trawling through a few posts I can safely say the best way to get this working is as follows:

1. Go to ATI or Nvidia web site and download the lastest drivers (in my case I have an ATI HD5770 so I wouold advise you to use driver version 10.5 if you have similar hardware as this has some performance fixes for Conviction anyway)
2. Ensure you have the February 2010 DirectX update for your OS, as again this has numerous fixes and performance benefits for Conviction
3. If the above fails and you are still having problems (and you have ATI graphics hardware) go into Catalyst Control Center > Graphics > 3D and ensure AA, and AF are using application setting
4. Finally if you are still having problems, go into the Splinter Cell: Conviction install directory and edit the ConvictionUserPC.ini file (if you are using Vista or Windows 7 you may have to open Program Data > Ubisoft > ConvictionUserPC.ini instead of the Program Files version). In this file you should have some options listed FullScreenViewPortX/Y – this is where you specify te resolution of your monitor (the defaults in my file where set to 1920 and 1080 – way above what my monitor would support). In my case i set mine to:

   FullScreenViewPortX=1440

   FullScreenViewPortY=900

After making the above changes my copy of Splinter Cell: Conviction works perfectly.