Problem with my graphics card?

Ok so here is a step-by-step of what happened with my computer.



1. Turned on monitor to see that it had crashed to a black screen with type but couldn't read due to vertical lines scrambling the words.



2. Restarted computer, was prompted to run startup repair.



3. Startup repair couldn't fix it, so I rolled back the system with system restore to a few days earlier.



4. Computer starts up ok but at the windows login screen the image is there but there are pink tinted areas on the screen, mouse and keyboard are unresponsive. Had to restart.



5. Was prompted to run startup repair again, this time windows starts up and there are no problems. This lasts for about a day and suddenly the desktop gets the pink splotches again and I can barely move the mouse pointer.



6. Thinking it was a software or driver issue, in an act of desperation I reformatted the hard drive back to factory settings.



7. Restarted computer, gets to windows logo screen, then a blown up, out of screen proportion blue error screen appears, doesn't stay long enough for me to read before computer restarts automatically.



8. Cannot get computer to startup past windows logo without blue error, got a tip from a friend to remove the video card.



9. Computer starts up great now, reinstalled windows and all my drivers.



10. Put video card back in, and windows continues to go blue error screen after logo.



11. Computer works fine without video card or if it's disabled in device manager.





After disabling it and doing normal desktop functions, I decided to take it back out. I noticed the metal fan case on the card was almost hot enough to burn me. The fan was spinning the entire time, is this kind of heat normal considering I wasn't playing any games or graphically demanding tasks?



THE QUESTION: Does this sound like the graphics card is bad or could it be the motherboard? If you had to guess between the two what would you say?|||Dead graphics card for certain. Funky colors and screen artifacts are a definite symptom.



Graphics cards can run boiling hot literally (> 100C) but that should only be under load. They can get very hot to touch (~60C) even at idle.



If the heatsink isn't exposed, try taking the shroud (metal cover) off the card. A dust clogged heatsink will cause those kind of overheating shutdowns. It's very likely that a cooled card will behave (or it could be burnt out permanently)|||Your video card is shot...|||Ok, Im almost definite you had a graphics card issue. Now, what that issue was I cant express to you as I dont know. My Theory is that your graphics card was defective, and burned out. Although I dont know the history or how long youve had your computer, it probably shouldnt matter in this case. If I were to decide between the two I would most definitely choose the graphics card. Only because you mentioned it worked properly when it was removed. Otherwise, I wouldve suspected a motherboard warp of some sort. But then again..I dont know it could be a conflict with the board and the card.