Severely garbled BIOS text and resolution malfunction. Dead GPU?

[Timo]

A few pics of my problem:

http://www.infekted.org/timo/damaged-post1.jpg
http://www.infekted.org/timo/damaged-post2.jpg
http://www.infekted.org/timo/damaged-bios1.jpg
http://www.infekted.org/timo/damaged-bios2.jpg

As you can see from the pics, the POST and BIOS text during booting has turned to the dark side, and the resolution inside of Windows is limited to a maximum of 800 x 600.

Partly sure this is a graphics card problem, but wanted to check with you guys if it could be something more serious like a motherboard problem, as I'm unsure why a graphics card malfunction would affect the POST/BIOS.

I did have something very similar happen to a laptop I had many moons ago, almost identical symptoms and I believe that was a GPU problem too.

Unfortunately I don't have another graphics card to swap out and test. Will likely grab one off fleaBay.

Specs:
Q9450 2.67GHz Core2 Quad
2 x 2GB 533MHz DDR2 RAM
nVidia GeForce 8800GT (MSI NX8800GT Zilent)
Windows 8.1 64-bit, fully updated

Many thanks.

[Jasp]

Looks like a toasted GPU tbh, the 8800 range suffered from bad solder issues during the day, surprised its lasted this long. Even the bios has to output through the GPU so would show corruption during the bios boot also.

Depending on how adventurous you are feeling their are a few guides on the net how to cook the GPU in the oven to re flow the solder, works for around a month normally then dies again, makes your kitchen smell pretty bad though

[Biscuit]

You could always pick up a cheapo £20 GPU to check it and make sure thats the issue. Always handy to have a basic backup GPU!

[chrisFletcher]

You could always pick up a cheapo £20 GPU to check it and make sure thats the issue. Always handy to have a basic backup GPU!

My 8800GTS died years ago in a similar way, I'm afraid he's dead Jim. Worth picking up a cheap card like you say just to be sure though

[shaithis]

I've seen a few 8800's of various descriptions give the symptoms in "post1.jpg"......it's a common problem.

If you know someone who can reflow, it may be worth re-doing the GPU solder, otherwise it's time for a new card.

[Timo]

Thanks, sorry for the huge delay in replying, I can confirm it was indeed the graphics card. Installing a cheap, temporary 9600GT replacement solved all queries.