[BleakSituation]

hp pavilion elite m9040n
intel core 2 quad processor
nvidia geforce 8400 gs graphics card

Hi all, new to the forums but not computers.
I suspect my families HP pavilion elite m9040 n desktop is experiencing some graphics card issues. We've had it for a few years and only recently began experiencing these issues. Thinking it was an OS issue I wiped the hard rive and began to reinstall a fresh copy of windows 7. After boot up the windows 7 install screen is presented, but it is oddly mottled and the colors are oddly off. The screen is crisscrossed with intersecting lines of dark red and black. An image of this screen is attached below. A similar image was presented when trying to install vista. The only luck Ive had is with ubuntu which boots up fine and works for several hours before shutdown and then it will refuse to boot up for 2-4 hours. More specifically it will boot but present a screen of alternating red and black horizontal stripes. Within ubuntu oddly discolored screens will flash during boot up after this occurs.
Its obvious to me this is a hardware problem as different operating systems react similarly to the issue. My first thought after OS issues was perhaps it was a problem with the monitor. I hooked up another computer however and it worked fine.

So now I figure it must be a hardware problem with the computer. Unfortunately I have little/no experience with computer hardware and can only guess at whats going on. I suspect the graphics card is compromised somehow. The computer has a history of motherboard issues however so the issue may be related to that.
Any help diagnosing/fixing this issue would be greatly appreciated.

[black-wolf]

Have you updated the GPU driver?

[DoubleHelix]

It's not a driver issue since it happens during a Windows installation.

[BleakSituation]

In any case the drivers are all up to date.

[DoubleHelix]

No drivers are loaded when you're at the Windows 7 installation screen. This is clearly a hardware problem.

[BleakSituation]

Thats what I figured. I suppose I should replace the graphics card and cross my fingers? How much is that going to run me?

[Triple6]

You may be experiencing the widespread nVidia GPU failure from a few years ago, see here: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...a-g84-g86s-bad

You can replace the video card in the system with one like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131338
That graphics card is newer and a bit faster then the 8400GS.
If you want more graphics performance for gaming then you can go with a more powerful card.

OR

Just remove the graphics card altogether and plug into the motherboard's integrated Intel graphics, I just realized it has integrated Intel graphics.