I have a motherboard/graphics card problem please help

[analogfish]

Hi guys, im not very good at computers so please excuse my ignorance.

My computer has been acting up lately.

1. sometimes when i boot it up, it starts up and i can hear the beeps and the fan running and the lights on the CPU is on but the monitor will say "no display detected". after turning off the computer a few times only then will it start to boot normally and show up on the monitor.

2. when im playing games or watching youtube or sometimes just surfing the net the picture will get a little bit distorted. Colourful lines will show up and flash through the screen and sometimes it will suddenly black out. then come back on again with an error saying video card has crashed. when this happens and i continue to play my video on youtube after a minute or so my computer will crash (blue screen)

3. sometimes (alot of times) after the above has happened. i turn the computer on again and the lines are just there. sometimes it leaves sometimes it just stay there for as long as the computer is turned on.

So these are the problems that has occurred.

im thinking the obvious one would be that i need to get my graphics card changed?
but im not sure it could be the motherboard too?

please help as im not sure as to what is going on.


my computer specs are:

intel core 2 duo E7300 2.66ghz
motherboard: ep43-ds3 pci-e
4gb ram ddr2
ati radeon hd 4800

thank you everyone in advance.

 

[rolli59]

Most likely your GPU, which brings up the question have you cleaned it? Your problem might be temperature related and dust and lint in the heat sink would imper its ability to cool.