HP Pavilion Slimline Graphics Problem

[chacol]

A friend of mine wants me to fix his computer and it seems to be having a problem with the graphics card.

The situation is that every time you boot the computer, it goes into sleep mode. I believe this is due to a bad graphics card that is causing it to immediately go into sleep mode.

I've tested the computer with 2 monitors to make sure that wasn't the problem, and both of them did the same thing.

I'm not sure if this is a problem with the graphics card or the VGA port on the computer. Any ideas on how I could look into this to make sure it is the graphics card before having to replace it?

I cannot go into safe mode or anything because it doesn't even go past POST, all it shows is no VGA input detected and goes straight into sleep mode.

 

[chacol]

Now instead of paying $85 to replace the entire motherboard because it has an integrated video card, would I be able to purchase a separate video card to put in an expansion slot and make it still work?