Is my Nvidia 8300gs card dying?

Three days ago I found the computer safe mode with the message: Windows has recovered from an unexpected shutdown...and so on...Computer then would boot normally, but after a few minutes the monitor would go black. After shutting down with the button, the boot sequence would read Windows did not shut down normally...

From there I got it to boot normally a couple of times, but after a few minutes a single mouse-click on something would kill the monitor again...eventually it would only boot into safe mode -- by itself. The graphics deteriorated to a more pixelated fuzzy mess, and suddenly even before the OS started it was low resolution (clue #1?)

I upgraded the driver to the latest (clean install) and last night things seemed fine. I left it on all night and this morning everything was fine and it worked great...for a few minutes.

System Restore didn't help (grasping at straws here) but in Safe Mode With Networking everything seems just as it should (for safe mode, that is...). I am going to try to reset the card but I'm wondering if I'm correct in thinking it's probably the graphics card? Can you suggest any definitive tests? (other than replacing it )

Thanks,
Philip

Oh, Win7 Ultimate on an older 2 core Dell
Details of Error:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 116
BCP1: FFFFFA8005E9E010
BCP2: FFFFF8800F764080
BCP3: 0000000000000000
BCP4: 0000000000000002
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 256_1

if it is booting up in safe mode that could be the video card going out or the cpu getting too hot .

I'm looking for some guidance here, I know it's a minefield of "might be's" and "could be's" but I'm seeking any advice on how I might eliminate some of the other suspects...

(please, help me before I take my graphics card out and "bake it in the oven" )

Problem solved, or at least I think I have have bought some time…13thPanther’s mention of the motherboard overheating gave me the clue.
I took the side off the computer and blew out some major dust and left the side off. It then booted normally so I tested it by opening multiple programs, started some graphics intensive tasks, and let it run all night. Next morning it seemed fine, except the graphics card was reaching temperatures of 95°C (actually I think the maximum reached according to my monitoring software was 204°F -- definitely a bit over the top).

I looked up a little muffin fan I have and aimed it at the card...temperatures slowly dropped to a more acceptable level (actually after I left the fan on for a while with the case open it went down to about 38 to 40°C – we keep our house pretty cool )
It was all a bit puzzling, so I was considering just replacing the graphics card when I stuck a little mirror underneath it to see what kind of room there was available in the case – that’s when I saw the graphics card fan -- dead in the water. The blades were very stiff and didn't even rotate very well with my finger. So I took the card out, removed the fan from it and blew out the fan with my air compressor. It still did not turn very well, so I hooked up a different fan from an ancient graphics card I found in my cupboard.

So far, it all seems to work pretty well; the temperature's hovering in the 48 to 50°C range. It is a bit of a cobble, though -- so I think I will spring for a new card.

We finally get to my query: the card that I “operated” on (with the fanectomy:)) is an old NVIDEA 8300 GS/128MB.
My question is: would the NVIDEA 8400 GS / 512MB (DDR2 DVI+VGA) work as a somewhat equivalent replacement? (at a whopping $22.00!)
I'm not looking for any major graphics card upgrade, it's not that much of a computer and it would be money tossed away uselessly...I'm just looking to maintain the status quo.

Suggestions very welcome, Thanks!
Philip

no problem been down that road only mine was the CPU found it by looking in the bios .