GPU Hardware Failure? -- BSODs, atikmpag.sys, vertical dots and dashes

Long story short (since this has been a week of nonstop troubleshooting) -- I'm on the last straw with this laptop and I want to get some confirmation or some discussion that the problem is very much likely a GPU hardware failure.

I've gotten BSOD's on startup -- point to atikmpag.sys, as well when I look at the BlueScreenView minidump also points out dxgkrnl.sys dxgmms1.sys as well but on the primary BSOD, it mentions the atikmpag.sys as well as the 0x016 error code which lets me know for a fact it has to do with the graphics driver.

Computer is Lenovo y460p, so it is old and on its way out but I wanted to fix it and keep on trucking at least. It uses the AMD Radeon 6500 HD graphics driver, which are part of the 5000HD series. I have tried the drivers directly from the Lenovo support page as well as from AMD, either through it's auto-detect as well as the two possible legacy driver downloads, the Catalyst and Crimson software packages. I've even gone as far as trying modded AMD graphics drivers such as from leshcatlabs.net. I've tried old packages that I could find going back to 12.6 to 13.2 to the current ones. I can go into safe mode just fine using the standard VGA adapter, but cannot boot normally with the driver.

I updated the BIOS, I've updated the drivers that I could from Lenovo's page as well as using a Driver DVD I had from before for the laptop. When I do startup with the downloaded and installed AMD driver, I am unable to even get past the Windows logo splash screen, it ends up on a black screen (but still on, because there is a visible LCD difference) I hear the Windows login screen chime as well as see a mouse pointer. I am able to move it for a few seconds and then freeze, crash.... either into a BSOD or it just shuts down.

Regardless of the driver though, VGA adaptor or the AMD driver, on the Lenovo startup where BIOS and POST are initialized i get some sort of a color gradient along the screen. Then before the Windows logo splash screen, I get these vertical dots and dashes that go across the entire screen, sometimes red, soemtimes white.

At this point, am I correct to assume that the problem lies with the GPU hardware itself? Since it is a laptop, I haven't taken it apart, but I did take it apart a while back to clean it with compressed air. I don't think I had messed with anything other than to pick up some larger dust clouds.

EDIT: I have tried sfc/scannow to no errors, as well as chkdisks. No errors there either. I have run through some automated cleanup scripts (TronScript) where it runs through a variety of malware, virus, defragging cleanup tools for me. No problems. I've even done a clean install of Windows 7.