Question Black SOD upon installing graphics driver

[xenophone2]

PC hardware/software config:
AMD HD 7870
AMD Phenom II X6
4.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3
ASRock M3A770DE
465GB Crucial CT500MX500SSD1 ATA Device (SATA (SSD))
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Hi folks. My Problem:

I get a Black Screen of Death, while loading windows 7. After the animated logo screen, it goes to a dead black screen, no cursor, no anything, and hangs there permanently.

This started a few days ago while gaming. My screen started to periodically flash with vertical white bars across the whole screen, for maybe half a second. This happened a handful of times, until the bars didn't flash but stayed, and sound cut out. It looked like a full crash. I restarted my machine, and after the Windows 7 animated logo screen, I got the BlackSOD. I made a number of attempts at system restores, system repair and such, proceeding using the F8 boot menu. Nothing worked. I tried doing the same from my Windows disk. Nothing worked. I did a full format of my SSD and reinstalled Windows 7. Downloading my AMD drivers, and installing, seemed to work, but upon restarting immediately after installing drivers, BSOD. Once the crash starts occuring, I can boot into safe mode, or use the 'Last Stable Configuration'.

I managed to get Windows 7 fully updated and activated (this was a bear do to with Microsoft dropping Windows 7 support). So now my OS is fully updated with 'important updates', and 'optional updates'. I tried running this driver removal tool, Wagnardsoft DDU, in safe mode. It removes my drivers. I reboot, and try installing the drivers again. Note that I have done this process about a dozen times now, with various versions of my AMD drivers, the newest, and various versions going back a year or so. Always with the same effect. Once I reboot, it goes to a black screen. Also note, I can reboot just fine if I don't install the drivers. Once they are installed though, I'm dead in the water.

Considering that my monitor is plugged into my GPU, and works with Standard VGA Graphics Adapter, is it likely that I'm dealing with a hardware failure?

Any insight or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[SteveRX4]

I'd try another GPU. I've borrowed them from friends or taken the whole PC to a shop to get them to try another GPU (cost me $50).
If you have a spare VGA cable, I'd try that too - probably first.

 

[thefxgamingrules]

Dying/dead video card. I'd check with another video card though, to make sure it is the card at fault.

 

[xenophone2]

Yeah I was worried about that. I don't have another card to try or machine to try this in. I may have to just get a new card. I'll probably buy Nvidia this time since I'm worried about the the AMD drivers. I've had a lot of trouble with those.