While gaming, my screen suddenly turns a random color (usually pink or black) and then stops getting a signal

[adff123]

At very random times, my moniter will stop working and display a random color. This only happens while I play 3 dimensional games. My computer still runs, and still senses my controls (as far as I can tell), but pressing ctrl alt delete or alt f4 does nothing. I have to shut down my computer and restart it to get it back to normal. This is a new computer I built myself. Any help?

Some things that will NOT work (I have tried them)
new VGA cable
updating drivers
updating directX
new moniter

 

[Crapcicle]

Did you overclock it? If not I think your GPU is failing. Is it still under warranty?

 

[adff123]

I don't know if I have any warrenty for anything. I might want to check that. Could you maybe give me a link that could help me overclock it?

 

[Crapcicle]

I'm sorry if you misunderstood but overclocking won't fix the problem. I was asking if you overclocked it because that is usually the ROOT of the problem. Did you buy this card recently? Usually GPUs come with a 2-3 year warranty.

 

[adff123]

Oh. I have not overclocked it. I got my gpu at microcenter. It was a refurbished one, since I was on a budget. Would that have to do with anything?

 

[Crapcicle]

It might be the refurbishment is bad but in general refurbished cards are supposed to be factory tested for stability. It is probably the card. Can you get it replaced? Also have you tried testing your rig with another graphics card installed?

 

[adff123]

I don't really have any money left to spend, so i'm kind of stuck. If it has a warranty then that would be good, but I don't know if it does or not. I think I could return it. But that will have to wait.

 

[Crapcicle]

Almost all refurbished products have a warranty of 1 year so I'm pretty sure yours is still under it.

 

[adff123]

alrite, i replaced the graphics card. Im going to do a bit of gaming and see how it goes. Ill say if anything happens.