Inspiron video card issues (I think)

So, about 6 months after I received my beautiful, spring green 1420, it has decided that it's had enough... which is really quite sad because I absolutely adored it, despite the few ongoing issues I've had with it...
It's always had a short flash of black screen within a minute of logging in to Vista. I presumed this to be Vista loading video drivers (does anyone else experience this?), but looking back now I'm not so sure. It then developed the annoying habit of restarting itself while in hibernation; I'd close it, walk away, and hear it playing the windows opening audio, only to realise that not only had it restart itself (and I lost everything that was open), but it had the screen on while the laptop was closed... Again, I presumed this to be Vista doing what it likes to do, and decided I'd reformat and use Ubuntu when I had the time.
But now, it's completely dead. It started doing random light displays after going onto screen saver, like this: http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b8dd37b3127cceb60db3f753d000000026101AaOXLZi1cMa It worked on and off for a day, doing this every now and then, and then I was using it, the screen went pixilated and it beeped at me twice, and then a third time as it shut off. Now if the power is pressed, it will turn on the bluetooth and nothing else; I tried plugging in an external monitor to check it wasn't just the monitor connection, but alas, it is sending out an 'out of range' signal... so I think that my video card (at the very least) is gone. Any ideas?
Anyone else had video card problems with their inspirons?
Now I get to go on the Dell technical support bandwagon... let's hope this is as painless as possible.