Screwed up bios; hard time flashing

I just got through dealing with a similar problem. Is this kind of an intermittent thing that you're dealing with here? If so, I'd point the finger (like everyone else) at your graphics card, specifically a faulty VRAM chip on your graphics card. I had very similar symptoms, but not all the time. I replaced the card. It was the only fix that would work.

I tried a lot of things, not wanting to believe that my graphics card was screwed, but it wasn't a driver issue, and it wasn't a firmware issue or a bios issue, or anything else of that kind. Sad to say, sometimes graphics cards just die.

Jam it back in, in the dark.