Resolved GPU/Graphics card or Win 7?

I swear, this is the 3rd time I've written this but my connection to WindowsBBS keeps timing out before I'm done. Sorry, but this will be rather point form/short this time!

Here are my custom built system stats (originally built 4 years ago):
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo
4GB Ram
1000 watt PSU
AMD Athlon X2 3800+ 64 bit Dual Core CPU (I think... might be wrong, might be 3200+)
1TB drive (new)
GeForce 7600 GS 256 MB GPU

I had XP in it originally when built and it was fine. Decided to update to Vista as I worked in a computer store and got Vista ultimate for free (long story, won't bother explaining). It ran on Vista fine for 2+ years until a few weeks ago when I started getting this error every 1-2 min:

"display driver stopped responding and has recovered "

We moved a year ago and I have no idea where my Vista disks are, so my husband bought me Win7 to rebuild the system. We figured it was corrupted OS.

Rebuilt it and STILL GETTING THE SAME ERROR in Win7!! I am so frustrated! Aparently this error is something new in Vista/Win7 called TDR? I know I can disable it, but that doesn't solve the problem.

This is what I've done so far:

Memtest - 100% fine on all tests
Furmark test of GPU - temp is fine (55 C max) but the test fails and crashes the driver after about 13-14 seconds every time.
BIOS - cleared CMOS and went to basic BIOS but that didn't fix it. However, I can't update back to most recent BIOS because the tool on the ASUS site to do this isn't Win7 compatible and I have no idea how to update the BIOS otherwise.
I've cleaned out the entire case (just to ensure no little bits of dust were causing issues), reseated all hardware, checked all connections. I still get the error.
AERO - Disabled all advanced graphics in Win7 and put it down to 16 bit colour. Crashing only happens when forced (Furmark) or with video/web use now. With AERO on, it will crash every 30-40 seconds making it impossible to do anything!
I tried multiple nvidia drivers (rolled back several versions to earlier 2010 up to the latest - all give the error)

I ran the "Windows Experience Index" built into Win7 and got a score of 1.0 on a scale of 1.0 - 7.9. The score was listed as 1.0 because of my graphics card. Yet, according to MS Win7 compatibility, this card should be more than adequate for Win7!! It doesn't give a reason for the 1.0 score though (whether it's just not a good card or if it found a hardware or fault).
** As per this link http://www.shareyourscore.com/ComponentDetails.aspx my card should be giving an avg 4.7 score. Something is obviously wrong then **

Help please! I've already put way more $$ than I intended to fix this. I was happy using my macbook for most things. I just wanted to get the system up and running again for a few games (WoW mostly). I bought a new monitor (I hadn't even been using the system for the last year because my old CRT broke), upgraded hard drive to 1TB (figured why not since they are much cheaper now), and bought Win7....

My husband thinks it's my graphics card and wants to buy a new one. I really don't want to spend more money if I can avoid it. Any suggestions? I asked hubby if I could borrow his graphics card to test but he doesn't want to risk ruining his.

**just wanted to add - I've never done any configs to any of the hardware other than what was standard (i.e. no changes to timings, voltages, overclocking, etc). One problem I did have in XP was one NIC (it's dual NIC) would BSOD my system when used. As long as I didn't use it, it was fine. The issue didn't follow me to Vista though. Could that be a long ago conflict causing this issue? I did disable both NICs, and disabled one at a time, and tested them all, but it crashed with all configurations I tried**

I'm not quite sure where else to turn. Deep down I suspect a config issue somewhere, some kind of conflict but I have no idea how to pin point it. I can't recall if I checked Device Manager since I installed Windows 7 for any "yellow exclamation points ", but all the hardware profiles I checked said "no conflicts ".

Also, with the exception of the BIOS, I've updated all drivers as best as I could find.

 

Thanks guys. I have already cleaned the card as suggested (saw that in a post here so I tried that before posting). I tried to get into dxdiag but it was crashing so often after 25 min I gave up.

I'm going to go ATI this time I think. Husband has a crossfire system so if that doesn't fix the issue, at least he can use the card. I never really thought about it, but I bet I fried the card. I wasn't using the computer for a while because I had no monitor. Then I decided to test out connecting it to my 47inch Viewsonic TV. I ran WoW like that with full graphics for a few months. I bet that did it. I didn't think until last night that it might not have liked rendering at such a resolution.

Oh well.

Today's pay day so I'll see what ATI cards I like and head out tonight for that.