Monitor Freezes or Goes Blank

[Dave R.]

I have a dual core 2.66 machine with a Apple Cinema display. This started a few months ago and keeps getting worse. At times when using the scroll wheel on the mouse the machine would just hang with the little colored circle spinning away. The only way to correct this was to unplug the machine and let it sit for several minutes before turning it back on. Now at times the screen just turns blank and the same fix is required. I'm not up on electronic parts but is it possible the video card is going bad? Any suggestions on what to do will be greatly appreciated. BTW It's out of warranty by a year or so now. Thanks in advance.