Unpredictable Black Screen... 8 beeps... no boot... panic

Hey Team,

I have an Alienware m17x R4 with nVidia 675m.

In the beginning:
Over the last few months every so often my screen suddenly went black, but still backlit, and I was usually forced to hold the power button to shutdown and reboot. Usually it would not work again straight away but after a wait of around 20 mins it would then boot and run as normal. Naturally I thought this to be an overheating issue as it would work as normal after a 'rest' period, but it is more likely to be something else, read on....

Then:
Only a couple of months ago it started to occur more frequently this time giving the lovely '8 Beeps' after an immediate restart (and subsequent 5 restarts). Now I think it's the LCD, so to test this I removed the nVidia card and booted with just the Integrated Intel 4000 card. Booting with only the Integrated card functions as normal and the LCD has never once 'gone black'. NB: Dell Diagnostics gives no errors at all!

Now:
Of course now I think it's totally related to the nVidia Graphics card again as the issue does not occur when it is not installed. The GPUz logs indicate that there are no big temperature rises (highest ever has been 68'C) when the issue occurs and I am still able to use the PC "blind" (ie, I can still pause/unpause music and execute a proper shutdown without seeing what I'm doing). I also had an external monitor attached at the time the issue occured which also went 'black'.

Today: TL;DR
1 - With nVidia card attached it will function anywhere from 5-180 mins before screen goes 'black'. (reboot gives 8 beeps)
2 - Removal of nVidia card is then necessary to boot again with only Integrated graphics.
3 - There seems to be minor (major?) physical damage to a few pins on the motherboard where the nVidia card is inserted but this seems odd seeing as the issue began months ago with the nVidia card still inserted. (have photo if needed).

Pretty sure I will either need a replacement mother board and/or nVidia card... Question is finding out which and not throwing away too many $$$ in the process - any/all advice welcome!

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Unpredictable Black Screen... 8 beeps... no boot... panic