The gfx card wasn't new, I've been using it for a year or two.

The card was fine, it was the mother-fing drivers.  I haven't had a driver I could use since April of 2010.  On a whim, I tried the most recent and had problems, so I rolled back to the previous driver I had installed.

That seemed to be fine until a day or so later when I thought it might be nice to give my computer some rest and shut it down, since I'd be gone for the day.  (It's now official, I have complete shut-down phobia and my box will now run 24/7.)

Powering it back up became impossible, BSOD before kicking into Windows, restart, endless loop.  No Safe Mode, (BSOD) No Scans (Endless Hang) No Install Disc (BSOD)

I could even git a Hiram's Boot CD to run chkdsk on it.  Kept crashing in Dos!

I finally got the install disc to work by going into ITS safe mode.  If there was a repair console, I missed it and thought that reinstall would work fine, as in the past reinstall always overwrote unless you told it to format first.

Well, it formatted without asking me.  On the bright side, the Drive seems to be just fine now.  :p

About the paste:  Right?  You don't need paste between the cpu and the fan, right?

I'm moving the motherboard from a mATX tower into a mid tower for more room, this should avoid further jostling of the cpu/fan.