Display is corrupted on bootup

[garrick]

I was looking for the fan in my case that was really loud. I was unplugging/plugging the GPU and chipset fan to make a comparison of the two. At one point after plugging back the fan into their respective connectors, the monitor displayed random vertical lines on my monitor on bootup. The vertical lines has different colored, and actually each line its in itself multicolored too.

Needless to say, I can't figure out what the problem is. I tried the PC with different monitors to see it was my monitor. It appeared on all monitors I tried.

I put my graphics card on another PC, and it worked on that PC. I ALSO used a graphics card from another PC to my own PC and that worked too. I am now baffled at what the problem is since my own gfx card doesn't seem to work in my own machine but works on another.

The problem occurs right when the computer is booted. I can't even go into the BIOS since the display is just random colored lines.

Any help is appreciated.

My specs are:
Asus A8N-E
Athlon64 3500+
OCZ 2x512MB DDR
Gigabyte 6600GT 128MB PCI-E
Seagate SATA 160GB
Enermax 485W PSU

Thanks!

 

[Nitestick]

the distortions are called artifacts. sounds a little strange. the only explaination that seems to make sense is a damaged slot on the motherboard seeing as not all gfx cards use the same pins.

 

[garrick]

I just borrowed another graphics card (BFC 6600GT) from another friend and it works on my PC. I have the Gigabyte 6600GT. We both have the same Nvidia model but the cards are manufactured by different companies. Would different manufacturers use a different set of pins on the motherboard?

Thanks for any help you can give.