Had a monitor glitch... like a small rectangle of multicolor pixels (couldnt get a picture, srry) . I retightened the monitor cable (vga / dvi adapter) and updated all the display drivers / gpu drivers (its a used r9 270x). I also moved wires out from under the gpu. The problem seems to have gone away. But would that have been the issue? ( i havent tried removing the gpu and reseating it, but the problem hasnt reoccured)
Pics: http://imgur.com/a/RUyaC
Pics: http://imgur.com/a/RUyaC