Computer randomly crashing...

Core 2 Duo
e8500 at 3.14 ghz
GTX 280
ASUS P5N-D mobo
4GB G Skill RAM
64 bit Vista
950 W Coolermaster

When loading up the startup screen on Vista, I see major screen tearing on one corner of the screen. After logging in, etc. my screen goes one solid color and crashes, yet all the fans/components are still going.

Safe mode works perfectly fine. I've done every nVidia driver possible to no avail. EVGA says its the card itself. What do you guys think? Temps are fine across the board...

UPDATE

I realized my video card wouldn't work with my PSU since I was using an adapter, so I went to fry's and replaced it with a GTX 260. Same problem. So I disabled the video card, completely updated Vista, upgraded the BIOS and chipset, and updated GFX drivers. Still didn't work. Looked in my case and saw that I have a 3-headed PCI-E cord running from the PSU to GPU. There was an unused head in the middle. I knew that couldn't be right, so I changed it to where the two heads plugging into the GPU and PSU have nothing in between them. I did the same thing with the CPU to PSU cord.

Booted up, all is good. Only problem is restarting. Every time I restart it seems to turn off my monitor or give me the crash. Only a cold boot works. This bothers the crap out of me. Any ideas?

any more ideas?