I am trying to figure out what the problem is here.... There were 2 problems. 1 - Graphics were getting messed up during gaming My father-in-laws (FIN) computer was acting weird so I managed to track down some graphics problems he was getting during games to an overheats graphics card (took the side of the tower off and no problems). I got him a new case with several fans. 2 - After the computer was on for about 15-20mins you could not restart it. The OS worked fine but if you clicked on restart it would show the shutdown menus but when it went to post the graphics were all messed up, blocky and illegible. I thought this might be a case problem as well. So I get the new case and swap it all out. I run it on games and restart it several times at my home....not one problem. There is no longer a problem with the games. He gets it home and attaches his MS optical mouse, Kodak easy share cradle (USB) and HP printer (USB) and runs into the same problem.....what gives? It can not be related to the OS as the screen is corrupted right at the post. The same thing happens if you just turn off the power and then turn it back on....I am baffled

Power maybe???? What happens if you reseat the vid card and turn it back on but without any USB devices? If you still cannot isolate the issue try updating the BIOS.

I have tried several power supplies, latest if from Newegg (350w) so it should be fine. I tried reseating the video card I am leaning toward a USB issue. Could the controller on the mobo cause this problem? Can I just get a PCI USB card as a work around? Thanks

I'm not sure a PCI Usb card will supplement the mobo's USB power capacity. Why I suggested a BIOS update is that your motherboard manufacturer may have a BIOS that provides more power to the USB. Or get a powered USB hub for those devices.

I am using a MSI K7T Turbo mobo and I am not aware of any issues via checking the MSI forums and AMDMB.com forums as well. I think it has the latest BIOS. Perhaps I will look into the powered USB hub. You think the USB ports are drawing too much power on boot? Why doesn't this happen if you leave it off for an hour? If you do it seems to boot fine.

If the devices are drawing too much power,it will not matter if it is at boot or after been on for a while. I was just trying to help isolate the cause of the problem,@ the end of the day it may not even be the USB ports. It could turn out to be the video card.