Troubleshooting, and how not to feel like a moron!

So, I built a new rig this year, and have had nothing but problems from the start. When I first built everything the system wouldn't even boot...had to RMA the motherboard. Waited 2 weeks, got new motherboard and system finally boots, YAY.

Started gaming, and games would just start randomly crashing. Diablo 3, Pillars of Eternity, nba2k15, Fifa...everything crash crash crash. I was getting a "Nvidia display driver has stopped responding and recovered" message. I searched high and low for answers on the webbernets, to no avail. Try this driver, try that driver, underclock your card, increase the voltage of the card, reinstall windows, check the memory...do a headstand and hold your tongue to the right. you get the idea.

Eventually I determined that one of the fans on my graphics card had stopped working, and figured the card was overheating so I RMA'd that sucker to MSI and waited 2+ weeks for it to be returned. That glorious day finally arrived on Wednesday. 10 minutes after putting the card in the crashes resumed with the exact same error.

I was stumped and ready to buy a new card and called to vent to my brother. "Well don't you have another pci express slot you can try" Sure as shite, as soon as I popped the card in to the second pci express slot everything started working as intended.

TL;DR If you get "your display driver has stopped responding and recovered" and you can't find any help...try a different port...it could save you a month of headaches

*edit* The how not to feel like a moron part...do the simple shite first