Ok somehow I fixed it... or it just started working again.
Craziest part... I have screws left over
Not sure what did it, but I took it apart, down to the motherboard shielding. Didn't take that off because I didn't see the point. Screwed everything back together and hooked it up.
When I turned it on for the first time, I didn't have the A/V cables (standard yellow red white) plugged into the PS3 or the TV. I held the power button for a complete power cycle.
The second time I plugged in the cables, turned it on holding the power down. After the reset beep, still holding the power, I hit the eject button with the same hand. (index = power, thumb = eject) Low and behold the screen popped white and black lines for a second like it was just getting a blank signal. Then the start up music played and the dashboard popped up!!
The second time I turned it on, I got the music and green and black squares as if the video card had died. (or is dieing)
BUUUUUUUUT The third time I turned it on everything worked great. I tried loading a game and it works.
Anyway, hope this works for other people. I'd just try the steps I did after I put it back together first and see if it's not like a better reset or something.
just one solution that worked for someone... i wouldn't count on this working long tho if it does there is an underlying problem somewhere with the motherboard on the ps3 that is causing the gpu to fail...
you should probably check the heat sink on the gpu and make sure you have adequate thermal paste and that your ps3 is not filled with dust and debris while your checking the thermal paste...