New AMD gaming rig boot up problem

[BES]

Specs:
AMD Phenom 9600 Agena 2.3GHz
GA-MA790FX-DS5 AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX motherboard
6gigs DDR2 800ram
2x Radeon HD 3850
1 SATA 1.5gb/s 10,000rpm 70gig western digital hard drive
1 SATA 3.0gb/s Western Digital 320gig hard drive
1 SATA 3.0gb/s Seagate 1606gig hard drive
onboard High quality 8-ch ALC889A High Definition audio
RAIDMAX Smilodon Extreme mid case
550watt Antec Truepower 2.0

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Ive been building systems for 15years and this is my first crossfire one..
I have everything setup correctly in bios.
If I start the computer up from the harddrives, it says no OS, so that works fine since i dont have an OS installed yet.
Now, I try to start the computer with DVDrom with the Vista 64bit disk in the drive,it reads the disk and the installation starts,on the second screen where its got a green loading screen that has Microsoft corporation under it the computer seems to be locked up there, I let it sit there over nite and it was still like that...

Any ideas on why its doing this?
My first thought is that its not getting enough power...I have a newer and more powerfull power supply inc.
My other thought is: was I supposed to add the other graphics card for the crossfire setup after getting windows installed?( but I already tried this without the other card and still not booting from the DVDrom).

 

[rgeist554]

Use only 1-2GB of RAM and try again.

 

[BES]

Its doing the same thing..

Im using this power supply because its on AMDs list of crossfire compatable power supplies for HD3000 series cards
only reason im getting the other one is for modular connectors since my case is kind of small.

So I thought this would work, it even checks out fine in the bios, it says voltages are optimal(AKA ok)

This is the first time a computer wouldnt boot from the DVDrom,all other systems ive built havent given me a problem.. oh and btw this is a brand new pioneer multidrive, I know it works tried it out on another comp first.

Also ive noticed that I have to hold the power button to turn it off once its stuck loading like this..

 

[cfvh600]

Wow..a Phenom build. Try it with the minimum of components, like only one graphics card, one hard drive and one stick of RAM.

 

[BES]

Yeah these are all the components for the spider platform, I saw the tech vids for it and it hauls,once I get the darn thing running though

Anyway ill try that, even though everything is a VERY tight fit in my med case...it has a motherboard tray door but it wont open all the way due to my hard drives being in the way so its quite a task getting the graphics cards out, ill have to gut it almost , wasnt really expecting problems getting this going..

 

[BES]

Yeah its a power problem...was waay over it seems..had to take out 2 memory sticks,disconnect 2 drives, AND pull out the other graphics card..

Glad I have an 850watt inc today

thanks for the help guys

 

[roadrunner197069]

Very rarely a Windows disk is bad; this could be the case. Do you have a different disk to try? If not try piratebay to get a sample disk.

 

[BES]

There seems to be more wrong than just lack of power...I installed a new 850watt power supply and it still hanges on the same screen...

Must be a hardware problem..

I already checked the windows disk its fine.

 

[roadrunner197069]

How did you check the disk? Just because it looks good to your eye doesnt mean it is. Try using only one hard drive for now to trouble shoot and use one other then your main one you use now. Might be a hard drive problem.

 

[BES]

Because I have more than one system,I got a blank drive from storage and installed Vista on it with an older computer.

Seems I may have thought that everything was set right in bios..guess not, it seems to start up now after changing SATA mode to IDE instead of SATA-->AHCI...

Ill whine some more later if anything else anoys me tonite..

 

[roadrunner197069]

Doh. I would of suggested that right away but you said you been building for 15 years. Lol. We all make mistakes.
How do you like the spider?

 

[BES]

Well its a very well made motherboard but Gigabyte must have put a Beta bios on it.

I turn on virtualization support the computer keeps restarting itself..lol

Also since im used to an ASUS motherboard, normally after finding no disk in the cd/dvd drive it moves on to the hard disk, not this motherboard it locks up after finding no disk in the drive AFTER installing windows on it..

Those issues might be a bad drive...my old raptor took a crap finally i think, trying another drive.

I would rate the spider fine if I could get some benchmarks off but cant even get an OS to install yet...its a very touchy system and bios seems unstable

on the bright side all my ram is working with it now..all 6 gigs

and the wierd feature...ganged or unganged ram..lol...unganged is said to work better for multicore systems, but appears as 64bit but its in dual channel...odd

 

[BES]

I think I got it...this motherboard has so much extra stuff its not funny, it has 2 SATA controllers one AMD SB 600,the other is much faster PCI express onboard SATA controller,but it only has 2 ports.

So I only hooked up my 2 biggest SATA3.0gb/s drives to the PCI express one in IDE mode,it HAULS now and seems to boot fine.

I disabled that other problem controller..

 

[cfvh600]

Glad you're getting it sorted BES. Hope the system works well.

 

[BES]

Yep it works well got a 3D Mark06 result of 11621, thats with crossfire HD3850,not the 3870.

And people say that phenom systems cant stick it to intel

Thats STOCK, nothing overclocked.
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Just if people get my type of motherboard they need to remember its got an issue with the AMD SB600 SATA controller onboard..cause of most of my problems, you got to disable it and use the better onboard pci express SATA controller.

Also virtualization support enabled seemed to put the system in a loop,kept restarting itself..

 

[roadrunner197069]

Cool. Thats not a bad score at all. You gonna overclock it any? Whats your system score on Vista index? Break it down if you dont mind. Thanks.

 

[BES]

Havent installed Vista yet(its an upgrade had to install winxp MCE first)...but soon as I get it installed ill get that for ya.

I only have one concern about my graphics card temps they were 76C, in the red, i downloaded ATItool and left the default clocks and put their fans to 100, it went down to 72C.

But im not sure if ATItool runs in Vista 64bit?

 

[roadrunner197069]

I cant tell ya. I got Vista 32 and 64. I tried to install 64 today and my wireless internet wouldnt work, so now I'm back to 32.

I get a 4.8 index on Vista.
CPU/ e2180/ 3.33ghz 5.7
2g Adata $48.00/ 5.7
8500gt 4.8, 5.2
HDD 5.7

 

[BES]

BAH!, now it wont let me install Vista, I get a BSOD thats says my BIOS is not fully ACPI compliant...im going to ask gigabyte about this one too..

says I need a bios update..there is one but its not an acpi update..

 

[elbert]

The Phenom first series has problems with Vista 64. Suggest you try XP or Windows7. From what i have heard this is one of the bugs the Phenom 9X50 fixed. OCing tho can cause this problem. All I can suggest is make sure you have the latest mobo bios and check AMD's website for fixes.

Also try clr cmos because Gigabyte seems to have some problems with Smart CMOS function.