GA-EP45-DS3R Won't Post

I am trying to rebuild my computer

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R motherboard (brand new)
Mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory (brand new)
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor (brand new)
Antec P182 Case
OCZ GameXStream OCZ600GXSSLI 600W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply
PNY 8800GTS 320MB video card.

Put the box all together, hit power, and it started and seconds later shut down, just to restart again.

Tried it again, and just the constant stopping and restarting, doesn't even post.

Tried removing one stick of ram and moved the ram to different positions.

Tried, putting a reformatted hard drive with no OS installed.

Tried the jumper thing for the CMOS and removed the battery for about 5 minutes.

All the case fans spin up, but I do not have anything connected to the motherboard fan connectors (if that makes a difference)

All I have hooked up is the video card, the monitor, and a mouse (USB)

Bit of a novice at this type of thing, beating my head against the wall trying to figure this out, any help would be appreciated........

Could be a number of things, but the first thing that jumps out since you said you have NO fans plugged into the motherboard.....
You do have the CPU fan plugged onto the motherboard in the correct spot, the pins designated specifically for the CPU fan?

The Case has 3 built in fans, all with a power connector that connects directly to the psu, all 3 are spinning, along with the cpu fan which also fires right up. The psu fan spins along with the video card fan (veritable wind tunnel)


Also, motherboard mounted with correct number and location of standoffs, any beeps at all when you start?

Standoffs as in bolt holes? yes all the holes lined up, no forcing to get the motherboard in. There are no beeps, just the sound of the fans, and it sounds like the hard drive spins up also.

When it shuts down, everything turns off, as soon as the last fan stops spinning the computer starts right back up.


Additional information:

I moved my old motherboard (MSI 939 socket 2.4GHz athlon) back into the case and plugged everything in, and everything started up just fine. So I would like to think that the psu and hard drive are not the culprits.

Is the Gigabyte board just DOA and rma the thing?

I had the same exact problem with that same exact power supply and it was the power supply. Try connecting some fans only and see if they stay on. But the power supply is known to have a high defect rate. If I was you I would RMA to OCZ. I did and got the 800w eliteXstream unit which was developed in part by the PC Power and Cooling since they were acquired by OCZ. Good luck.

Ok, I borrowed some slower DDR2 ram 667. I manged to make it to the first splash screen and got into the bios.

Tried to set the ram to standard as opposed to the default of Turbo, tried to load optimized defaults, tried to load fail safe defaults, all resulted in the computer locking up when I hit F10 to try and save the changes.

So I tried to let the computer run, I make it to the logon screen, choose the user, and the computer informs me that I need to re-register windows, then locks up at the choose yes or no, if I am really quick about it, I can choose no, but then it just goes back to choose user and then the re-register question pops up again, this goes on till I am to slow and don't choose yes or no fast enough and then it locks up.

Any suggestions? or send the thing back for a new or different motherboard. Still don't know if the ram is good or bad, because I can't get past the constant restarting with the new ram I bought for the system (see above for what it is)

Thanks ahead of time........

That is just the thing, any changes that I attempted to do in the BIOS, when I hit F10, the computer would lock up, couldn't change the letter, couldn't hit enter, couldn't hit escape.

The only thing that would work was hitting the power button.

Now, I got the RMA for the ram and motherboard, ram is probably fine, but I ain't gonna get a new board and find out it was the ram all along, but do I want to take a shot at the same board or jump a different route? (brand? model? whatever......)

Well, I rma'd the motherboard and ram, and ordered the exact same stuff, installed like a dream, no problems whatsoever, well maybe one.

I keep getting a gigabyte sound mixing popup/program (has an equilizer, says gigabyte technology on top, kinda blueish/green color) for audio files that just wont stop starting up, not sure where to turn this thing off?

Outside of that, I want to thank all the suggestions and help that were provided in trying to get the first board up and running.


.......I did find something in device manager (realtek high definition audio) where I disabled it and the equalizer thing disappeared, don't know if this is the best fix or not.......still have sound, running a seperate sound card, I am open to other options, this one seemed a bit easy.....

look there is a problem with the manual not being read if you read it it says both power connectors need to be pugged in that m/board it had a secondary power plug 2x4 8 pin and a 24 pin the manual says if you have an extreme cpu use the 2x 4 pin and if you dont plug in a 1x4 pin supply the mboard wont start properly
its the same lead as in the video cards addition power lead usually 4 pin just make sure its plugged in the correct 1x4 pins cant remember was ages ago just check the manual (ps i hope it works for you cause it aint magic and it aint guesswork)