EX58-EXTREME FIRST TIME RIG LOADS TO LOGO SCREEN THEN FAILS?

[whosthebaddest]

I just finished my rig: gigabyte ex58-extreme 1366 i7 motherboard, i7 920 cpu
, corsair dominator 1600mhz 2g X 3. evga 260 video card. 750 watt psu

ok i hooked it all up and it loads up everything seems to work. Shortly after powering up I get the logo screen on my monitor, then after the logo screen is up for about 5 seconds, the screen goes to complete junk wierd interpherence that jumbles up the screen like the numbers on the screen in the matrix. If i reset it it loads up the logo screen again and then goes to junk, can't get to the post screen. What do you think I should do?

 

[bilbat]

Umm - first thing: it's a mistake to do a 'first try' of a new system by plugging in everything, and hoping for the best. What you want to do is 'breadboard' the system first, with the absolute minimum of components, do a BIOS' "Load Optimized Defaults (this is not an 'optional step') and test the basics - the PSU, CPU, GPU, HSF, and one stick of RAM - and it's best done 'out of the case'... Boot and run MemTest86+:
http://www.memtest.org/download/4.00/memtest86+-4.00.iso.zip
then, either substitute another stick of RAM, and run MemTest again, after each DIMM substitution (if you want to be thorough, and avoid grief later), or put 'em both in, and run MemTest on the whole shebang (if you're brave ); if you are using more than two sticks, they are very unlikely to all run at once anyway, without 'hand tweaking' in the BIOS...

Here's a guide:

Mind you, there are two ways to do this: you can do it either in or out of the case. The advantages and drawbacks:in the case is easier and faster, but will not find case-related problems, like shorts from extra, mispositioned standoffs, or ground plane problems; out of the case takes longer, and you may run into 'reach' problems - power supply cables and front panel power switch headers may not be long enough; for the power supply, it's usually just a matter of removing four screws to temorarily relocate it; for the power switch, you can just do this (carefully):

You only need to short the pins momentarily - that's all the power switch does...Out of the case also affords you an easy opportunity to 'flip' the board to check your heatsink/fan attachment setup, to be sure all the pins are fully seated, locked, and not cracked... If you do the out of the case, you need to lay the board on a non-conductive surface: the box the MOBO came in is ideal; but - the foam pad it came with, and the bag it was in are not - being 'antistat', they are somewhat conductive, and may induce problems...

Another item worth mention at this point is case speakers: if you haven't got one - get one!
http://www.cwc-group.com/casp.html
A lot of people operate under the misaprehension that the 'diagnostic beeps' should come through the speakers attached to their sound-card/chip - not so! Your three hundred dollar Altec-Lansings won't do you any good here - you have to have a case speaker attached to the front panel header, and, often by this point, it's the only diagnostic info you'll have to go on...

The standard 'strip-down':

Power down at PSU switch
remove everything except
CPU and heatsink/fan (check carefully that the fan retaining pins are fully inserted, completely locked, and not cracked)
one stick of RAM, in slot closest to CPU
video card and monitor connector (if more than one PCIe slot, again, in slot closest to CPU)
all power plugs - 20+4 or 24, 2x2 or 2x4 ATX power, graphics card power
case speaker and power switch connectors
keyboard (don't need a mouse at this point)
place jumper on RST_CMOS pins
remove jumper from RST_CMOS pins
power up at PSU switch
power up by depressing case power switch (or shorting the 'power' pins...)
If you get video, enter BIOS with <DEL> (may need a <TAB> to get to POST screen, if 'splash' screen is enabled)
Select and execute "Load Optimized Defaults" - save and exit, reboot
power down
reinsert other components, one at a time, testing each time after addition...

If you still have troubles (or are using more than two sticks of RAM), post back with some more info: part number for the RAM, PSU (there are known problems with Zalman PSUs on X58 MOBOs):
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-261373_12_0.html
http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/cannot-install-winxp-win-7-new-ex58-ud4p-based-build-33310/

With what little I know now, anything I'd venture as a problem would be pure guesswork...

 

[whosthebaddest]

thanks for the input!!! turns out it was my piece of *&^@! video card from those bastards at evga. 65% of the merch i bought from them failed!!! Tested with a cheap one, got a Gigabyte brand graphics processor for less and it works great. I'm now a Gigabyte fan, there stuff was soooo much better, they have crazy manufacturing power overthere in Taiwan state of the art factory!!! oh by the way I wondered if anyone else had bad experiences with evga products so I googled "evga sucks" and there was a lot of stuff one guy actually was so pissed off at the rma process they put him through he started his own website called www.evgasucks.net I thought that was pretty funny... I will never buy evga again.