Q6600 on asus 780i blank screen, no post

[bustedfurnace]

my budget build using my q6600 processor from a 6 year old dell, my current gpu an asus gtx 550ti and a midname 750w psu. purchased an asus pn5-t deluxe 780i sli ($100) that i'm going to use my current gpu along with a second 550ti in SLI, second one got on sale for $100 with mail ins. used 60gig laptop ssd drive to load OS and boot, had lying around along with a couple of other regular 1.5t drives. recycled dvd/rw drive in new thermaltake case ($40) and card reader 15in1. got a coolermaster seidon 120m liquid cooled cpu cooler, fans on either side of the radiator blowing out ($65? after rebates?) the case has 3 large built in fans and is rather nice for the budged, the blackwidow v2 black. all in all a really good cheap upgrade after 6 years of use costing about $300. oh, the ram is 8gb corsair xms2 2x2gb modules, also previously owned. aside from the issue with windows 8 and waiting on the new install disk for windows 7 i was satisfied, even boosting the fsb to 1333 in bios giving 3.0ghz. i had read that messing with the fsb is the best way to foolproof OC because if it is too much it cant hurt much? is this wrong?
because i decided to try to stretch it to 1600 fsb, and it crashed. and i cannot reset bios. i tried pulling batter, hitting the reset pins, pulling power cord. there's no post, no beeps (nor did i ever have any for that matter, so i'm not sure thats part of the problem) just blank. i do hear the computer running, it sounds like it might be doing something, altho very quiet because of the new setup. i cannot get any visual. i tried changing the pcix slot, i tried changing gpu's to the other 550ti to see if that was the issue for blank screen. but nothing. i've unplugged all drives from power, and gpu and tried to post, same with obvious no video because no gpu plugged in. i've tried taking the ram out, using only one module. tried switching the module out with the other ones, none worked.
again..it sounds like its on in the background , but i am getting no visual. the PSU is a 750 peak, 650nom ULTRA.
i am completely stumped. please help. i've tried reading about everything i can on these forums and others, but i cant get past the blank screen. is the mobo shot? i tried both GPU's so that cant be it. i doubt i fried all the ram?
if it is the mobo can i flash bios with it?
i've made boot drives before, but when i tried to load the bios into onto a disk i couldn't get anything to boot with it. i also tried downloading asus's bios program named *asfurder*? its written down on my desktop, which i cant read now so its something really similar to that. i couldn't get any of those to work, and i think because of having windows 8 it made things even more difficult.
again, any and all help is appreciated!!

 

[bustedfurnace]

bump?
after doing more reading i've come up with possibly needing a more powerful PSU, even tho i tested just basic components with still no results, so not likely...it might be the bios chip? if that was bad for whatever reason it wouldn't post or boot or anything right?
the only other thing i can think of was after i changed the FSB and it became unstable, i shut down and cleared cmos, then booted into bios and went to save as defaults then save, as it was saving and exiting it froze again. it even said on the screen it was doing something important, do not hit the reset button. but it never restarted on its own after a few minutes so i kinda had to....and after that it kept having the black screen. did i clear my bios when it crashed on saving/exiting?

 

[bustedfurnace]

i can either return the board for another replacement, or upgrade to a striker 790i, i already have the 2x4gb ddr3 modules i could use for that board. since i'm going to have to possibly either swap out another board or a chip, should i upgrade to the ddr3 or stick with the ddr2 and lower CAS? only other issue that i need to read up on more unless anyone else knows is the 780i is not SLI ready when all 4 dimms of ram are filled? apparently only dual mode? so if i'm only able to effectively use 4gb of the ddr2, would that be the swaying between the 790 and 780?

 

[deadjon]

1600Mhz x 9 has always been the cream of the crop with Q6600's - it was the number that every single owner wanted to achieve before they retired it.

I achieved it, briefly on a 680i LT - which is a TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE Chipset.
This would suggest your motherboard isn't dead, or your CPU.

Thats not a definite.

Quick question, do you have the speaker on the motherboard installed? some boards come with standalone mobo speakers that fit onto the mobo - if this is true of your board and it is not installed, we won't be able to decipher an error code. Of course if its not even capable of that, we will have to explore other options, like PSU failure.

 

[bustedfurnace]

correct, no mobo speaker. i didnt even think of it when i was putting the parts together, i ordered one last night tho. im glad to hear that the 1600 was the money mark, i was afraid that i shot to high and might have cooked something. the complete lack of any video signal is what scares me. i've had gpu's fry and do that before, but both of mine are doing the same thing, even the NIB 550ti. could i have someone here in town flash the bio's chip for me if that is the problem? or is it something that has to be purchased new once damaged?
i also read that theres alot of problems with some boards just wont clock as well as an identical board for a number of unknown reasons, giving different clocks and stabilities. should i shoot for the 3 or 3.2 and leave it good if i get it or keep shootin?

 

[bustedfurnace]

not to hijack my own thread....but speaking of mobo speakers does anyone know of a good page or source to find the beep codes? a year back i had a nice gaming laptop that got dropped and after replacing the screen, and a new SSD drive (hence where the current harddrive for this computer came from) and when i tried to boot and reload windows it gave me a chorus of like 40 beeps. i could find no reference to that.

 

[deadjon]

If the BIOS has been bricked, its been bricked. The only way to resolve it is to replace the BIOS chip, or remove the CMOS battery overnight to do a full reset (this wont work if the chip is screwed).

As far as the boards, the Nvidia LGA775 Chipsets for the Core2 series were dodgy, all of them. Completely random whether you got one that worked @ 4Ghz or one that didn't overclock at all.

Major question, is it a Q6600 G0 or B3 (stepping)? The G0 stepping were the Overclocking kings, the B3s struggled to get past 3.2Ghz

If its a G0, they work wonderfully at 3.2Ghz and most mobos should have absolutely no issues running them at this speed (take note that at this speed, they are faster than a Phenom II X4 965). I would even go to say that you should shoot for 3.6Ghz. I had mine running Stable @ 3.4Ghz on a 680iLT - which means anything is possible xD
If its a B3, you have little hope of hitting the 3.6Ghz (1600Mhz FSB) mark, 3.0ghz will probably be optimal and 3.2ghz will be hard to reach.

(I pride myself on being a Q6600 expert, I had one since its release and I pushed it to its limit for 6 years, its sitting @ 3Ghz chugging away in my Girlfreinds dad's PC now, god bless that beautiful Chip)

 

[bustedfurnace]

so i checked the processor, its a slacr G0 =) since the bios chip was is most likely the culprit i decided to send the board back instead of just getting a new chip, mainly because i found a evga 790i for $130 still in the box apparently at some computer boutique in california. i'm hoping that with that board and the upgrade to ddr3 i should get some nice results.

 

[bustedfurnace]

woot! so the new 550ti that i just tested is going back as well. i'm going to take a loss on the other one thats slightly used, perhaps sell it on criags list or test out making that external GPU for my girlfriends laptop....?
anyways, i picked up 3 gtx 280's on super clearance for $89 each. aside from the chip i'm pretty much building the rig i stumbled on in this article.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_280_sli_triple_review_test,10.html

i love it how on the last page he says how their finally able to play crisis on full settings and it only took them 3 or 4k...in 2008. today i'm able to do it with a recycled dell, some old ebay parts totalling about $250, and some pimpass old model closout gpu's for another $270.
game technology hasnt changed that much since then right? this rig should pretty much rock for the next 6 years or so? only drawback i saw to the cards is no directx 11 support, but in a few more years i can upgrade so even better cards.