Just built a new rig, now frustrations and tears

Oogaber

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Sep 10, 2010
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Components:
Motherboard: MSI Big Bang-XPower LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU: Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor

Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)

VGA: GIGABYTE GV-N460OC-1GI GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 (X2)

Hard Drive: Western Digital Black 1TB

Power Supply: PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II PPCMK2S950 950W ATX12V v2.2

Ok, so I just pieced together a new computer which I pretty much replaced everything but the hard drive. I have around 20 builds under my belt so I know a thing or 2. I came up with Windows Vista Ultimate (was going to then use Windows 7 upgrade disc). I knew something was off when the fresh wipe and install of Vista took roughly an hour. First boot of the OS and every boot there after takes about 10 minutes to come up. I tried putting the mobo drivers in it installs 3 drivers in about 30 to 40 minutes time then fails of the 4th and quits.

I have tried swapping the SATA Optical and HDD around to various different plugs on the mobo. SATA slots 1 - 6. 7-8 are for 6GB/s which I have no supporting hardware for.

I have tried changing many different things in Bios for several hours and still nothing.

I'm at my wits end. I don't want to believe that it is some kind of hardware failure. Bios sees all the hardware states that the processor is i7 running at 3.07 ghz with all 4 cores, temp is 98 F. Memory is reading right with all the timings correct. Sees the 1 TB hard drive.

The LED Debug tool on the mobo also always states AA when windows (in ugly mode) is booted up. Manual says that means: "Enter OS (Vista or Windows XP). The CPU power phase LEDs also bounce around from like 4 or 5 to 16 at random intervals.
Every other LED on the mobo has the double LEDs lit up blue.

Help me out gang, please.

Randolph
 
Solution
Your PSU is where I would start. In theory it is powerful enough but if there is a fault with it then you will experience all sorts of dramas. A bad PSU is great for blowing Graphics Cards so if you are experiencing Graphic Card Issues then stop using them with that PSU until you can clear it of problems.

Oogaber

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I tried doing that, after about 30 minutes of little to no progress I gave up on that road. Any of my other builds have never run anywhere near this slow before the video drivers. I just cannot figure it out.
 

Oogaber

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Ok, so working on my issue some more. My previous rig seemed to have both my video cards that were running in SLI fail on me. The cards in question were MSI 8800 GTS'. It was extremely suspicious that one of them would go on me then the other a mere 2 days later. I could boot up to windows with either card but in ugly resolution mode and device manager seeing them at not working properly. I downloaded and ran GPU Z which read that both cards Core GPU and Shader were running at zero.

Just to confirm that they were in fact dead cards I stuck one in the new build. During the post screens it had some very ugly artifacting all over the screen which was expected. However the machine was running like a champ and had everything running fast bar anything that needed video acceleration. So I got the mobo drivers installed lickety split with the old "broken" video card. Still in ugly big resolution. Device manager also saw the card as its name 8800 GTS, but with the ol yellow exclamation.

I powered threw one of the new video cards in and BAM! quicksand slow. Device manager sees it as only Standard Video Device or (VGA). So I tried giving the video drivers disk another shot and let it do its thing for about 40 minutes or so. The whole time the installation progress bar sat at about 1/5 progress never moving. The hard drive light on the motherboard lazily blinking regularly and slowly.

I have tried either of the new Gigabyte 460 video cards and the outcome was the same. I just find it really hard to believe that I somehow got 2 DOA video cards. Does anyone know anything about this motherboard/video card combo that does not play nice together? The only other thing I can think of is the power supply is somehow bad and can not supply the juice needed for the 460's.

Surely someone has a similar build out there.
 

Doom3klr

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Make sure all is plugged in well and you got plenty of cooling . Run hot cpu tester pro to test your hardware. Make sure your drivers are all loaded and windows is up to date good luck
 

Wamphryi

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Your PSU is where I would start. In theory it is powerful enough but if there is a fault with it then you will experience all sorts of dramas. A bad PSU is great for blowing Graphics Cards so if you are experiencing Graphic Card Issues then stop using them with that PSU until you can clear it of problems.
 
Solution

Oogaber

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Sep 10, 2010
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Update:
Ok, so I was able to get some old spare parts rounded up and Frankensteined a test setup to throw the new video cards into. Everything seemed fine for the new cards. I have now determined that it is in fact the PSU must be faulty. I got an RMA requested and it will be going out in the mail today.

I just wanted to thank everyone here at Tom's for helping me out with my troubleshooting. It's always hard to believe that one would get a new piece of faulty hardware, at least I have had some pretty good luck in past days and orders. I have also been pretty lucky with my past several or more builds with everything going really smooth. Maybe I got spoiled on that, heh.

Once again, thank you my fellow hardware enthusiasts and doctors. It's always nice to have a community of great minds to assist you in your upgrading dilemmas and woe's. It just sucks that I will have to be without my desktop for another week or so and that... nobody can approve of.