ASRock z77 Extreme 6 + EVGA Nvidia 660 SC

[graviora]

Hello all,
recently built my first computer. Everything worked fine until I put the graphics card in the machine. After that, I started getting boot up issues and BSOD with the stop code 0x000000F4 (0x00000000000000003 , 0xFFFFFA80160B30 , 0xFFFFFA8012360E10 , XFFFFF800031CF8E0)

The problems look like this. I will either have A) a bunch of random dots accross the top of the screen when there should be a windows logo [very rarely gets past that] or B) Get into windows but it quickly becomes unresponsive and then crashes. That is the extent of what happens.

I am, however, able to run the computer in safe mode with no problem whatsoever.

I have tried everything I could think of. Return the first card i got and got a second one, messed with bios, reinstalled windows 7 several times, reinstalling drivers, puting card in different PCIe Slot, Power supply cable in different jack, unplugging various drives, trying new hard drives, ect.

These are the components I am using:
ASRock Z77 Extreme 6
Intel i5-3570k
Cooler Master Silent Pro 850W PSU, 80+bronze
Corsiar Vengence Ram (running duel channel and 16GB)
EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SC

Once again the computer runs fine when running off stock intel graphics, it is simply when you hook up the GPU and plug in the HDMI cord to the GPU when I get problems.

 

[Garudafarrellmon]

Have you plugged both power cables into the gpu and both cables into north and south bridge on mobo?

 

[graviora]

yes. all of the cables are where they belong. I have the i have the 8 pin power cable in the north bridge and the 24 pin in the south. also the gpu has always been plugged in.

 

[larrym]

This is the second card you tried..exact same card? Both have the same results? Do you have another PSU to try and did you try a different cable, maybe a DVi cable?

 

[graviora]

Yes exact same card and same results both times. I do not have another PSU and I have not tried a different cable. Everything has been HDMi'ed. Ill try to find a dvi or vga and see if that helps later when i can.

 

[larrym]

My first suspect would be the PSU..then the MOBO...Highly unlikely you received two bad GPU's. Did you test the RAM..one stick at a time in different slots?

 

[graviora]

I found the problem. There was a driver that came on the disk that the motherboard came with that was skrewing everything up. The comp is running smoothly now!

 

[graviora]

Best answer selected by graviora.