EP45-UD3P/9800 GX2 Stuck in Boot Loop [HELP]

[Jbrizzel]

So it seems we keep progressing to a new issue and therefore I apologize lol.

I spent the last 6 hours upgrading my motherboard, CPU, Graphics Card. I had a ASUS A8N SLi-Pemium motherboard with a AMD 4800+ that I replaced in my current tower case with my new EP45-UD3P and Q6600 Intel Quad Core along with my current 9800 GX2 PNY edition 1GB.

Anyways, I got everything built and I go to turn on the computer and it will stay around for about 3 to 5 seconds then shut off completely then it will turn itself back on and keep doing that over and over. There is NO display at all, black screen is all I get.

After that, I cleared the CMOS settings with a jumper and took the battery out and put it back in and I tried using a cheap PCI VGA card and it works fine with that! Can go into the Bios and everything.

Every time I hook my GX2 back in, it just keeps doing the boot loop with a black screen. I know for a fact it's not my GX2 as I was just on it yesterday before I started upgrading my tower case.

I unhooked all my dvd rom drive and hdd's when testing and 1 stick of ram in slot 2, still no luck.

I am going crazy, any help will be very helpful

Model of the motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P (rev. 1.6) Bios ver. FD 2009/11/24
Model of the memory: G.SKILL F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK (4x2GB / 8GB total)
Model of the CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

[Tradesman]

Imagine you've done most of the basic troubleshooting, i.e. you have the card well seated in the slot closest to the CPU, both the 6 and 8 pin power connectors firmly seated (may want to try other power connectors if available, in case one is bad)....first thought would the PSU, the 9800GX2 is power hungry card, and from the looks of your specs you might (might) have an underpowered PSU, for that graphics card you prob need a minimum of at least a decent 750 PSU

[Jbrizzel]

Nah, I have a ULTRA 1600 watt PSU. I will try changing out the molex power connectors with different ones, I believe I have a few spares.

[Tradesman]

Hmmm, sounds like the video card is the issue though, have you tried different power cables to the GPU (both the 6 and the 8), tried it in the other PCI-E slot, do you have the latest BIOS, is the BIOS looking to PCI-E for the primary Graphics? Might try a slight NB voltage increase.

[Jbrizzel]

Yes, I tried new 6 pin and 8 pins to the GPU, and a new 12v molex to the mobo.

The other slot is PCIe 8x not 16x so it won't work in that slot I believe.

I do not have the latest BIOS, the latest BIOS is still the Beta version, I have the latest (Stable bios)

I am not sure if the Bios is looking at PCIe as the Primary, I will check that.

[Tradesman]

I think that Beta is prob a final due to it's age

[Jbrizzel]

Hmm ok. Well when I'm in my bios, I get this message:

The system has experienced boot failures because of overclocking or changes of voltages. Last settings in this page may not coincide with current H/W states. Press any key to continue...

I'm thinking the factory settings has low volatges set now and reason why the big power hog GX2 won't boot.

Could I be right?

[Tradesman]

The NB voltage is what handles the DRAM and GPU, can try with that

[Jbrizzel]

ok, what settings am I looking for exactly?

[Tradesman]

If not NB Voltage or NorthBridge, it will be something like MCH voltage, will have to pull down a manual, will prob also won't to Disable C1E, C2/C2E, C4/C4E. and EIST initially to make sure those don't intefere w/ the GPU

[Jbrizzel]

Yeah I remember seeing the MCH voltage, what do I change it to?

[Tradesman]

MCH core to maybe 1.27 to 1.3 to start

[Jbrizzel]

1.27 to 1.30 you mean right? Just making sure you didn't mean 1.3.

Also, I went ahead and updated my Bios to FFb, still same results...

[Jbrizzel]

will prob also won't to Disable C1E, C2/C2E, C4/C4E. and EIST initially to make sure those don't intefere w/ the GPU

I would also want to or won't?

[Tradesman]

Yes 1.27 to 1.30 and yes 'want' to disable, sorry