Hi All,
I've just completed my first build (e.g. noob here) and am having some difficulty. Here is what I've got:
EVGA X79 SLI
24GB RAM (3 sticks of 8GB DDR Crucial)
Win 7 Pro 64
Corsair HX 850 Power Supply
256GB SSD
2TB Hard Drive
GTX 770 Video Card
Before I built this I was using a GTX 580 in my old machine. I upgraded all of the components except for that 580, planning on still using it in the new build. Once I put everything together (including the 580), I noticed the screen was showing complete gibberish. A friend who knows computers indicated my graphics card might be bad, and lent me a small card to get me by until I could get a new one. I don't even know what the card he lent me is....it's relatively small, no aux power (just the DVI port), and is unbranded. But it worked. Everything booted up fine and I was on my merry way.
A few days later I found a GTX 680 on Craigslist and committed to purchasing it following a successful installation. The owner came to my house and we installed it. The BIOS boot screen came on like normal (is that what you call it? ..... EVGA logo flashes...it's before any Windows icons appear) but hung there for over a minute. With the unbranded small card, the BIOS boot screen only lasted for a few seconds before moving onto the Windows startup screen. After a minute or so the screen went blank except for a single cursor blinking in the upper left hand corner. I concluded that his card was bad. I then ordered a brand new 770.
When the 770 arrived I installed it. The BIOS startup screen came up and hung for close to a minute and my heart sank thinking something more fundemental is wrong, and it wasn't the CL guy's card. But then it moved on to the Windows startup and everything worked just great. Almost. The computer booted up and worked just fine, but the boot time (the BIOS startup window, that is) took a good solid minute before moving onto Windows. But, it did get through and eventually start. And once Windows started it was fine.
Next, I overclocked the CPU to ~4.4MHz. I then ran the Linx Benchmark to see how it performed under load. It crashed. I then tried to get into the BIOS to reduce the overclock, but every attempt I made at doing so resulted in a screen of BIOS gibberish....nothing readable, just a pattern of blocks on a black screen (the BIOS startup did come up....it's after I pressed delete to get into the BIOS that the gibberish appeared).
I restarted and the machine booted up as normal (taking a minute on BIOS startup, but then booting into Windows). I then shut the computer down and removed the 770 and reinstalled the small unbranded card. I started the computer up and it booted quickly into Windows. I restarted and entered the BIOS without issue, and changed all BIOS settings back to default.
I shut the computer down, removed the unbranded card, and reinstalled the 770. This time, it stopped at the BIOS startup for more than a minute, and then moved on to a blank screen with a single cursor in the upper left hand corner of the screen - the exact same thing it was doing when we tried to install the 680. And that is where I am now. I cannot boot my machine into Windows with the 770, only with the small unbranded card.
Does anyone have any ideas that might help me solve this issue? I would greatly appreciate any advice you can offer. Thank you.
Aaron
I've just completed my first build (e.g. noob here) and am having some difficulty. Here is what I've got:
EVGA X79 SLI
24GB RAM (3 sticks of 8GB DDR Crucial)
Win 7 Pro 64
Corsair HX 850 Power Supply
256GB SSD
2TB Hard Drive
GTX 770 Video Card
Before I built this I was using a GTX 580 in my old machine. I upgraded all of the components except for that 580, planning on still using it in the new build. Once I put everything together (including the 580), I noticed the screen was showing complete gibberish. A friend who knows computers indicated my graphics card might be bad, and lent me a small card to get me by until I could get a new one. I don't even know what the card he lent me is....it's relatively small, no aux power (just the DVI port), and is unbranded. But it worked. Everything booted up fine and I was on my merry way.
A few days later I found a GTX 680 on Craigslist and committed to purchasing it following a successful installation. The owner came to my house and we installed it. The BIOS boot screen came on like normal (is that what you call it? ..... EVGA logo flashes...it's before any Windows icons appear) but hung there for over a minute. With the unbranded small card, the BIOS boot screen only lasted for a few seconds before moving onto the Windows startup screen. After a minute or so the screen went blank except for a single cursor blinking in the upper left hand corner. I concluded that his card was bad. I then ordered a brand new 770.
When the 770 arrived I installed it. The BIOS startup screen came up and hung for close to a minute and my heart sank thinking something more fundemental is wrong, and it wasn't the CL guy's card. But then it moved on to the Windows startup and everything worked just great. Almost. The computer booted up and worked just fine, but the boot time (the BIOS startup window, that is) took a good solid minute before moving onto Windows. But, it did get through and eventually start. And once Windows started it was fine.
Next, I overclocked the CPU to ~4.4MHz. I then ran the Linx Benchmark to see how it performed under load. It crashed. I then tried to get into the BIOS to reduce the overclock, but every attempt I made at doing so resulted in a screen of BIOS gibberish....nothing readable, just a pattern of blocks on a black screen (the BIOS startup did come up....it's after I pressed delete to get into the BIOS that the gibberish appeared).
I restarted and the machine booted up as normal (taking a minute on BIOS startup, but then booting into Windows). I then shut the computer down and removed the 770 and reinstalled the small unbranded card. I started the computer up and it booted quickly into Windows. I restarted and entered the BIOS without issue, and changed all BIOS settings back to default.
I shut the computer down, removed the unbranded card, and reinstalled the 770. This time, it stopped at the BIOS startup for more than a minute, and then moved on to a blank screen with a single cursor in the upper left hand corner of the screen - the exact same thing it was doing when we tried to install the 680. And that is where I am now. I cannot boot my machine into Windows with the 770, only with the small unbranded card.
Does anyone have any ideas that might help me solve this issue? I would greatly appreciate any advice you can offer. Thank you.
Aaron
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