P8Z68-V GEN3 Sits at splash screen for long time

[mattfong]

Hi,

I just finished building my desktop and whenever it boots, it sits at the ASUS splash screen for awhile. I have an SSD, so I was expecting it to be maybe a few seconds before moving on and loading Windows. But instead, whenever I boot my desktop, it sits at the splash screen for about 3 minutes. And then it will either: boot, or go to a black screen with a blinking cursor. I have no clue how to fix this...

If it helps these are my specs:
i7-2600k
Asus P8Z68-V GEN3
Corsair XMS3 16GB DDR3-1600
Intel X25-V 40GB SSD

 

[steadywaters]

Can you enter BIOS?

Try hooking up just motherboard, CPU, RAM, PSU, and GPU (aka breadboarding) and see if you get the same problem.

 

[mattfong]

I solved it; for some reason I was using the 6GB/s SATA cables on my SSD (it was in the 3GB/s spot). After moving the SSD back to the 6GB/s spot it runs smoothly.