Specific problem with i7/gigabyte mobo new boot

[silkeno]

These are the specs of the rig I just put together.

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5

Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz

Coolermaster HAF 932 Full Tower Case

Corsair 1000W HX PSU

12 gigs Corsair DDR3 1600

2x VELOCIRAPTOR 300GB

Zotac GTX295 1792MB DDR3


The problem is that I'm got getting any bleeps at all. I have the speaker from the front panel plugged in. All the fans are on, the Mobo leds etc are working away, and everything seems to be running fine, but I'm getting no signal to my monitor.
This mobo has a display that gives error codes as numbers. It seems to be getting stuck at '69' which looking in the manual says is 'turn on L2 cache' which obviously points to the processor. I just used the stock cooler that came with it, and since it's a foolproof design, it's really impossible to mess that up.
When I first looked at the base of the stock intel heatsink/fan it and 3 pads on it which I assumed were regular thermal pads, but when I removed it again to check things, the pads had melted into paste. This is normal I assume, but is there any problem with taking it off and putting it back on once the stuff has melted?
Any other ideas as to what to do?
This is the third rig I've built, the last two went quite smoothly, but third time unlucky I guess..the problem is in really isolating which part is going wrong, unless you have a load of spare parts you try.

 

[Proximon]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-build-post-checklist

Start there

 

[silkeno]

I already did)

The problem I describe is with everything stripped down to bare minimum or with it fully rigged, doesn't make any difference. Went through all of that stuff on the faq, most of its really elementary anyway.
I guess in some cases it can actually be a faulty component, it's not always user error.
Does anyone have that motherboard, and is it actually supposed to make beeps, or has that been replaced by the Lcd number code readout?

 

[daship]

Try with 2 or 3 sticks of ram. You need to get it booted with minimal ram and set the volts and timings manually.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Well. If I'm reading this right, you can only use 3 RAM slots if you're using DDR3-1600. Have you tried using just one DIMM per channel?

-Wolf queries

 

[silkeno]

Yeah, I was trying it different combinations to get a boot, but no luck. I have to admit I didn't notice that you can only use 3 slots when you go up to 1600mhz ram. Seems like quite an arbitrary limitation, but it says at the bottom it's an intel spec and not to do with the specific motherboard.

 

[silkeno]

Turned out I'd bent a couple of pins in the processor socket. I bent them back with a pin and it worked fine.
Maybe that's another one you could add to the 'why won't my mobo boot' FAQ