tbh, i really think it's your board dude. everytime i get hell for random codes it always turned out to be the baord and once i swapped out the board it works....

This is the key.

Wipe the drive and do a fresh install. :thumbsup:

Hey Scotty,

I've tried booting with two different drives that were formatted for the board while it sat on my Banchetto rack.

I'm seriously thinking it's an electrical issue of some sort. Guess I'll have to drain it and tear it apart. Hopefully the new water block isn't shorting something on the motherboard :eek: That is new to this build, so it's highly suspiscious (to me at least :laughing: )

STRANGER THAN FUCKING FICTION
 

Ok, for kicks I started the rig, no HDD or SSD attached, and it booted right up from the install disk. Went into BIOS and found it was set on legacy instead of ROM, switched that.

While it was running I attached the SSD to the Intel 6gbs port and the storage HDD into the 3gbs port. Set the SATA to IDE, saved and rebooted.

Went right into Windows :clapping: Automatically installed a shitload of drivers but the video driver install failed, no probs.. it was the sucky MS version anyway. Rebooted and tried to install the latest from NVidia via thumb drive - install failed because it didn't find any compatible video cards in the system :wtfsign: GTX 580s aren't Nvidia compatible?.

So I booted again and it's now back in it's same old hang at A2 nothing I do will get me back into windows.

Disconnected the SSD and HDD and still hangs

taking the damn thing apart today :argh:

Try to boot with only 1 vid card. Might have a bad one or slot working against you.

Sounds like a controller problem on the ssd,

update frimware or take it out back and put a bullet through it and buy a Sammy

Guessing you are using a Sandforce controller

Make sure you have it on SCSI, not IDE and make sure you are in the primary 6GB port off the chipset, not a Marvell controller

It sounds like its trying to boot to the hdd and not the ssd. As far as the video cards go I have no idea other than what Scotty said. I really don't think plugging in your ssd and your hdd while in the bios was a good idea though. Sounds scary. And if the board wont boot with just your OS disk in it then yea somethings wrong with your bios. imo. I would reflash it.

yeah, figured the BIOS too, but flashed it several times now. Won't boot off the SSD or the Raptor which are both boot drivers (not in the rig at the same time). Turned off the slot with the third card in it, didn't seem to to much help.

Pulling the tri sli out tomorrow and trying it with a single air breaher but I don't expect that to help.

Just weird how it works sometimes and not others... would think it would be all of one or the other

thanks for all the advice though :thumbsup:

Try un seating two of the three video cards(I know there on a loop) but it can be done without removing everything. Sounds like the controller on the board for the hard drives is borked or not enough voltage. :blink:
I know I'm saying this to you but(DO NOT BE OFFENDED!) Try the minimal approach, sounds as though a dieing PSU or memory stick? Remove the battery and do an over night Cmos clear.

Hey, no offense ever to help I requested bro :) One possible I've been turning over in my mind (where else would I turn it over :laughing:) is that one of the cables to the PSU may not be in securely enough - or - it may have been compromised by my stuffing the little rad down there against all the cables. I actually do think it's an electrical issue.

The really weird thing is how sometimes it works, sometimes it don't :blink:

Pulling the tri sli today (which will give me access to the battery) and once the loop is drained I can pull the little rad and check all the connections to the PSU too.

No rest for the wicked :ohcrap:

PS. Gonna plop the tri sli onto my Classified e759 which is currenly serving as the mobo of my alternate gamer with the 980x and GTX 680. I'll drop the 680 into the borked rig once I do a once over (and re-route the water to the cpu and chipset only) and see what happens :P