Friend's mobo problem. Need help!

Wildside

Hellfire!
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My friend's mobo is having issues. We originally went out to Frys to get RAM for his old PC upgrading from 6GB to 16GB. Now, the ram isn't the right one, that problem can be fixed. What the real problem is that his eVGA X58 mobo, w/ Intel i7 920, is giving him an "error 75" issue, which means HDD - IDE device detection. BIOS cannot be reached thru keyboard(s). All it goes to is an info basic screen where on the bottom it says "press DEL for BIOS.......". We also bought a new ASUS PCE-AC66 wireless adapter for him to get internet but we will be returning later probably.

His HDD setup: Intel 320 Series 180GB SSD, 2x Western Digital 300GB vraptors (no RAID).
Intel SSD is cloned because he installed it later.

We are trying to figure it out. We are presuming it is the RAM overall and not the HDDs, because the are in working condition. They have not caused him problems. What we speculate is his RAM giving out. We switched each RAM sticks (OCZ 3x2GB DDR3 1600), but when we install all of them then the PC won't even boot to any screen. It is so odd. All HDDs are plugged up correctly too. We really think the RAM is causing this. We found compatible RAM online thru Amazon too.

What do you guys suggest we do that I can suggest him?
 
So i assume you tried one stick of ram at a time. Still no boot or Bios? Have you tried the bios reset or a battery pull to see if you can access Bios after you try this.
 
So i assume you tried one stick of ram at a time. Still no boot or Bios? Have you tried the bios reset or a battery pull to see if you can access Bios after you try this.

Yes. One stick at a time. It works, sort of. Still no boot to BIOS and even tried resetting it and battery pulling.
 
could you give the full spec of the machine
including the power supply
as in the past I have found that if a pc won't boot at all when you add new hardware it can be due to lack of power


also can you clear up what you mean when you say "Now, the ram isn't the right one"
as this made me think "well there's ya problem" lol
 
could you give the full spec of the machine
including the power supply
as in the past I have found that if a pc won't boot at all when you add new hardware it can be due to lack of power


also can you clear up what you mean when you say "Now, the ram isn't the right one"
as this made me think "well there's ya problem" lol

No i mentioned that the ram he bought isnt compatible. Here are his specs:

Intel Core i7 920, 2.66GHz
Nvidia Geforce GTX 480
Corsair 750TX PSU
EVGA X58 SLI motherboard
OCZ OCZ3G1600LV6GK DDR3 PC3-12800 1600 MHz Gold XTC 6GB Triple Channel Kits

The ram that he bought but didnt work was 'Patriot Memory Viper 3 Series DDR3 16GB 1600MHz (PC3 12800) Memory Kit PV316G160C0K'.

The OCZ are the ones that he was switching one by one with to try to boot with. When he installs all 3 sticks, then it wont fully boot. I had him also take out all USB devices except mouse and keyboard but it still didnt work.

He bought this to test for better wireless internet connection:

Asus PCE-AC66 Wireless Adapter 802.11AC+802.11N Antenna.

Like i mentioned, the PC boots up to where the screen shows basic info boot up of the SATA devices connected, his CPU speed, can choose to press DEL to get into BIOS, etc. He tries booting to BIOS but it doesnt work. His HDDs an SSD are working just fine too and he knows it. It is for sure his old OCZ ram that is causing the wierd booting. It is probably faulting on him now. His computer is over 4 yrs now. Only his GPU is the most recent updated part. He went from GTX 295 to GTX 480 thru warranty.
 
could you give the full spec of the machine including the power supply as in the past I have found that if a pc won't boot at all when you add new hardware it can be due to lack of power...
I think that is a great place to start. I've had many problems which magically disappeared with a PSU replacement.

As for getting into the BIOS, some boards are picky about USB devices (especially keyboards) since they don't always load the compatible USB drivers until Windows gets into the picture. Obviously, it's too late to get into the BIOS by then. If you have another keyboard handy give it a shot. If it's still no go, try digging up a PS/2 keyboard or use the USB=>PS/2 adapter if you have one.
 
Yeah switched keyboards. Didnt work.

UPDATE!!!!!

I just texted my friend. He found out that his Intel SSD failed on him! He has to RMA it! This sucks :(.
 
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Have you run the diagnostic test for the SSD in another computer? Not to be a Johnny-One-Note, but a device not getting enough power from the PSU could look like it had failed when it hadn't.
 
No we havent but the thing is that his PSU is 750w. I was just again texting him and he said that he can boot to BIOS finally but cant keep going because his main OS was cloned on the SSD.
 
So far:

MB Bad
RAM Bad
SSD Bad

That's an awful lot of bad luck for one system to have.

I would be absolutely sure the PSU is definitely OK before I did anything else. (And it won't matter how many watts it is if it's broken.)
 
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