BIOS Screen Garbled - EP45-UD3R help!

[pgrillo]

Put together the system with components listed below. Went together as smoothly as i could expect.

System comes up, quiet, all fans running everything looks good.
First screen is a gigabyte graphic screen displaying some markeiting of Ultra Durable 3 and 2 oz copper etc. At the bottom you can choose amongst entering the bios, post menu, boot device.

Regardless of what i select, when it goes into the standard text screen, it is totally garbled. You can see it is working, you can arrow around, however, you can read nothing.

I have RMAd and used two Video Cards. I have swapped out the two Mushkin memory sticks, trying on then the other.

I'm at wits end, do not know what else to try. I'm loathe to RMA every piece one by one. I'm hoping it is something simple and possibly stupid on my part that i might have missed.
Thanks for any help.

Motherboard:EP45-UD3R
CPU:Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
PSU: CoolerMaster 600Watt, Single Rail
Video Card:EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Memory:mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Case:LIAN LI Lancool PC-K7B
Monitor:Dell 23" Flat Screen

[profJim]

Check out the recommendations in this post.
Did you load Optimize bios settings before making any bios changes?
Please add a complete hardware list to your forum signature and include a link to the full specifications for your memory.
Post your bios settings using the bios template in this post or the post below it.

[pgrillo]

i can't load optimized bios or tweak anything if i can't read the screen. How do i get that far, if the BIOS screen is unreachable because of the garbled video?

I can't provide what i can't read, and i can't tweak what i can't access.

I wish i could get that far, if i could - i believe the problem will be solved.

[Chike]

I think there was a post like this not a while ago, not sure which card it was, try searching the forum.

EDIT: to blindly load optimized defaults, enter BIOS, press: right arrow, enter, enter, F10, enter, the computer should boot. For failsafe defaults enter BIOS, rpress: right arrow, down arrow, enter, enter, F10, enter. If I remember correctly.

[profJim]

You need to clear your cmos and start over.
Follow the procedures for cmos clearing in the BIOS Flashing - A "How To ~ Qflash Guide" thread.
If your problems remain, try booting with only one memory module in slot #1 so that you can enter your bios and make bios changes.

[pgrillo]

Originally Posted by Chike

I think there was a post like this not a while ago, not sure which card it was, try searching the forum.

EDIT: to blindly load optimized defaults, enter BIOS, press: right arrow, enter, enter, F10, enter, the computer should boot. For failsafe defaults enter BIOS, rpress: right arrow, down arrow, enter, enter, F10, enter. If I remember correctly.

Thanks for the input. I tried both of the blind approaches. No luck. I've cleared CMOS, no luck.

I have and will continue to search forums. I guess i'll try to get my hands on an alternate type video card. It's amazing that i'm seeing something that it appears nobody has run into. Wish i had that kinda luck in the lottery.

[profJim]

Do you have an older PCI video card that you can try in one of the whilte PCI slots?
Another video cable that you can test with?

[CoolMaster]

I ran into this problem setting up a bad raid configuration. I had to take the cmos batt out, reset the the cmos, and loaded optilmal default with IDE setup for a work around. Just an idea, I've never seen exactly what your stating other than my little problem I had.

[profJim]

I've cleared CMOS, no luck.

Did you follow the clearing CMOS procedures in the Bios Flashing Guide?
You might need to:
turn off your computer
power off the psu using its switch
unplug the power cable
remove the mobo battery
clear the cmos for several hours or more using a HDD jumper block

Some have had to follow this procedure when their systems got into a boot loop and all other efforts failed.

[pgrillo]

Well, here is the latest.

I've tried all that has been suggested, thank you.

Finally, i swapped in a different video card.

The one(S) that are not working is
Video Card:EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16

I RMA'd it and have tried two different versions of the above card with the same problem.

Borrowed a BFG GeForce 7950GT and the system came up visibly.

So, would anybody know why one particular PCI Express card would work and not another type. Again, i tried two brand new EVGA cards with the same problem.

Mobo/EVGA compatibility? If anybody has any ideas let me know. Meantime, i suppose i could switch to a totally different card.

but, at least i found the culprit. EVGA doesn't like MOBO or MOBO doesn't like EVGA