Ok everything is put together properly in the case and afaik it works. I get a post beep from the motherboard and then it goes to the BIOS splash screen thing. But when I press delete to go into BIOS nothing happens at all. Anything that could be causing this?

EDIT: I might also want to point out that it doesnt go to the book drive failure screen like it did in the external build. When I unplugged my SSD it started to boot off of the Optical drive and went into the Windows installer however with no storage device connected i couldnt download it. Would it be ok if I unplugged the SATA cable to the SSD then let it start booting off the optical drive and then plug in the SSD SATA cable?

Perhaps it's not recognizing the keyboard? It is plugged in, right?

Yeah the Keyboard works. Lights up and everything. I get this weird black and white moving stripes that look like a barcode at the top of the screen and every time I press a key it stops them from moving for a second and then the keep going.

it could be a different key to access the bios during bootup, are you hitting the delete button because thats what you read on the screen or from somewhere else?

Yeah...something like F2, F6, or F12 are possible.

On your edit in the OP: NO! Don't plug in or un-plug anything while the system is running. In fact, un-plug it or switch off the PSU if you're going to do that. Even if that didn't run a risk of damaging something it most likely wouldn't work.

But it wont boot from the optical drive with the SSD plugged in and I cant get in the BIOS to change the settings. Do any of you have skype or MSN so I can show you what's going on?

You need to get into the BIOS settings and change the boot device order. It's the only way.

And I cant get into the BIOS.

Does the manual for the motherboard tell you what key gets you into BIOS setup?

Have you tried connecting the storage devices to different SATA ports on the board? I really don't know how that board selects the boot device when it's not specified...

Try pressing it repeatedly with about a second between each press. It only registers during a certain time while booting up, but if you press it too fast you'll get a keyboard error.

The screen says press delete to enter bios.

Have you tried what Nami88 suggested? That's typically what I do...I can never remember when to press the key.

Press and hold usually does it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CMogpmTHQc That is what's happening.

Did you plug in both motherboard power connectors? (just wondering, that seems to be an extremely common problem)

The lines at the top of the screen...is it just me or does that look wrong?

I would try disconnecting everything except the CPU, memory, video card, and keyboard from the motherboard and try again.

Edit:
Ah, also, is there a key to display the POST info instead of the splash screen? It might give you a clue as to what's happening.

You mean the 24 pin one and the CPU supplemental psu? yes i did.

So it boots fine with the SSD disconnected? Try changing which SATA port the SSD is connected to?

If it's connected to a 6gb/s port then try moving it to a 3gb/s port.

Reseat your RAM. A partial RAM failure can cause the BIOS to lock up mid way through POST. Also screen corruption is symptomatic of BIOS EEPROM failure or defective/problematic RAM.

That wont work either. None of the keys they say to hit work except CTRL+ALT+DEL to reset.

Just to be sure, I'd disconnect the optical drive and the SSD from the mobo, pull out all of the RAM, put one stick back in, and see if you can get into the BIOS.

Well I pulled out the RAM and put it back in and now it wont even give me a POST beep and just keeps resetting itself.

Ok it works now. I can access the BIOS.


But its the old school BIOS and not the EFI touch BIOS advertised for the MOBO.

I strongly recommend that you perform a memory diagnostic on your RAM. One of the modules could still be defective or partially defective. The POST memory check doesn't always catch everything especially memory that performs intermittently. Running with defective memory may cause Fatal System Errors (BSoDs) and corrupt hard drive sectors. It can also cause you not to be able to modify the BIOS configuration settings (as you experienced). This can cause further troubleshooting issues.

I think it's my SSD drive. It will boot from the optical drive when it's unplugged but when I plug in my SSD it goes to that funky stripe looking stuff.