ARGH! Need Help ASAP

[Captain Nate]

The system:

QX6850 @3.0 ghz (9x clock multiplier in bios)
Asus P5k3 deluxe
4x gb supertalent ddr3 7-7-7-18
XFX 8800 ultra
soundblaster xfi fatality (currently disabled - using mobo sound)
2x wd raptor 10k rpm 150 gb drives in raid 0
samsung 500 gb data drive
plextor dvd/rw
case-coolermaster stacker 830
psu-1100watt coolermaster(the one that came with case)
cpu cooler - thermaltake 120 ultra tower w/120mm attached case fan

The backstory:

I built this system in September, the former CPU cooler died in October, right before I left on business for a month and half. Post office lost package with the busted tuniq tower I sent back. The motherboard would sometimes say overclocking failed and it's not overclocked... every once in awhile I'd get this on boot and have to go into bios and change from auto to manual or manual to auto settings.

I had to remove mobo to change the backplate for new cpu cooler (thermaltake 120 ultra tower) and when I put it back in... nothing. my beautiful samsun 22 inch sat there doing nothing. no beeps, no anything. the fans were all running and the mobo recieving power but that was it. After fiddling with stuff... it booted in a few times but crashed alot. I updated windows vista 64, updated virus (mcaffee), updated a couple games. I was getting crashes where mouse(logitech g7)/keyboard (logitech g15) locked up. Had some issue on install/config for updates to logitech ball cam also. Now, can't get it to boot into windows at all. Was able to get to safe mode before at least on crash. Can't use vista repair. Stalls after it gets through the loading bar...

Ideas? I ran memtestx86 on my ram before and no issues. Is it possible the mobo is defective or what else would this be pointing to? I'm really sick of this cause I bought what should have been high quality components.

Recommendations on what to replace the mobo with? Also, I'm using Vista 64 oem so how is that affected if I have to replace mobo... I seem to remember the oem copies being registered to the mobo making it hard to upgrade. or was that the processor....

Thanks in advance!

 

[cprince]

Is the CPU overheating? Check to see if you put the new CPU heatsink on correctly.

 

[Captain Nate]

No, it's running at 30 degrees C under light load/boot conditions. Come on now... I'm not a complete idiot. I cleaned the CPU top surface with 91% isoprol alcohol, mounted the backplate, reinstalled the mobo, put down my pea sized drop of paste, then mounted the cooler to it and tightened down the spring loaded screws. Then I reconnected the cards, cabling, and power in that order. I left it on for awhile to monitor both in bios and safe mode, no issues with heat. (I've got a front 120mm, back 120mm, 120mm mounted to the ultra 120 tower, and 3 side case fans... I could almost keep it cool with just a heatsink with the incredible airflow passing over the cpu/mobo.)

Also, when I could get into Vista, I didn't get a single BSOD... just the lockups/hangs and failures to boot in...

I'm pretty sure it's the mobo.

Has anyone heard of Asus not working well with supertalent DDR3? Their tech support mentioned something about Antec power supplies (I have a coolermaster one) and then asked me about the RAM I was using. The standard suggestion of "just pull out 2 sticks of RAM" pissed me off. Don't sell me a product with 4 slots if it only works on 2! (I had already tested it anyway).

Note: The P5K3 has a soldered in cmos chip so you cant pull it, hot swap it to a working friend's board to update it like I've seen done before or replace it with a good one from the manuf. You have to send the whole dang thing back to Asus and get some P.O.S. refurbished one back. This may very well be my last asus product.