Kinda want some more opinions about how to interpret this.

My newest cruncher was up and running for about 2 weeks.  See my "Learning to OC" thread for specs.  It didn't run too stable, I tried XP (twice) and Vista.  Both blue screened numerous times.  Microsoft has some built in tools to analyze the errors, but the results were all over.  Virusscan caused a problem.  Bad drivers.  Memory issues (memory diagnostics showing zero issues when run). 

2 days ago, I got home from work and found her dead again.  Ugh.  This time, however, she wouldn't come back up.  I unplugged her, cleared CMOS, still she won't POST.  PS and all fans spin for about 3 seconds, then they die.  After about 5 seconds they try again, and die.  If you leave her be, she just cycles through the process of trying to start, but never does.

I pinged Gigabyte for help on this.  They recommended that one at a time I pull parts out to see if the symptoms change.

Unplugged hard drive and DVD burner.  No luck.

Pulled the Video Card.  No luck.

Pulled all the RAM.  No luck.

Changed power supplies.  No luck.

Finally I popped the HSF off, and pulled the CPU off the board.  (this from advice from Gigabyte).  With just the power supply and the HSF plugged in, now all the fans turn on and stay on... 

Is my Q6600 dead?  Man I hope not.  I have about 5 days left to submit an RMA, but want to make sure it's for the right component.

I'm still waiting for Gigabyte to come back with their diagnosis after sending them a summary 5 minutes ago, however wanted to see if the experience here had any thought too. 

Thanks nutcase,

Damn, I just reseated the CPU and put the HSF back onto it.  Same behavior - won't POST.  Crud, if GB agrees, looks like I submit an RMA for my first dead MB. 

Gigabyte really makes some nice looking boards.  When I opened the box, I was like "Ooooh.... look at her!"  All that shiny copper and stuff, it's easy on the eyes!  My gf was gettin a little jealous.  "It's just a bunch of circuits and stuff.  You're such a geek."

It is definitely a dangerous toy store... 

I got my board up and running yesterday, and no matter what I tried I couldn't get it to boot overclocked.  It would hold 3.5ghz using easytune, so I knew it there was something in the bios preventing it from booting.

So this morning, I started playing around with it.

Seems it's VERY important which actual memory multiplier settings you chose.  You need to ignore the actual FSB of the processor, and chose the option that relates to what you want the target fsb to be.

In my case, with DDR2-800, I chose the 2.0 multiplier, but initally I had chosen 2.0A which corresponds to 2.66FSB.  I found by chosing 2.0D which corresponds to 400FSB, I was able to boot and run stable (so far) at 3.6ghz (400fsb) and the chip is running at 1.315v (1.375 bios setting, loadline calibration off).  All other voltage settings are stock with memory voltage set per manufacturer specs.

Also, set the Performance Enhance With to normal.  Problems overclocking were reported when using settings of turbo or extreme.

I hope this helps.