Question : Problem: Cannot Boot Into Vista Since Installing CPU.

What do an E8400 C2D processor, an EVGA 680i AR motherboard, and Vista Home Basic x64 have in common?  They don't work together on my computer.  

A detailed list of my specs:
Intel C2D E6600 B2 Stepping (old chip)
2gb Corsair XMS2 PC6400
2gb OCZ SLI-Ready PC6400
EVGA 8800 GT 512mb  X2 (SLI)
EVGA 680i AR Mobo
OCZ / GameXStream / 850-Watt PSU
Zalman CNPS9500 LED CPU Cooler
Seagate 7200.1 250gb SATA HD X2 in RAID 0
Thermaltake Soprano ATX Case
Windows Vista x64 Home Basic

I'm hoping that someone will be able to help me with what has become an absolute pain in the ass.  It's going to take a wall of text to explain this, but I'm going to be as through as possible, so bear with me.

3 days ago I received my shiny new E8400 in the mail.  I (like many) waited patiently for the P32 bios to be released.  Once the bios came out I used the nvidia update method to flash the BIOS, I made sure I followed the instructions EVGA gave to the letter.  I reset, booted into BIOS, made sure to load the defaults, and shut down the computer.  Everything looked good to go.

I then installed the E8400 and attempted to boot the PC.  All my fans came on (CPU, case, video cards) but I got a "--" on the LED and no output on my monitor. I couldn't even get into the bios.

I decided to reset the CMOS to see if that would help.  I turned off the PSU (unplugged it too) and hit the power button a couple of times to discharge the board, moved the jumper, took out all the RAM, and pulled the battery.  I then came back about 20 minutes later and reset the jumper, put one DIMM of RAM in the slot furthest from the CPU, replaced the battery, turned on my PSU and booted her up.  Nothing, just "--".  I turned it off and waited, then tried again, still nothing.

At this point I asked for the help in the P32 BIOS thread on the EVGA website.  Mr. Natural gave me some good advice.  I cleared the CMOS again following the steps above and took out the E8400 and put my E6600 back in and reflashed the BIOS using a CD.  Bingo, I was able to post!  I went into the BIOS, entered the correct date and time and changed my memory voltage up to 2.1 as Mr. Natural suggested.  I then reset to make sure the BIOS settings took, then shutdown the computer and installed the E8400 again.

I booted up and it posted, yay!  Problem solved right? Wrong.  I went back into the bios and enabled RAID again.  I then rebooted and waited for Vista to load.  I get to the opening screen where you can see the loading bar, and then my system just hangs.  My fans all go up to 100%, and I get a blank screen.  I wait for a bit, nothing happens.  I reboot my PC and this time the advanced startup options appear.  I try to start normally and get the same problem my system just kind of hangs for bit.  But this time, I get a brief blue screen and then my system reboots (couldn't read what it said it went so fast).  This time my computer gets the "--" on the LED again and will not post.  I reset it, still nothing.

I remembered that the advanced startup menu said something about how the error might be caused by change in hardware and that I should use the recovery console to fix it.  I figure it's worth a shot.  But first I need to repeat all the previous steps to get my chip to POST again (swap the E6600 back in etc..).

After getting my E8400 back in and posting again, I boot up the PC and use the Vista x64 disc to get into the repair console.  Vista says the repair is succesful and asks me to reboot.  I reset and go into Vista.  Same problem, I get the loading bar but right afterwards the computer just hangs.  I reboot, try again, and then I'm back at "--" again.

I reset my CMOS, switch chips, you know the drill.  I get my E8400 booting AGAIN (at this point my room is filled with the smell of TIM remover) and decide that maybe a fresh install of Vista might be the solution.  I go into my BIOS and disable RAID and get out my Seagate DiskWizard disk and zero both drives (which takes about 3 hours).  The HDD's format just fine, which leads me to believe the problem isn't CPU related.  I use Seatools to run a quick check on both drives, they both pass.

I then proceed to enable RAID and set up a bootable RAID 0 array.  The Vista install seems to be working fine.  I get to the part where Vista is "expanding files" and that gets to about 40%.  Suddenly, I get a jumbled mess on my screen and my computer hangs.  I reboot and try the install again, same deal.

Frustrated, I reset and go into the BIOS to disable RAID once again.  I reboot and try to install Vista to single drive.  I use the Vista format utility to clear any information that may be on the drive and any existing partitions.  Same thing happens, I get to the "expanding files" part and the jumbled graphics appear on my monitor and my system hangs.
I try rebooting and installing on the other SATA drive I have, but Vista tells me it can't install on that drive and needs to install on the primary.

My computer is now posting just fine.  I find it strange that the only issue with posting happens after I attempt to load Vista a couple of times.

I'm at my wits end here and I'm hoping someone can help me out.  Could this be a bad SATA controller, or a bad HDD?  My IT professor seems to think it could be an issue with my version of Vista not being compatible with the processor.  He says that this is rare, but possible.  Any ideas?

Answer : Problem: Cannot Boot Into Vista Since Installing CPU.

r.e. the discussion with EVGA and your question, "... Is this a possibility? " ==> I learned long ago that nearly anything is possible ... but since the board is posting okay, even if the flash didnt' work well, you should be able to re-flash it via a floppy or CD => these are EVGA's preferred methods anyway.   It's unlikely that a bad flash did permanent damage to the motherboard (but again, anything's possible).   I'd re-flash the board with either a floppy or CD.   EVGA has an ISO for a bootable CD with the P32 BIOS:  ftp://ftp.evga.com/bios/NF68_P32.iso

By the way ... did you try installing Vista x32?