Prob w/ DangerDen RBX and Epox 8kda3j

I got everything set up and fired up the comp and couldn't get past the bootscreen, which sometimes wasn't all there. I tried clearing the CMOS to no avail. The pump seemed to be buzzing a lilttle, when it had been totally quiet during leak testing..

I rechecked everything and the connections were good and the watercooling stuff was still dry as a bone.

I wonder if perhaps the mouning screws for the backplate were touching the case backplate and causing some kind of short. I left the hs/fan backplate on and ran my RBX mouning bolts thru that because they fit and because the holes in the mobo were big and I didn't think my lil plastic washers would be big enough.

Is that possible? I've reinstalled the mobo w/ air cooling and it's running fine. Also, if I can't use the heatsink backplate, what can I do for a bigger plastic washer? Can I make 'em if I need to?

Any other ideas on what may have happened?

Are you using a pump that runs off of the 12v line? If you are, your PSU might be overtaxed.

I would suggest testing by setting it up outside of the case with bare minimun components (cpu, ram, video) and see if you can get into the bios. If that works, and it should, then carefully put it back in the case.