Help with 780i "FF" grounding issue

I am currently trying to put together my first pc and am having trouble getting my pc to boot. When everything is in the case and plugged together the LED displays "FF" right upon start. After reading several posts from other people, this either meant a grounding issue or a bad mobo. The way to test was to take everything out of the case (place on cardboard) and plug in only 1 gpu and 1 stick of ram.
When I did this, the motherboard booted just fine. I am now wondering what I am doing wrong when putting everything in the case. I am looking for ideas to try and things that an amateur might overlook. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Specs:
Motherboard: EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI
CPU: Intel Q9450
CPU cooler: ZEROtherm BTF90 92mm Silent UFO
RAM: CORSAIR XMS2 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
HD: Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB 10000 RPM
GPU: (2) EVGA 512-P3-N841-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3
Case: Antec 900
PSU: SILVERSTONE SST-ST75ZF 750W ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS12V

Got standoffs in all the right places. No extras touching the board someplace?

"FF" means normal boot "--" means grounding issue.

Is this the board that needs the bios chip pushed back into the socket? I read that here awhile back I think.

Sorry I should have been more clear. The LED gets stuck on the FF immediately upon starting, and it does not go through the normal sequence of letters and numbers that it would if it were a normal boot. I do not get any display on a monitor either. I only screwed in the standoffs that correspond to holes on the board. I am assuming that the red paper washers that come with the screws go above the board and below the screw. Am I supposed to place them between the standoffs and the board or do they not really affect much?

I've never used the washers ever on anything

I had that exact same problem on my eVGA board (the Q6600 in my Sig) and I placed a thin sheet of cork (think 1/8") on my mobo tray and poked holes in it for the standoffs.

I believe hobby stores have them and so do some home improvement stores (local mom & pop types, not Lowes)

If I were to use the cork sheet wouldn't that cause some heating issues due to the added insulation?

Estraven said:

If I were to use the cork sheet wouldn't that cause some heating issues due to the added insulation?

Click to expand...

i had an old socket a board that would do this, I just put tape over the holes on the front and back of the board and it worked fine, and it's still chugging away like that today.

Same thing happened with mine (which now doesn't work at all) and all I did to (temporarily) fix it was to push the bios chip into place. Somehow your chip may have done that when you took it out of the case. Try putting it back in the case as you would normally to see if you still have problems. Also, have a look at the evga message boards. From memory someone posted a fix for the instant FF problem. There is also a thread dedicated to 780i problems and fixes.