So my computer dies last week and I decide to build a new one. I order all the parts and they come in today. I put everything together and I get PCI Parity Error. I spend the next few hours trying everything I can think of.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

I forgot how frustrating this can be. I guess I got a bad motherboard but who knows. Shit I'm screwed. My choices are to exchange the parts and try again or just get a refund. Ugh.

(L) consoles.

yes it sounds like the motherboard its fucked.

More details please.  If you have a parts list you can link that would be helpful as well.

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R motherboard
MSI NX8800GT Video Card
OCZ PC 8500 Memory 4GB

I spent a couple hours tweaking bios, plugging/unplugging things. Nothing except frustration. I can't even get it to boot the XP setup.

Could also be the memory. Did you get the memory and motherboard from the same place or different?

For that matter, I have seen cheap power supplies cause errors like that, especially if they were under sized.

It's not worth it. If I want it custom built, I'll either work with a local shop or find a place on ebay that looks like they do a lot and will let you tweak the config. Unless you are doing several at once, it just costs too much to build your own, especially when you consider your time...

Well the thing that jumps out as the obvious problem is that your PCI bus may be corrupted in some way.

But I could be made more or less sure about that if there was more context to the error, for instance is that exactly what it says? Where do you get the error? During/Before/After POST? Accessing the MBR? Booting the OS? etc..

Also what (if any) other PCI cards do you have installed?

PS - I'm willing to help as much as I can but it sounds like you most likely need to RMA your mobo. It is possible that its something else though, and it would suck to RMA a part only to find out it wasn't the problem.

That sucks.

I hate the occasional PC build that simply will not start up...in general though I love building PCs...getting all the parts to come together, sometimes with a little troubleshooting...it makes it all so much better in the end.

I pretty much removed everything except the graphics card and memory and still get the error. So I'm guessing it's the motherboard. I think I'll die if I get a replacement and it still doesn't work.

How much memory did you leave in?  You can probably try it with one just to rule out problems there.  Boot it once with a single piece of memory for each piece you have.

I do think everything points to the motherboard but, as I said and you pointed it out also, it really sucks to RMA and still have the same problem.

It seems that you may have one of these fours problems:

bad mobo

bad ram

bad power supply

bad cables

try checking these and then replace anything that is bad. Also be careful when putting your mobo in the case because you have shorted the mobo.