System post issues- whats dead? damaged? Stolen?

[stormy]

Hi,

I am having a serious nightmare with my PC at the moment. First here is the Spec.

Antec P180 Case
Asus P5K Deluxe/WIFI-AP
Intel E6600 Core 2 Duo (no overclocking)
2Gb Crucial Ballistix PC8500+ Ram
HIS Radeon X1900XT 512Mb PCI-e
Corsair HX520W Power Supply
WD 500Gb SE16 SATA II
WD 320GB SE16 SATA II
Soundblaster Audigy 2ZS PCI

I recently swapped the PSU out from an old Enermax one to the new PSU and noticed when I first tried to power on the system the new PSU the system would not post, it would just sit there with all the fans spinning. No graphics output, no keyboard lights just a lot of noise from the fans.

I took out the SB card and GFX card, re-started and the system seemed to actualy boot into windows fine (which I didnt realise it would without GFX). I could tell it had booted with the pro-longed HD access, so I waited for the system to boot, then pressed the power button and the PC shut down fine. So put the cards back in a voila everything was working again, happy bunny.

So 2 weeks later, I have got a Accelero S1 cooler for the X1900XT because of a rattling fan there. I took the switching off, unplugged etc and took the card out took the HS/FAN off only to realise the ram/vrm coolers where torx bits which I had none, so I put it all back together (and would call my mate to borrow his later) and switched back on and I have the original spinning fans, mobo has power and nothing syndrome again! What I have noticed is the CPU fan will actually start off at warp speed but gradually slow down (I dont think it can be using Asus Quiet Fan because thats normally a very sharp change is speed, where this is gradually and also I dont think its
even loading the bios).

I have tried numerous combinations of cards in/out and reset the CMOS countless times now (battery out, Clear RTC jumper in).

Nothing helps, looks like its dead but still living kinda. What is odd is if I take everything off the board including the memory I get the BEEP error code associated with no memory detected. If I put them back in, I get the same as before, no error code BEEPs but the fans just spin up, HDs spin up etc etc but nothing.

I also tested my old PSU and got the same result.

Dead mobo? Dead GFX? Dead CPU?

As a first test I have given the GFX card to a friend to test today, I have no easy access to another card to test. If the GFX card works then does it sound like a problem with one of the slots of my mobo or something else? I can live shelling out some cash to change the mobo and/or processor but I don't want to spend cash needlessly if there is something I can do to recover the situation.

Any advice is greatfully receieved.

Cheers,

Mike

[stormy]

I think I have posted this in the wrong forum! I will repost in the tech one. Please *delete* this thread.

Thanks.