Motherboard maddness

I bought a second hand M/B & processor but when I set the system up, as I plugged in the power supply the CPU fan and case fan came on but the rest of the system was dead, no monitor, no hard drive, sound etc, and the power switch would not turn the machine off or on.
I thought the Board was dead and so bought a brand new one boxed & sealed with all its components but again when I put the CPU from the other board onto the new one, connected everything up, I found I had exactly the same problem. The only thing that the two set ups had in common were the case & power supply (which is brand new) & the CPU.
The boards are both able to take PC 3200 400mhz DDR ram of which I put in 2GB of matched brand new.
The motherboard doesn`t have any jumpers for CPU settings, so I can rule that out.
What I would like to know is, Is it possible that the CPU is damaged, would it cause such a problem as outlined.
Any help on this matter would be appreciated and probably save me going out and buying each item in turn til I get the culprit.

Thanks.
Mike.

Have you cleared CMOS?

No I havn`t tried clearing cmos, will do and see if it makes a difference.

thanks.
Mike.

I would also try a minimal boot, to see if it will post, motherboard/cpu//1xstick ram/graphics

I have tried re-setting the cmos, the system was exactly the same afterwards, case fan, cpu fan, HDD led on and fixed, but still no monitor, post etc, I then took out one of the hard drives and set remaining one to master with no slave, (still the same.) I then tried a minimal boot, I disconnected everything except cpu, 1x stick of ram, and graphics, Still the same except there was no HDD led at all (which is to be expected.) So now I wonder if either the processor (which was reported as working to me) is a gonner or the Ram I bought new and cheep from ebay is the culprit, (I have checked which RAM the mobo takes, and have bought the highest capacity allowed in that model, PC3200 400mgz non EEC etc etc.) But would either of these two things cause the symptoms described?

I must thankyou for all your help, and be assured every suggestion is being tried as it comes in.
We`l get there in the end eh!!

Mike.

What power supply are you using? Sounds like a similar problem I encounted when I changed to an nforce4 motherboard. My PSU was up to the job and wouldnt even boot!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by s_kinton

What power supply are you using? Sounds like a similar problem I encounted when I changed to an nforce4 motherboard. My PSU was up to the job and wouldnt even boot!

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Its a good power supply, ATX 500W, 20pin connector, (older socket486 mobo) should be plenty to run everything & more, but looks like I `l have to just buy new one, new processor, and new RAM, and see which one makes it run.
At least I`l know which one is knackered.
:juggle:

I think, as the HDD LED comes on and stays fixed, that it points more to a processor or RAM fault, correct me if I`m wrong, I`m just a bit confused because the RAM is brand new, and the processor is (I am informed by the gentleman that sold it to me) working and was taken out of his daughters system due to upgrade.

What beeps does the system sound when you boot up? These should give you an idea of where the problem lies.

What mobo and cpu are we talking about here?

As for the CPU working when it was posted, it probably was. I sold a mobo a couple of years ago on eBay, it was working fine before I sent it, then the seller told me it was DOA!!

Did you buy the mobo and CPU from the same source and was the CPU already in place in the board? If not, was the CPU sent with proper antistatic precautions (preferably in the original packaging. Again, if not, then CPU may have suffered static damage in transit - assuming that it really was working when sent.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by s_kinton

What beeps does the system sound when you boot up? These should give you an idea of where the problem lies.

What mobo and cpu are we talking about here?

As for the CPU working when it was posted, it probably was. I sold a mobo a couple of years ago on eBay, it was working fine before I sent it, then the seller told me it was DOA!!

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Actually we are talking about two mobos, the first was bought from ebay with the processor, heat sink & fan fitted, then due to the probs I bought another board and tried the processor in that one.
The first one was an MSI 865PE NEO2-P with (as mentioned) a 3.0ghz P4 HT 800fsb processor.
when that did not work I bought a brand new & sealed ASRock P4i65G
Both boards support 800 FSB, P4 3.0ghz HT processors, and the Ram that was used was a matched pair of 1gb sticks PC3200 duel channel DDR400 (2gb in all) Recomended in the accompanying manuals.
Problem is the same with both boards when processor and ram are switched from one to the other.
There is no beeps from the board spkr even though one is fitted, the only indications are 1/CPU fan comes on, 2//case fans come on, 3/the hard drive LED lights up and stays fixed.
There are no other signs of life sound or otherwise (except for a couple of clicks from optical drives)

Now looking at buying new processor and new ram to see if either make any difference as I can`t see it being the same problem with two different boards one second hand and one new, whats the odds of that!, so I rekon both boards are good and something else is to blame, the problem has been finding out what.

What I really need to know is, If I put a dead processor in a board would it stop everything working as in the symptoms described? if yes then we can safely assume the CPU is dead. If not we would have to look elsewhere, So the same goes for the RAM, but as I tried both sticks independantly and together I can`t see that both brand new sticks would be dead and it should have fired up with one of them in.

I would suspect the processor.

I have now replaced the processor with another P4 3.0ghz but still the same prob, I have also replaced the ram with 2x512mb sticks of ballistix pc3200 but still the same prob.
Changed the graphics card, changed psu, changed case. and guess what!
Nex thing is to change the machines place of abode,....................to the local dump!

mike