A few questions:

[cptwhite_uk]

For reference:

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=34908

I've been trying to build a system but can't even get to the BIOS start up screen. I have :

Old processor and motherboard (Athlon XP 1800+ and Jetway V333DA)

New processor and motherboard (Athlon XP 3000+ and ASRock K7VT4A+)

Both coupled with the following:

Ebuyer value (I know , I know) PSU (brand new, likely working as I get the same results with my Tagan 480W, which I know is working as I transfered it from my main PC)

Radeon 9700 (second hand but confirmed working in my main PC)

512Mb 400DDR M-Tech RAM (1x512) (again confirmed working in my current PC)

Am I correct in saying the only things I need to get something to appear on the screen are :

PSU
Motherboard
RAM
Vid Card
Processor

If so I've confirmed it's either the motherboard or processor which is faulty.

This is a tale of woe, so bear with me.

I tried making the system with the new processor and motherboard, motherboard is brand new so I assume that'd be fine (bear with me). The Athlon XP 3000 wasn't guaranteed to work. I put the system together and powered up - no responce at all apart for spinning fans. I then tried my old Athlon 1800+ on the new ASRock motherboard - unfortunately I was using an Akasa? heatsink on the Athlon 3000 and on removing it my clumsy dad managed to put a slight scratch on the ASrock - no visible circuits were crossed but it did expose some copper just next to the socket about the size of a pin head. I can no longer assume the ASrock works. Anyway I got the same result my old processor (after the damage was done). I then tried both processors on my old (and to all intents and purposes - working) Jetway motherboard. Same repsonce (ie no responce) in these two configurations either. I did something really stupid - since the heatsinks were causing me so much bother I turned the systems on without a heatsink (for about 5 seconds) ...however I fear I've probably wrecked both processors - I didn't think they'd heat up so fast - can you confirm if this is likely?

My current situation is I have one (possibly) working motherboard, supports upto Athlon XP 2000+ , possibly 2 dead processors and a probably knackered new motherboard. I don't really know what to do next....

Edit - I'm very confident I had plugged everything in that needed to be plugged in and all jumper settings were correct for all the various setups I tried. Apart from the Athlon 3000+ in the Jetwat (Processor 333fsb, mb 266...) set the motherboard to 266 (2x133) x 10.5 or something low like that....I assume UNDERclocking wouldnt have damaged anything.

Give me your thoughts I need all the help I can get

[Olly1234]

Certainly a bit of a fix your in... ..However when you switch either of them on did you get any beeps fom the internal speaker?

[Davion]

if you switch on without the heatsink for only 5 seconds then they don't burn.
But it's possible that the motherboard won't boot without a fan connected to 'CPU_FAN'

[cptwhite_uk]

No beeps from the internal speaker and I've tried both of them WITH fans connected. Still no luck

Literally nothing happens....

[BlueMagician]

In my limited _hardware_ troubleshooting experience, the only time I have ever had fans (powered by the mobo) spin up, and absolutely NO beep codes, is if the CPU was faulty. Of course this doesn't rule out the mobo, but I'd put a bet on the processor(s)..

Edit: Realised that you'd not confirmed that the fans did spin up. Same question as Olly below: do the fans work? Any diagnostic LED's on the mobo, or anything?

£0.02
S.

[Olly1234]

So if you plug the CPU fan and a case fan in do they spin up when you hit the on button or is it just sitting there ?

[cptwhite_uk]

The fans spin up and that's all. That's the only responce I get from powering up.

My theory is the damage to the ASRock board has subsequently fried any CPU I've tried to attach to it ....still doesn't explain why the initial test didn't work other than the 3000 CPU I was sold (and used in the first test) was faulty to begin with.....

At the end of the day I think the only solution is going to be a new mo/bo and cpu.

I'll try both CPUs on the new motherboard (a faulty CPU isn't likely to damage a motherboard is it? and if I can't get either to work I'll just buy a sempron to go along with it - motherboard is £25 and a new CPU is anywhere between £35 (Sempron 2200+) to £100

Finally, does anyone know about Thermaltake Orb coolers? < link

This is what I have from my old board and would want to use it on the new system. I'm not sure what it's maximum rated use is but it definately has a cooper base so I think it's the model I've linked too - excellent retaining mechanism very easy to apply and remove. It's very weighty (which I beleive is a good sign). If someone can comfirm it's good for use with a high level Athlon XP / Sempron I'd be grateful - the website simple states :

Application for:
AMD AthlonXP, AthlonMP, Athlon & Duron Processor
INTEL PIII 1.13GHz & TUALATIN
up to 2.0GHz

which isn't very clear, does it mean all Athlon, and Intel upto 2ghz, or all cpu's upto 2.0ghz ???

[Jon-E-Durex]

I had a similiar problem, found out it was my ram. have you got your ram in the right slots?

+ if you have more than 1 stick of ram, I found with my last mobo that it would only boot first time with 1 stick, no idea if thats a one off problem, then I put th 2 stick in next time and it worked fine,

Good lUck

[cptwhite_uk]

Cheers for the reply Jon, I only have 1x512 stick and although I know exactly what you're talking about (i tested the memory on AV8 Deluxe...bfore realing it needed to be in Dimm Slot 3...)

However on this Mobo dual channel isn't supported (it's only a Socket A set-up). Good point to make though. It only has 2 slots DIMM1 and DIMM2 ...to be fair I've only tried it in DIMM1 but this would seem the logical position given the type of board.