A7N8X-E Deluxe problem/no POST or video

[biggestmuff]

WTF is going on?! Here's my rig:

A7N8X-E Deluxe
Athlon XP 2100 w/ Zalman 7000CU
2 x 1 GB of Corsair ValueSelect RAM
Matrox P650 video card
2 x Seagate 120 GB
Pioneer DVR-109
M-Audio 2496 audio card
WinXP SP2

This is an audio workstation with only a host application (Sonar 4 PE), samples and OS on the first drive. The second drive only contains recorded audio and midi.

So, I try and update the rig with an Athlon XP 3000 (400 FSB), a third Seagate hardive (160GB) and a Radeon 9600 video card. I knew I should have added the parts one-by-one, but I was impatient and threw in all three parts. I was careful and installed them properly; no mishaps.

I power the rig on and...nothing. No video, no POST. Not even a beep. I took out the new drive and the new video card. Power back on and nothing, again.

I put the 2100 chip back in. The rig is now back to it's original configuration and it still does nothing.

I stripped out all of the harddrives and dvd/cd drive so that it just has cpu/fan, ram and video card and I get nothing. No POST or video.

I then put in an older FX5x00 video card. Same thing.

I then take out the ram and video card. Nothing of course. Just did it to see if I could get the board to beep at me, but it didn't.

I finally took out the CPU/fan. Now, Bitchin' Betty yells at me, "No CPU!"

I put the CPU/fan, RAM and video card back into it, but still get nothing.

The P/S is an Antec 430. Using the test point on the back, I'm getting +11.9V and around +4.9V, but it slowly bleeds off to around +4.84V. Ok, I put in a brand new Antec 380 p/s and still get nothing on the rig.

I thought it might be a grounding problem, so I took the MB out of the case. No matter what I do, this board will not POST or give me video.

HELP!

 

[Nocturnal]

Did you clear the CMOS by taking out the battery and shorting the jumper?

 

[biggestmuff]

Oops, yeah. I forgot to mention that I did that as well. Twice.

 

[Nocturnal]

The good thing is you heard it beep at you that there was no CPU. Your mobo is ok.

 

[biggestmuff]

I was about to buy another MB before you posted that. Why do you think the MB is good? What could be wrong with what I'm doing?

 

[Nocturnal]

If it beeped at you stating your CPU isn't in there that means your mobo is fine. It is going to be one of two things probably, your memory or your CPU. If you can, try another CPU. Also if you have two sticks of memory try each one, one only, one by one.

 

[biggestmuff]

Tried just the CPU with various PC3200 sticks in each slot. No go. How can it NOT be the MB?

 

[Nocturnal]

If the motherboard lady is telling you NO CPU then your motherboard should be fine either that or the CPU socket where the CPU goes is damaged. I would just try to get a cheap Sempron from your local CompUSA and check and see if it's your CPU or not. Otherwise go with your gut instinct, if you think it's your mobo, try changing that out.

 

[biggestmuff]

Ok, it looks like the MB is bad. I just popped the XP 2100 chip into an old Asus A7M266 MB and the cpu works there. I then took Athlon 1.2 GHz chip that was in the A7M266 and tried it in the A7N8X, but it did not work there. I'm just going to pick up a new A7N8X.

Thanks for the help, Nocturnal.