Bad motherboard kills my processor and motherboard?

[mnfenixtx]

*Sorry mods didnt know exactly which forum this belonged in so posted in technical support, cpu, and motherboard forums*
My friend purchased a new motherboard (msi k7t266 pro-r) and amd xp 1600+ cpu we plug everything in, doesnt post and it hangs on according to the manual using the D-led, the graphical diagnostic led, "testing VGA BIOS-This will start writing VGA sign-on message to the screen." I restart and then we get all red leds which says "system will hang here if the processor is damaged or not install properly." Power down check cpu connections and core to look for cracks/bent pins/smell nothing, check power connections and make sure cards and DDR ram*motherboard does support it, samsung pc2100* is seated properly, strip to bare components:mb,ram,video,cpu/hsf still nothing. We decide to test her cpu and motherboard with parts from my working (at the time)computer (ECS K7SEM and 1600+xp) So I take my cpu out and put her new 1600+ in with HSF of course powers on nothing concluded her chip is bad. K Then we take my chip and put it in her motherboard same thing happens that happened in the very first place hangs at VGA bios testing and the restart and then all red and nothing, fans power but no post, no bios. I conclude that her motherboard is bad. K my concern is that when I returned my cpu into my computer it doesnt post or beep now. I tried my friends Amd athlon 1 ghz and nothing. I'm at a loss cant be ram, or power source cause all I moved was CPU. Heatsinkfan is plugged in so rpm monitor is not it. Not grounding issue never moved motherboard. I suspect that her motherboard is defective destroyed her processor as well as mine and putting those destroyed processors in my board killed my motherboard? Any thoughts on this and I'm getting a refurb motherboard I'm afraid to put my possibly broken cpu(no smell,bent pins, crack core)in it causing it to break my new motherboard aswell

Follow up: I forgot to mention I tried clearing bios by shorting jumpers and returning them, and by taking out the battery for a few minutes. Please help

Also when manual says "CPU support:Socket A for AMD Duron,Athlon Processors" XP follows in the Athlon portion or is it usually listed seperatly? Thanks

 

[Praxis]

I had a similar experience with an Epox EP-8KTA3L+ that I bought for $40. The damn thing killed a Duron 700 and a beautiful Athlon 900. Oh well, it gave me an excuse to upgrade to Duron 1.2 GHz CPUs. After the second dead CPU I RMA'd it to Epox and within a week they sent me a new board, which is now running a XP1700+. I have no idea what was wrong with the board, but after it murdered two processors I simply gave up and sent it back. Generally I've had good luck with Epox boards, though.

 

[BuddyAtBzboyz]

Damn if that happened to me I would be afraid to use any of my old components! I would just make a new system.

 

[Acanthus]

yes it isnt very uncommon to have components take friends with them, which really sux if the parts arent under warranty.

 

[Acanthus]

also some motherboards dont natively support athlon XPs, it was given support through a BIOS update, this can cause weird posts or a lack thereof, the only way to correct it is to boot the system on a Tbird, flash to the latest bios then install the XP which is a big pain. This seems like its more of a bad cpu problem though.

 

[Richardito]

My Epox 8K7A killed my 1900+ XP when a water leak got to one of the mosfets on the motherboard. It fried the CPU with 2.5volts... I checked with a 600MHz Duron and it survived going to the BIOS and verifying the unusually-high core voltage. I could feel the heat coming from the mobo and around all of the mosfets you can see that the PCB bubbled-up with the heat. Yikes!

 

[Praxis]

Damn if that happened to me I would be afraid to use any of my old components!

How do you know what your problem is unless you substitute other components to try and figure out what your problem is? I used other RAM, video cards, & power supplies and still couldn't get the mobo & processor to POST, so I tried the CPU in a known good system. Nada, so I figured I must have somehow crushed the CPU core with the CPU fan. So I plugged in a second CPU into the problematic motherboard. The fan spun for a second, then came to a stop. That CPU, too, was dust. I put it back in the system from which I'd pulled it and though it twirled the fan, it wouldn't light up the monitor. RMA time for the motherboard.

I once had a system pull Asus A7V's northbridge chipset start to smoke and then burst into flames when I tried to light up the system for the first time. I thought everything attached to it would be toast (including my drives), but strangely all the components survived except the motherboard. I never did figure out exactly what went wrong. Best I could figure, I shorted out the board by misaligning the thing on the case, causing a case screw to cut a trace somewhere. I didn't see any arcing on any of the circuitry on the back of the board, though. Anyway, from that point on the first time I lit up a board in a case I only had the minimum stuff attached to it, expendable RAM, the power supply, an expendable video card and the CPU. Once I've seen that the rig is firing up the monitor without electing a pope (signaled by a plume of black smoke from the College of Cardinals), I will pull the cord & put in the regular video card and RAM.

I also glue those little rubbery washer thingies to most of the case mounting screws (I leave one screw bare to ground the board, on the advice of a buddy who used to be an Intel engineer). That way I figure that even if I misalign the board a bit, hopefully I won't short anything out. Still, that first moment connecting the motherboard power jumpers with a screwdriver is always a little scary until I see the tell-tale signs that the monitor is beginning to glow.