DFI Lanparty nF4 Ultra-D doesn't boot :(

[sras]

Hi!
My spec's first:

DFI Lanparty UT nF4 Ultra-D
AMD Athlon 64 Venice 3500+
Corsair TwinX1024-3200XL in DIMM 2&4
Asus Extreme AX800XL
Maxtor 300GB (6L300SO) (Master)
NEC ND-3540A DVD-RW
Sharkoon Silentstorm 480W atx2.0
Zalman Reserator 1 Plus watercooling on CPU&GPU

The problem:
After powerup, all 4 diagnostic LED's go off, then the boot cycle stops right at the beginning at:

Verifying DMI Pool Data .......

or

Verifying DMI Pool Data ....... Update Success
Backup CMOS ... OK! (when I cleared the CMOS before.)

the first time i powered up the rig I got as far as starting to install winXP, but during the process a bluescreen apeared ("...severe hardware failure, retry once..."), afterwards only as described above...

I did the CMOS tango as described here
I plugged in all 4 power connections on mobo
I tried to use only one stick of RAM in DIMM 2
(I even tried to use the GFX on the second 16xPCI-E slot)

I'm aware of this post , but I do not even get to the CD read anymore.

I read about RAM incompatibilities, but checked at DFI for my RAM, they are recommended.
Also there is mentioning of shipping damage (due to the karajan module?) of the mobo...

As I am not the 'I-assemble-a-rig-every-other-week' type, I'm still unsure if the error is on my or on the hardware side...

Any ideas anybody? (Besides shipping back the mobo, which I'll have to do probably anyway...)

 

[stevty2889]

Well I would go ahead and run memtest(pretty easy to do since it's built in to the bios). Double check your settings just to make sure you have the correct boot order, cd-rom, then hard drive.

 

[sourceninja]

do you have the most updated bios?

 

[sras]

thanx stevty2889 for the _FAST_ answer!
I figured it out now: it was the wrong boot sequence (argh, shame on me) coupled with a broken ram-stick (memtest did it).

so nothing wrong with the mobo