How can you tell whether the motherboard is working or not?

[Kroze]

i bought an abit kv8-max3 off another member on this board for extremely cheap ($40) a while ago (from blurredvision). I never put the computer together to test because i was slowly building the computer and wasn't in a rush.

today i finally got a chance to put it all together and it won't even post. i pull everthing out except the ram, cpu, and graphic card and it still doesn't work.

i know the graphic card works because i tested on my friend computer. the only 2 thing that i can't test is the motherboard and the ram (since my friend's computer doesn't use ddr ram)...

help?

kv8-max3 with 1stick infineon gb ddr ram - no post, code 2A
kv8-max3 with geforce ti4600 - no post, beep constantly because there's not memory.

kv8-max3 with ram & geforce - no post, code 2a


now i'm getting suspicious that "blurredvision" knowingly sold me a bad mobo (since it was so cheap $40 shipped) and the ram should be good right since the mobo beep when i turn it on without ram.

 

[AkumaBao]

Do you know as a fact that your power supply is good? How many watts is the PSU? Are you sure you don't have any extra motherboard stand-offs that might be grounding out on the back of the motherboard? Also, did you reset your BIOS to default to make sure there weren't any stale settings causing the issue?

 

[Kroze]

power supply is good. 400 watts. yes i bench test it as suggested by the tech at abit so there's absolutely no grounding issue. yes i've reset the bios many times.