Is my MoBo bad?

[dprocket]

I'm hoping someone can help this newbie out with my system. I've built 3-4 computers, so I'm not totally a newbie but since everything has gone 100% smoothly the first couple of times, I'm not sure what the problem is now.

Here's the deal, I found a mobo dirt cheap. It is a Syntax SV266AD KT266A board. Knowing that its a no name brand, I want to test it right away to see if it works. So I bought an XP 2000 processor (Thoroughbred), a RADEON 9200 64M vid card and a 128MB stick of Crucial PC-2100 ram. I had a brand new Maxtor drive and an old CD drive laying around that I also used in a Chieftec case with a heavy duty power supply (400-watt).

I basically wanted to "check the board out" to make sure it wasn't DOA. I did the basics, put in the CPU (no fan hooked up) plugged in the memory, video card and two drives (no floppy) and turned it on. I get a power up, and it sounds like its going to start, but about about 3 seconds, nothing happens. The powersupply fan keeps blowing but the BIOS does not come up on the screen. Honestly, I'm not sure what a "bad" mobo would even do when I tried to use it. Anyone have any ideas? Bad mobo or stupid me? Thanks.

 

[emmetfitzhume]

[...]put in the CPU (no fan hooked up) plugged [...]

Theres a heatsink on that CPU right? Why didnt you hook up the fan? Do you get any POST beep codes?


If it was me Id bench the board and psu and Id start with mobo/cpu/1 stick of ram/vid card. Start the board by shorting the two power pins on the mobo with a paperclip.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: emmetfitzhume

[...]put in the CPU (no fan hooked up) plugged [...]

Theres a heatsink on that CPU right? Why didnt you hook up the fan? Do you get any POST beep codes?


If it was me Id bench the board and psu and Id start with mobo/cpu/1 stick of ram/vid card. Start the board by shorting the two power pins on the mobo with a paperclip.

no hsf on the cpu and powered it up..a cpu won't go for that inanity ..probably *poof* went the cpu as 3 seconds is a long time for a cpu to have no thermal transfer material

 

[dprocket]

>>no hsf on the cpu and powered it up..a cpu won't go for that inanity ..probably *poof* went the cpu as 3 >>seconds is a long time for a cpu to have no thermal transfer material

That's must be my problem. I probably just flushed $50 down the toilet. I didn't realize the heatsink HAD to be on the chip. I always thought the purpose of the heatsink was to keep the CPU cool when it was running, but thought that since I was going to be starting it up for 5 minutes to check out the BIOS and then unhooking everything it wouldn't be required. I didn't know that it would kill the CPU to run at all without a heatsink. Mark this one up to stupidity, I guess.

 

[dprocket]

Another question. In looking at the CPU, it doesn't *look* burned. It probably doesn't matter, but I'm just curious if its supposed to look burned. I've seen some fried CPUs, but I think most of those are from processers that have been burned up from improper cooling.