New Computer Problem at Startup

[btsdev]

I finished building a computer, here is some info:

New MB NFORCE 2 SPP M7NCD BIOSTAR RTL
New CPU AMD|2500/333 ATHLON XP BARTON R
New DDRAM 512MB|64X64 VS DDR400 COR%
From my last computer ATI RADEON 7200 AGP

The assembly went smoothly. I powered it on, and at first everything came up nicely, it showed a little splash screen for the CMOS, and it got stuck at this screen. I changed the jumpers on the HDD, booted again, and everything worked. It started to boot into Windows 98 (This is a hard drive I'm using from a previous computer).

Before it got into 98, I put in the XP setup CD, and restarted the machine manually. It again booted fine, then started going into Win98. As I realized I needed to set the CD drive to boot before the HDD, the screen changed from the Win98 bootup screen to a CMOS-looking screen displaying a message, something to the effect of ESS386 configuration setting. The Win98 boot screen came back soon though, so I couldn't copy the message down. It got into 98, and started going through a bunch of "Found New Hardware" installations. I manually restarted, interrupting this process.

As it powered on, everything sounded right, except there was no display on the monitor. I turned the monitor on and off, and it gave a message to the effect of "Invalid sync" and showed 0 Hz and 0 kHz as the vert. and horiz. refresh rates. I restarted a few more times, still nothing.

Here's everything I've tried:
- Removing/Reseating the RAM
- Swapping out the video card for a known good one
- Switching the CMOS jumper to clear for 5 seconds

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

 

[Fern]

I 'd clear the cmos again (assuming you tried to boot again since doing it last). Possibly overkill here, but only takes a few seconds.

Then unplug all drives and see if it will post.

I would then put in my bootable floppy for low level format. You may not have one, just set all boot orders in ur bios to cd and install xp. Sounds like the HD is fubar'd with a mix of 98 and xp drivers

Good Luck

EDIT: I hope you had removed the powercord b4 vid card and ram swap (or at least flipped the rocker switch).

 

[btsdev]

Cleared CMOS again: same problem.
Unplugged all drives: same.

Still doubt it's a Windows 98 thing, even has the same problems when I unplug the drive.

Since I've cleared the CMOS, I don't know what would help. I have a few things in mind:

1. RMA the mobo?

2. RMA the CPU?

** I have to pick one or the other, cause I think Newegg would have problems with me returning both...

3. Keep trying to fix it if I get any suggestions :/

Thank you for your reply, Fern.

-Fred