New hardware trouble

[AliveUD]

Though not a novice at building my own machines, I'm afraid I am stumped. I just purchased a Soltek K8TPro-939 with an Athlon64 3500+ 90nm. I am unable to boot, so I have gone through the trouble of testing just about everything I can think of (different RAM configurations, multiple different video cards both AGP and PCI, with and without peripherals, inside and outside of the case to test for shorts). Testing it with no RAM, video, etc. there are no beeps, no POST, nothing. Everything spins and lights up and whatnot, and the board debug LEDs say "FF" which according to the manual means "boot." I know that the power supply (580W) and PC speaker are both working properly (I just tested both). I do notice a faint tap sound on the speaker at somewhat random intervals, but no beeps. I think perhaps I either got a bad board or a DOA CPU, but I don't have any other 939-pin chipsets to test with these new parts. Is there a way to test to see whether the CPU or the motherboard is the problem (remember I don't have another board/CPU to compare to). Please advise.

 

[mechBgon]

Welcome to the Forums What about this test next: try starting the board up without the CPU in the socket, and does it do anything differently on the diagnostic readout?

Other random ideas:

[*]see if the CMOS jumper was shipped in the Clear position rather than "normal"

[*]make sure the motherboard's got an RPM-sending fan on whichever 3-pin header is marked for the CPU fan, in case it's one of those boards that refuses to run without an RPM signal on that header

[*]try without any keyboard or mouse plugged in

[*]From the sounds of things, I don't need to mention the 4-pin ATX12V cable? If that weren't plugged in, that could explain things.

 

[AliveUD]

I appreciate the reply very much. I took your advice and booted with no CPU, but to no avail, same FF on the display and no beeps (obviously, cus there's no CPU).
I checked the CMOS jumper as part of my regular testing (and changed the battery), it was fine (I cleared it anyway in case something was wrong). I've got a Cooler Master Hyper 6 hooked up and made sure the yellow-wire rpm sensor is in the correct fan spot (I double checked the manual after your response) near the socket. Nothing is hooked to the machine, only: power switch, speaker, CPU, Hyper 6 HSF, 20-pin mobo power, 4-pin (heh, I appreciate mentioning the small things; I certainly hope it IS something stupid that I missed) CPU power, and power cord for the 80mm fan on the hyper 6.

I'm stuck I put in for an RMA request for the CPU from Newegg just in case it was DOA (cus they have such a short request period), but hopefully I won't have to follow through with it. I appreciate the effort, please continue to rack your brains; odds are I will be able to return the favor anytime.

 

[mechBgon]

I have a longer list of ideas here, the first link at the top: link Who knows, maybe something will click...

 :light:
:Q

When the mobo is powered up with the CPU installed, do its diagnostic lights just hold on FF, or do they cycle through a bunch of other codes and then stop at FF at the end? An FF code right away makes me suspect the motherboard could be the problem. An FF after a bunch of other codes makes me wonder if something's wrong elsewhere.