No post on new MSI K8N Neo4

[Silverboar]

I've just started building a new system

MSI K8N Neo4 Platnum
Sappire Radeon X800xl
Enermax EG425AX-W Noisetaker 420W
Althon 64 3200 Winchester
and
Kingstong 2x512MB 3200

Set up the mobo out of the box for a test run (at little piece of wisdom I picked off these boards) and was greeted with no post, no display, no beeps. Shorting out the power switch brings a half second of life to the system. PSU, CPU and Radeon card fans spin, but die about a moment later. I've tried swapping parts as much as possible i.e. psu works fine in another computer, tried switching RAM slots, swapped out the Radeon card, etc. and I've also done a CMOS reset.

I'm inclined to think its a dead mobo, but maybe I've missed something. After a weekend of trying alternatives, my brain is too numb to think anymore. Any ideas, suggestions?

 

[Harvey]

It's acting like something is shorting your power supply, and it's shutting down to self protect. It could be any card you have plugged in, bad RAM, or a shorted component on your motherboard.

Could you have a short between the board and your case?

 

[BadThad]

Originally posted by: Harvey
It's acting like something is shorting your power supply, and it's shutting down to self protect. It could be any card you have plugged in, bad RAM, or a shorted component on your motherboard.

Could you have a short between the board and your case?

He said he took it out of the case. If shorting and bad components are eliminated, sounds like RMA time for that mobo. If the CPU or RAM were bad, it wouldn't POST at all. You make it sound like it will post for a couple seconds, then die?

 

[Silverboar]

Its still out of the case and sitting on a wooden desk. I've tried to get it down to the bare minimums...right now its got a video card, CPU and heatsink, and one stick of RAM. I've tried swapping the stick of RAM and reinstalling the CPu and heatsink. I'm still getting the same half-second of life, fans spinning and then shutdown. Searching through the boards again, I saw something about the CMOS battery (not so innocent as it looks, it seems). Could it be the battery is dead/weak and that is causing the problem?