trouble with kt3 ultra

[malkmuz]

yesterday i bought parts for a new computer:

antec 303xp power supply
msi kt3 ultra (duh!)
amd athlon xp 1800+
thermaltake volcano 7
samsung 256mb pc2700
ibm 40gb 7200rpm ata-133
diamond stealth II 4meg video (my geforce3 hadn't arrived!)
acer 32x cd-rom (my lite-on cd burner hadn't arrived!)

everything posted fine, but i couldn't get the system to boot from the windows xp cd. i played with the bios, but it still didn't work, so i tried installing an old floppy to boot from, but after i did, i booted up and i'd get nothing on the screen, and just 3 beeps, a pause, then three beeps until i shut down. i read some forums on msi's site, and got some suggestions about reseating the ram and reseting the bios. it would post probably 2 out of ever 10 trys, and since receiving the new cd-rw and video card, i have tried different combos but to no avail. i installed the d-led that comes with the msi board, and it was giving me the signal that there was a memory failure whenever it would hang. i did get kind of cheap memory so i went and picked up some corsair 2700 ddr, hoping that would do the trick. but still no dice. i am completely stumped, my only feeling is that either the power supply (not amd-approved for my processer) is too weak, or the mobo is bad. please give me your tech insight!

 

[AreEss64]

Hmm. Try your memory in a different socket. Maybe the socket you're using it in has a problem. The Antec 303XP isn't approved because of cooling more than anything else. Plus it's ATX 2.03 not 2.13. I would try replacing the PSU with an approved XP1800 model.. it's more money spent, but a good PSU is worth it's weight in gold. (If it's from PC Power & Cooling, that's usually what it costs too.)

 

[malkmuz]

ok, so i replaced the power supply with an amd approved model, but same problem. this is turning into a nightmare! should i replace the motherboard, or suspect the chip?