Advice on motherboard troubleshooting

Hi!
I just put together a grab-bag computer setup from components i
boughr on ebay. The short of it is that when I try to boot it, nothing
is output the VGA port. I'm not sure which component this indicate is
dead. Is it possible that the CPU is shot, and without it, the
motherboard cannot output? Here is what I posted on the tech support
site in detail:

" I installed a AMD athlon XP2400+ into an abit anf7-m motherboard. I
used a 1GB kingston ram ddr333 module in DIMM3 and connected an NEC
dvd-rom and CD-ROM on ide1 and a maxtor 10GB hd on ide0. When i connect
a 330 seasonic powersupply, the system appears to start to boot (the
lights go on, the cdroms and hd lights flicker and the drives spin up),
but nothing is output to the vga. A mouse connected to the USB1 lights
up, but the keyboard connected to the serial port does not light up. I
tried checking every jumper and resetting the cmos several times, but
the VGA port never outputs to the monitor. Does this sound like a broken
motherboard, or broken CPU?"

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
-Alec

Alec Berntson wrote:

I just put together a grab-bag computer setup from components i
bought on ebay.

AMD athlon XP2400+
abit anf7-m motherboard.
1GB kingston ram ddr333 module in DIMM3
NEC dvd-rom and CD-ROM on ide1
and a maxtor 10GB hd on ide0.
330 seasonic power supply

the system appears to start to boot (the lights go on, the cdroms
and hd lights flicker and the drives spin up), but nothing is output
to the vga. A mouse connected to the USB1 lights up, but the
keyboard connected to the serial port does not light up. I tried
checking every jumper and resetting the cmos several times,
but the VGA port never outputs to the monitor. Does this sound
like a broken motherboard, or broken CPU?"

It's not a good idea to initially test everything together since it
makes pinpointing the bad components more difficult and puts more
hardware at risk. I would have first checked the power supply voltages
and CMOS battery with a meter and the memory with a working computer.
Then I would have assembled a barebones computer consisting of just the
motherboard, CPU, CPU fan & heatsink, memory, keyboard, power supply,
on/off switch, reset switch, and motherboard speaker. The speaker is
needed since it can often beep out diagnostic information even when the
video and memory are bad. Also try AGP and PCI video cards since
BIOSes will usually default to any plug-in video, some to AGP, others
to PCI.

I'm afraid the only way to test a CPU is by plugging it into a known
good motherboard. Never run a 32-bit AMD CPU without the heatsink and
fan installed since it can burn up instantly without a heatsink.

"Alec Berntson" wrote in message
...
Hi!
I just put together a grab-bag computer setup from components i boughr
on ebay. The short of it is that when I try to boot it, nothing is output
the VGA port. I'm not sure which component this indicate is dead. Is it
possible that the CPU is shot, and without it, the motherboard cannot
output? Here is what I posted on the tech support site in detail:

" I installed a AMD athlon XP2400+ into an abit anf7-m motherboard. I
used a 1GB kingston ram ddr333 module in DIMM3 and connected an NEC
dvd-rom and CD-ROM on ide1 and a maxtor 10GB hd on ide0. When i connect a
330 seasonic powersupply, the system appears to start to boot (the lights
go on, the cdroms and hd lights flicker and the drives spin up), but
nothing is output to the vga. A mouse connected to the USB1 lights up, but
the keyboard connected to the serial port does not light up. I tried
checking every jumper and resetting the cmos several times, but the VGA
port never outputs to the monitor. Does this sound like a broken
motherboard, or broken CPU?"

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
-Alec

Well it's a motherboard, CPU or Power supply. If it was any brand other
than seasonic, I would suggest you try a different power supply. It still
wouldn't hurt to try a different power supply. Least likely suspect is the
CPU itself. I'd probably try a different mainboard first. -Dave