A7N8X-VM/400 Won't Power Up

[Me]

I am upgrading a machine that I first built a couple of years ago. I
bought a new A7N8X-VM/400 motherboard, an Athlon XP 2800+ (Barton)
processor and 512 MB of Crucial PC 2700 memory for the upgrade. The
previous mobo died, due to swollen and leaking caps, the 3rd Soltek SL
75DRV4 I've had to replace because of bad caps. (I'm not alone there,
I know.)

I assembled the system, plugged it in, and the CPU fan spun about a
half turn when power was first applied to the power supply (When I
turned on the power strip). The machine will not power up after that.
The power LED is lit.

I have disassembled this machine a piece at a time to the point that I
finally tried it with the bare motherboard laying (isolated) on my
bench with only a remote power switch, the memory installed, a known
good hard drive, a known good monitor, keyboard and mouse plugged in
to it, with the same results. Unplugging even the hard drive, mouse,
keyboard and monitor makes no difference. I have tried two different
power supplies, both of which are tested good, one of which is brand
new. The new one is a Fortron FSP350-60GN supply and the used one is a
Super flower TT350. Both are rated at 350 Watts and are listed for
this processor and provide more than 1A to the +5VSB output pin, as
per the ASUS manual.

Any thoughts or suggestions will be appreciated.
CJon

 

[Zeneca]

I would strip dows the PC till have only the mobo, the CPU,the video card
and one stick of memory connected.
Plug the PS and the Power switch buttom and see if it capable to boot.
A regular speaker connected to the audio output might help you also to hear
the post message.

 

[Me]

I appreciate the advice. I thought I mentioned that I had done
exactly that, to the point of even removing the mobo from the case in
case it was shorting someplace. Still no joy.

I had a speaker connected to the speaker output, but it doesn't get
far enough in the POST to beep.

 

[Zeneca]

Assumptions:
1) I assume the processaor is well protected with the corresponding HFS.
Without, the cpu is burned before sensing any hot outside.
2) I Assume the graphic board is compatible with the specifications of this
board (AGP8X (1.5V only).

Then my only suggestion is to look carefuly the manual, chapter dedicated
for the memory, because some boards need to have the single memory stick on
slot 3 ; instead slot 1 as logic might recommend.

GL

 

[Me]

This mobo has only 2 memory slots. I'm in slot 1. Nothing in the
manual about which to choose. Graphics are onboard. CPU is fitted
with a thermaltake Volcano 11 that I lapped before installing with
Arctic silver ceramique.

 

[Zeneca]

The only think I would try before to swap the mobo is to Clear the Bios, and
try to boot again.
Either the cpu or the mobo seem to be faulty.