Sion

I bought a used mobo/cpu combo (Asus P4b266 with a P4 2.6 ghz) from a guy I work with (who built this sytem I'm on now, as well as the systems of several other guys at work). I was assured that it had been tested and was able POST with no trouble. I bought it with the intention of building a more powerful system so I can give this one to my daughter. After installing it into a new case with new powersupply and new hard drive and 2gb of new RAM, I can only get it to POST if I remove the battery and clear the CMOS. If I make ANY changes whatsoever in the BIOS, it refuses to POST. Not only that, but it wont even let me get back into the BIOS until I clear the CMOS. If I attempt to let it boot without making BIOS changes, it hangs after successfully updating the ESCD.

I've been through the entire manual for the mobo (all 140 pages of it) several times, checking and rechecking connections and jumpers (just about everything is set to default) as well as BIOS settings that might be causing conflicts, and am fairly certain I havent boogered anything up.

I think the BIOS is screwed up in some way. What do you think?

note: the POST (when I can get one) shows that the RAM sticks are good (as does hardware monitoring in the BIOS, which also reports that the processor is ok.) system is not overclocked. barebones install (HDD, DVD drive, AGP graphics card and NIC)

edit2: after spending a couple hours searching tech forums, I got a few ideas to try:
replace the battery with a new one - no change
pull EVERYTHING not absolutely necessary - pulled NIC and 1 stick of RAM (out of 2) - no change
disable anything not absolutely necessary - no change
pull my already thinning hair out and scream at it - no change

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I jus' want ta thank you...falettinme...be mice elf...agin...