New Motherboard is not POSTing...

I bought this mobo off of Craigslist for $50 and the seller said there nothing is wrong with it. I bought it because I had the features I was looking for that my Acer Aspire X3200 did not have. Anyways, here is my problem and would appreciate anyone's assistance in troubleshooting my issue.

Mobo: ECS GF8200A (V1.0)
PSU: FSP Group ATX350 (120mm fan)
CPU: AMD Phenom X3 8400 (AM2+ socket) (Came directly off Acer Aspire X3200)
RAM: G.Skill DDR2 800mhz F2-6400CL4D-4GBPI-B (2 x 2GB)
VGA output: Samsung 914v
Logitech Internet Navigator Keyboard
1 x Sata WD 500GB Cavier Blue Hard drive

That is how the system is setup with all power (and SATA) and connection cables securely plugged in. Jumper settings are at "normal" setting. I switch power ON and press the "power Bot" button on the mobo and everything powers up (except for the keyboard's light doesn't go on) but all I hear is the CPU fan running very fast and loud, as opposed to very quiet and slow on the Acer Aspire X3200's mobo. That's it. No beeps. No video signal.

I tried clearing the CMOS, removing the battery and putting back in and setting CMOS to normal and powering back on. I tried different RAM slots, each single stick at a time. I have not actually tested the mobo for defectiveness but the CPU RAM and PSU and keyboard work fine on a different PC. How would I do a quick test to be sure the mobo isn't 'bad?'

On the other hand, I'm thinking perhaps the CPU is proprietary and is not compatible with other mobos. This would be awful. Maybe I have incorrect configurations. Or the mobo is probably a 'bad lemon.' I don't know. So maybe you experts know.

Am I missing any trouble shooting steps here?

If there is way to fix this please help me because I am willing to work this out.

Seems little further testing...

OP said:

How would I do a quick test to be sure the mobo isn't 'bad?'

Click to expand...

Without some sort of segmented readout of the post code as part of the motherboard or a pci post code reader; there is little additional testing that can be done. It seems everything works in another board but not in the craigs thing you bought. It seems to pretty much point to a defective motherboard.

Two questions:

1. Is that CPU listed on ECS support site as being compatible with that motherboard?
2. Have you tried running the board outside of the case? What you describe could be a ground out problem as when a brass motherboard tray offset is in the wrong place and making contact with the traces on the underside of the board.

For future reference, ECS is on the bottom rung of the quality latter for motherboards in my book. Look in another direction next time.

RGone said:

Without some sort of segmented readout of the post code as part of the motherboard or a pci post code reader; there is little additional testing that can be done. It seems everything works in another board but not in the craigs thing you bought. It seems to pretty much point to a defective motherboard.

Click to expand...

It seems you're right.

trents said:

Two questions:

1. Is that CPU listed on ECS support site as being compatible with that motherboard?
2. Have you tried running the board outside of the case? What you describe could be a ground out problem as when a brass motherboard tray offset is in the wrong place and making contact with the traces on the underside of the board.

For future reference, ECS is on the bottom rung of the quality latter for motherboards in my book. Look in another direction next time.

Click to expand...

1. I'm not sure specifically, but generally it appears so. Other people are telling me they're compatible.

2. I just tried it and same thing: no beeps, POSTing or video signal.

The board is probably bad but do you have access to another CPU you know to be compatible and healthy just to test it from another angle? Occasionally, the big retail computer manufacturers will put in proprietary CPUs in the sense that the processor may have not have the normal amount of cache or something like that but it should still work. Some years ago I bought a socket OEM 754 CPU from Tiger Direct that was billed as an Athlon 64. I ran CPU-z and the core ID said Claw Hammer but it only had half the cache a Claw Hammer was supposed to have, like it was actually a Duron. Worked fine, however.

Look at it this way: With the CPU you have a known quantity that is good. With the board you can't say that. You might consider contacting the seller for a refund.

I don't have access to another CPU but I will consider contacting the seller for a refund, depending on the warranty policy.

This sounds like a bad mobo but it could just be a CMOS problem. Sometimes when you switch cpus and other components on the mobo and dont reset defaults before you pull the proc, then you have to clear CMOS the hard way. Have the power cord plugged into the wall and into the psu with power going to the mobo and remove the CMOS battery from the board, unplug the power cord from the PSU, press the power button on the computer to discharge the remaining power. Disconnect everything from the mobo except the power connectors and remove all RAM from the machine. Plug the power cord back into the psu and power the machine on. If you have a pc speaker plugged into the mobo or if its built into it then you should hear some beep codes indicating that you dont have RAM installed. Unplug the power cable and press the power button to discharge the power then put the RAM back in and vid card and fire it up again. It should boot and you need to go into bios, put the CMOS battery back in then set the bios to defaults, save and exit, then shut your computer down and plug the remaining devices back into the mobo and go from there.

After I did what you suggested, there is no beep.

No beeps could mean no onboard speaker, but if there is one then your board is dead im afraid.