motherboard

[malachi]

Hey, I am building a new computer, using an asus a7a266 motherboard, with DDR Ram from crucial and a 1.33 amd athlon. I put in the processor, ram and video card and gave it some power while hooking it up to a key board and a monitor, just to make sure it worked from there. It checked the processor, then the ram and then i saw at the bottom 'Hit delete to enter setup', but it never did anything, it just frooze. I restarted and nothing would come up on the monitor. I turned off the power supply, and the turned it back on (just the power supply, not hitting the power button on the case) and the fan on the processor would come on, too. Again, nothing would come on the monitor either. I tried a different power supply and different video card but always the same results.

In looking back to try to find any other possibilities, I did have a bit more trouble getting the ram in than I thought I would (just had to push a little harder than I thought I would, but it seemed to be fine once it was in, and came out easy). The retailer has shipped me a new motherboard, though, and I am curious did I mess this up, or is there something i need to do to make sure this does not happen again? Any help would be much appreciated, thanks.

 

[Prien]

You seem to be doing fine. Just remember to plug in the wires correctly to the case, failure to do so for the power switch can cause MB shorts. My only other advice is to remember not to do anything to the board when the power supply is on (even if the power switch is off) as power is given on the board when it's plugged in as noted by the green LED in the center of the board. RAM can be tough to plug in. You probably did it right though, I've seen far too many boards with the RAM not shoved in tight enough. Another sidenote: make sure you've got at least 350 watt power supply and you upgrade the BIOS. My board froze when I enable plug'n'play as a BIOS setting before I upgraded the BIOS. Another question: did the board beep when it started up? If so, there's error codes in the manual. Lastly, try another monitor or make sure that one works=)