For anyone having trouble with an AMD 3400 and an Asus A8V..

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Just in case anyone else out there is having problems, the following
info may be useful. Hopefully this will save someone the trouble I had
figuring it out.

I recently purchases an A8V motherboard and a AMD 3400 64 CPU as a
bundled set from Tiger Direct.

I got the parts, built my system, then found I could get no video
signal. The voice error reporting system on the motherboard indicated
a bad CPU (CPU failure). long story short, after a LOT of hassle and
trial and error, and worthless calls to Tiger Direct, I called Asus,
the motherboard maker.

Turns out, I'd made a bad assumption; I'd assumed that just because I
bought the board and CPU as a bundled set, they would work together.
Silly me.

It was the Bios. The Bios in the board would support anything less
than the AMD 3400. And, with no way to boot, there was no way to flash
the bios. I needed a new chip, and Asus shocked me by overnighting one
to me, for no charge! (for the chip or the shipping!)
That fixed the problem.

Asus also said Tiger Direct knew about the problem, but wasn't
disclosing it, even to people calling for tech support.

So, I'm delighted with Asus, but this is the last time I do business
with Tiger Direct.