PC beeping, Many spare parts, no PC, HELP!

[DEEJAY]

Hi all, I've been trying to install a new HSF (BigTyp) to my old but faithful PC because It was to hot when OCing its presscott CPU (more than 70C!).
After putting everything back, the computer would just keep beeping (continuous short beeps, 2 bp/s), and the Power LED blinks at the same time, wow!
The motherboard is an old GA-8KNXP rev 1.0, and has a label above its BIOS showing its a Phoenix one.
Before even asking what do you think its the problem, I tried to guess the problem, I hope I'm missing something:
Tried mobo w/o anything = no beep
Tried with my 3.4Ghz P4 478 Presscot CPU, continuous short beeps
Plugged in some memory, same
Plugged in my Radeon 9600 Pro, same (and no onscreen image)
Tried with my 2.4Ghz P4 478 Nortwhood CPU, the same

Also, when I plug the CPU in, it starts to get warm, not hot so it is getting power I gues...

Manual says: AWARD BIOS Beep Codes [...] Continuouss short beeps: Power error
I'm lost, I'll try another PSU tomorrow, but I don't think it has gone bad because I was trying to put a new HSF on the CPU, not touching the PSU...

Do you have any ideas of what can it be?

As I believe that the motherboard has told it's enough I face an important question, what should I do with everything else? It was my main rig... And I was going to plug an expensive X1950XT AGP to it...
Here I show a list of its components and I ask: Would you buy a motherboard compatible with them? If yes, witch one? (e.g DualVSTA from Asrock, or a better one...) if no, what would you do?

CPUs: P4 478 Presscott 3.4Ghz
P4 478 Northwood 2.4C Ghz
Mem: Kingston ValueRam 3-3-3 400Mhz
2 sticks of 512 MB each
4 sticks of 256 MB each
an ATi Radeon 9600Pro 128 MB
an ATi Radeon X1950XT'X' 256MB Brand new
I have a brand new BygTyp, also
Dead Gigabyte GA-8KNXP MoBo (Why do I list it?)
3 SATA HDDs including a 36GB raptor
1 PATA HDD and some PATA ODDs
a 480W Thermaltake PSU 18A +12V

Please, give an answer ASAP, because I'm on my 3 year old laptop with integrated graphics and It's really painful !

 

[morerevs]

Have you tried putting the original heatsink back on? Maybe during the installation of the big typhoon you accidentally damaged or shorted something on the back of the mobo. Did you connect the CPU fan powerplug to the correct connector on the board? Did you plug the 4-pin powerplug back in (if you even removed it ofcourse).
If the typhoon has a backplate my money is on that. Do you have to remove the mobo to mount the cooler or is it without backplate? If there is a backplate check to see if it's correctly mounted, using the rubber/plastic rings between it and the board. If it still does not work you could buy a cheap mobo and at least get some use out of those parts, or be generous and build a good friend a system .
Anyways... hope it helps and good luck.

 

[DEEJAY]

Well, I haven't tried putting the original heatsink...

The BigTyp is so big that sure it needs a backplate, but it has an insulator and a big cushion that is supposed to protect the motherboard.
Anyways, those tests mentioned are after having mounted everything and then unmounted again (everything, including backplate)
So the tests with those two CPUs are without any backplate as i was trying to take out as many pieces as possible.
Also, I removed any thermal paste (Artic Ceramique) from the CPU hoping it wasn't the problem.

The method I used when trying those two CPUs whas:
I just put the BigTyp above the CPU (No TIM and no screws) and pressed while I turn on the PC and hear the sounds, after that I shut down the PSU, let it cool down a bit and remove again and easily the cooler. This way I don't suicide the poor CPU and don't put screws or backplates that could short anything...

Thank you very much, morerevs for answering

So, if there aren't many other ideas, witch 478, agp 8x and ddr 1 mobo would you recommend? I've seen the asrock dual vsta sells well and the only problem is that it is a 775 one with a poor pci-e 4x support. I'm also now, searching in ebay for a nice and cheap 478 gigabyte mobo and I've posted an interesting question here:is 875P the best?

 

[bigblack]

Have you tried to properly reinstall the prescott with the old hsf? I mean with thermal paste and secure the hsf on the cpu?
If not, try this first. Socket 478 mobos are famous for this kind of problem...

Otherwise you are facing mobo death which is really strange. I tend not to believe that your mobo just died.

 

[promocom]

You might try clearing the cmos by shorting the jumper usually near the battery. I've brought a couple mobos back to life this way. Also might try a different power supply before you give up.

 

[DEEJAY]

wait wait wait! I was trying to put back the cooler as asked thinking it was stupid, well, it has booted, even I think it has passed POST
I'm now going to put a keyboard and play a little big, OMG, i think it works, and I still don't know what happened to start doing crazy things

I'll check a pair of things and post again if everything works

Thank you all !!

 

[DEEJAY]

The motherboard eventually worked(I'm writing this with it) I don't know what happened but everything is back to normal
Kudos and thank you for morerevs, BigBlack and promocom. (I didn't even have to try another PSU).
Well, I put the older HSF from thermalright and worked, so i putted back the BigTyp and is working.
I tried to reproduce the error and while it doesn't have any kind of memory, it starts beeping like crazy (the same as stated in the first post), beyond what the manual says about beep codes.
So seems that was a memory problem (or something related)... but I'm asking myself... how can there be a memory problem if the memory modules weren't touched from a beggining...
Well, thank you again to all who contributed, cya!