help needed: no post, old board

[Trip1]

First let me start off by saying that i'm not an expert with computers, and could certainly have missed something here- but i have tried everything i can think of.

Heres the story.

I gave my sister my old computer* for christmas this year, it worked fine for a couple of weeks and then refused to post one day. I knew that the processor was running quite hot and my first guess was that it was fried. Without having the time or required components to test if that really was the case, i found a cheap processor on ebay(the same kind, barton 2500+) and tried it with the new processor. This didn't work, so this time i found a processor on ebay that was guaranteed not to be DOA and through that in, which also did not work. I have now replaced the motherboard and i still cannot get this damn thing to post, although i am now getting a few beeps when i turn it on. This i think is a good sign, at least it will help for troubleshooting purposes. It sounds like 2 quick beeps and then a series of 8 beeps, then wait about a minute and i get three more beeps.

I have installed this MSI D-bracket thing which is supposed to help diagnose issues by giving coded lights. The d-bracket indicates that the system hangs on "Testing RTC"(Real time clock)

I have reset the BIOS by taking out the watch battery for a few minutes but this did nothing. Only crucial things that i have not yet replaced are the video card and RAM. The ram consists of 2 256 sticks and i have tried it with just one stick, alternating each stick in every DIMM to see if i can get it to work with no luck. I hear mushkin has a lifetime warranty but i no longer want to just guess at which components are causing the problem, i want to know for sure so i can get this fixed asap.

Any help is appreciated. Also, one question that i have is i am currently running an AMD X2 computer with OCZ2P8002GK 2GB Kit DDR2-800 PC2-6400 RAM. Can i put this RAM into my sisters computer for testing purposes? Will it clock down to PC2700 and run?

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=85237

thats the ram i have. Any help here is sincerely appreciated, thanks in advance guys!


*SPECS:
MOBO: ASUS A7N8X Deluxe
NEW MOBO: MSI KT3 ULTRA
PROC: AMD Athlon XP Barton 2500+
RAM: MUSHKIN ENHANCED DDR2700
VID CARD: RADEON 9800 pro

 

[Spartacus]

No don't try your RAM in the old board. DDR2 and DDR RAM are electrically different, different slots.

I would guess bad power supply or bad mobo, in that order. The diag card may give whacky results if the power is bad. I've seen a couple of bad PSUs lately.

That being an old mobo, check for bulged or leaking caps (google it if you need to).

EDIT: Forgot you said you tried a new mobo..... it's almost certainly a bad PSU.

 

[Trip1]

Thanks for the response. Will try a different PSU right now.

 

[Trip1]

Damn, that was quite a bit of work swapping psu's from my current computer to my sisters and unfortunately it did not work, same problem with the same codes as well...

Maybe it's the RAM?

 

[Spartacus]

Keep testing with your working power supply until you find what the problem is.

It could be a bad PSU AND a bad mobo.

Start over from the beginning with the testing, try both sticks of RAM, one at a time, try all of the CPUs you have, both mobos, etc.
You don't have to install/uninstall all of the parts in a case. Test them out on a clean piece of cardboard.

Not too likely that both sticks of RAM went bad at the same time (barring any larger mobo/power failure conditions).

EDIT: Sounds like you have enough parts to narrow down the problem, do you have another AGP video card?