Puzzle

OK I've completed all the tests I can think of and narrowed the fault down.
I'm now going to post here and get some opinions :

I had a system bought from PC World under the Medion label back in 2002.
last year I was flashing the BIOS when everything died. Eventually after a
reboot all I could get out of it was a continuous beep; nothing else, even
the screen was blank. I stripped the PC down completely and I changed the
motherboard from a custom-made-for PC-World MSI board to an ASrock P4i56G. I
used the old CPU, a first-generation P4 2.8 GHz single-threaded chip; and
old memory, 2 * 256GB sticks DDR. I had to adapt the case to be able to fit
in any PCI devices in the PCI slots as the position of the PCI slots
differed. I refitted the old PSU though I had to change the fan and heatsink
as the old ones didn't fit the board, DVD ROM, CD-RW, floppy drive, and PATA
HDDs; an 80GB drive and a Maxtor 20GB drive. I connected up the front panel
correctly although the 2 front USB ports were left unconnected as the plug
didn't fit the new board. When checked all thoroughly I powered up and
switched on. :

The CPU fan and case fan ran for 1 second and died. I pushed the button
again; same thing. Since then I've tried powering up with the CD-RW
unconnected, the DVD-ROM unconnected, both unconnected, the floppy
unconnected as well, even the HDDs unconnected, all with the identical
result. I've tested the PSU and found it to be faultless, I've tried
swapping the polarity of some of the front panel connections; but still
nothing works for more than 1 second, apart from the LEDs. : Either the
power LED or the HDD LED illuminates constantly but on power up the lit LED
goes out and the other illuminates until the unit dies after 1 second...

So it can only be 1 of 3 things or maybe a combination of more than 1 of 3
things wrong. Those being the CPU is dead, the memory is dead, or the brand
new motherboard is dead. (I was extra-careful about static protection when I
fitted it. I wore an earthed wristband and did not rest the board on
anything other than its anti-static bag briefly, having removed it from the
bag immediately before installing it in the case. The case was earthed at
all times during construction and I wore the wristband at all times.)

So; before I spend anything on this, I need to know if it's the CPU, the
RAM, the mobo, or any combination. (If all 3 I'll simply bin the project.)

Opinions please if you would be so good.

Thanks.


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