Problems with combining new motherboard w/ previous dell harddrive

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Im currently upgrading to a new motherboard...and could not connect all the previous dell peripherials and cables (especially case specific ones such as the formed plugs for LEDS's USB power etc....) I bought a new mother board (Chaintech MP4M266A) and case so that i could install a new AGP video card but once everything is installed....I encounter problems w/ booting the computer up.

NO longer does the computer boot up identify the new motherboard and then allow for driver installation...nothing happens...the fans start up and thats it...no hard drive sounds either. is this beacuse the new board is not compatible w/ the hard drive or is it the hard drive itself? Ive done this process many many times before on a NON- dell product and have had NO problems whatsoever...but for some reason...i have problems w/ this hard drive...i can connect all the old equipment and cables back up to the stock dell motherboard and hard drive and all my information and OS and other functions run just fine its just that Im having trouble installing this new motherboard and unless i skipped something i hadnt before (including past experiece) i belive the problem is w/ the hard drive or motherboard... PLEASE HELP.

ive checked every connection and re installed the processor chip, and everthing checks out except for the boot process
 
if you have everything connected and you hit the power button and all you get are your fans spinning you have 1 of 2 possible problems.


1.cards not properly seated/ or lack of good heatsink/no thermal paste.

2. defective component.


Suggestions: are you hearing any beeps from the system when you hit the power button.

reseat all hardware.

your hard drive has nothing to do with the equation.. even if it were "incompatible" you would still get a bios post and system would start the boot process but give hdd not found or one of the many other errors associated with hard drives.
 
Older Dell power supply motherboard connectors are wired differently than standard ATX power supply's. You can damage aftermarket motherboards with Dell power supply's.
 
Well, i do have thermal paste, im pretty sure thats not it...
I did install the chip correctly, and do have a good heatsink and fan (the fan does spin and such)

As to the seating of the cards, ive tried it w/ and without my new video card, and no difference on the boot...so i supppose its the motherboard...

Is there any way to run a diagnostic, or is this a computer shop problem now... should i just then take the MB into the local computer repair shop to see if that's the problem?
 
well thats is where the beep codes i was asking about come in.


Also like Vegasgmc stated what about your powersupply? just because it gets enough power to power fans does not mean it is powerful enough to run a new rig.

I also wasn't just meaning cards such as video cards. i was meaning every and all card that you inserted into the motherboard, including RAM.

did you verify the memory that you have is compatible with the new board?

from my previous experience i have seen a couple of hardware device causing your problem. motherboard,processor,power supply and memory.
 
Ok .. for the motherboard specs... it says:

Supports DDR200/266 memory

I have : 1 stick ddr333 1gig
1 stick ddr333 128mb

Is this what is causing the problem?

I cant see any other compatibility issue
 
do you have both sticks in at the same time???

try just using the 128MB stick and see what happens.. then try just using the 1gig stick if the 128 MB doesn't work..
 
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