Luck of the Irish

Well...here's what I got:

I put back in the old mobo - and the new processor woudl NOT work kwith it. The fans started as soon as I plugged in the power cord, and no video or life at all. On a whim, I reinstalled the old 2ghz celeron cpu (with 1 missing prong, and 1 bent one), and it started...and all was well for about 3 minutes. OR, if you tried to run a program. Appearantly, the missing cpu prongs are not related to running Windows, but really are needed to work right.

I was able, however, to figure out what the old mother board was . It was NOT a Soyo, as I previouly thought, but is a LITE ON NA115

At least now I can pass that on to the ATI and MACH SPEED MOBO techs. I truely think the problem is either that the MACH SPEED will not allow you to disable the onboard video - OR it's the VIA chipset. The LITE mobo has an Intel chipset, and no onboard video.

BEST NEWS OF ALL - I didnt have to reinstall Windows this time. WHen I swapped the old board back and forth, windows started right up. There was some "FOUND NEW HARDWARE" stuff when it sensed the old board, but no troubles at all.

So - I guess unless the techs can figure out what's up with my conflict - I can

• Pass this board and cpu on to my mom for her birthday
• Buy another mobo (with intel chipset and no video), and Ebay the MACH mobo
• I don't really have a 3rd - I just hit the button, and didnt want to backspace

I thank all you non geeks fo rfollowing along - I knwo that in a year, non of this will amount to a hill of beans, but in the meantime, I hope some other poor bastard with the same trouble can find this blog and save themselves the time by avoiding what I've already done.