Bad Motherboard?

[AeroEngineeringStudent]

I recently upgraded a friends processor to an Athlon XP 3000+ Barton core. He has an Abit KT7E motherboard which is supposed to support this processor if the bios is flashed. I followed all the steps exactly on Abit's website to flash the bios, but the computer will not accept the new processor. It defaults to 1300 MHz. If I change it to the correct setting in the bios, Windows will not load. The next time I boot the system, it is back the 1300 MHz. I tried a repair install of Windows with no effect. I even reinstalled the original processor and now it is not being properly recognized. Also, the computer will not always boot up when the power switch is pushed. It will turn on, but not boot. This was happening before I attempted the upgrade. I think his motherboard may be bad. Am I right, or is there something else I should try?

 

[aceman817]

Sounds to me like the mobo could be bad. I assume that the BIOS flash took fine and that you are troubleshooting with the bare minimum (1 stick of RAM, no IDEs, etc.) One easy way to tell if a mobo is bad is by looking at the capacitors. If they look bulged, then the mobo is definitely bad. Check out the article at http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=195. It even says that ABIT boards had a problem with their capacitors at one point.