to thongispector, i went on the sites you recommended and E-bay in the UK, i found some cheap motherboards but they were either socket7, mine is socketA, or they had sddram slots, the ram chips in my pc just say ddr on them, will they work in sddr slots? also is there a difference between USB1.1 & USB 2.0? thanx again
Eamonn.

Here is a board from Tigerdirect...
It is $69 with a $30 rebate (expires 5-31)

Socket A and DDR and USB 2.0 which will work with your 1.1 devices...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1043672&CatId=179

I dont know your budget but $40 us is not much...

You can probably find cheaper or better....

Does your current board have built in video..?

If so, Tiger Direct has a PC CHips board with nvidia for $34

Not giving any recomemdations, just a few options..

thanx again thong ispector found exactly what i need $34, about £25, just about the price i am looking at, my devices are USB2.0 only asked because all other microATX seem to have USB 1.1, just wondered if 2.0 would work on 1.1. just waiting for shipping costs reply, shouldnt be much for something so small!!!! hopefully soon i will be building my 1st pc,only started using them about 1 year ago.
ta again Eamonn.

When you get it come on back.

The only stupid question is the one you dont ask. (Almost)

When you are sure of which MB you will purchase post a link to the manual for me so I can download it and have it available when I answer your questions.

Thong Ispector ive pasted web address for the motherboard :
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1043672&CatId=179 : (ITEM #: C460-1022) it is the link you sent me, the specs on my MB are : Mercury mainboard, KOB 740 FDMx, SiS 740 Chipset,Socket 462 Pin Support 266Mhz AMD Athlon XP/Athlon/Duron Processor : 2 x 184 Pin DDR : On Board 2D/3D Graphic Engine : On Board AC97 Audio : 4X AGP Slot On Board : On Board 10/100Mps LAN : Micro ATX Form Factor : 266Mhz FSB : DDR : USB 2.0 : External 4X AGP : On Board Sound : On Board VGA : LAN 10/100Mps : Micro ATX : Designed for AMD Athlon XP/Athlon/Duron Processor with SiS Chipset: these are the EXACT words on my manual cover with www.kobian.com on the back. ive recieved no reply from tiger yet concerning shipping costs. But yesterday my sisters husband Mark was just walking near downtown and saw a tiny PC repair shop, so he thought well you never no,and they have 1 micro ATX for sale at £12, but it is SDRAM, apparently the repair man said he would swap my DDR 2 x 128 with his SDDR 2 X 128 chips, and just charge for th MB, mark is taking the MB & accessories to him tomorrow to see if we can do a deal if his MB will work in mine, let you know what happens. As for my specs there is no on board sound, i had to load the sound from CD and its all software controlled, there is no on board battery (CMOS excepted) or the little white speaker that emits beep errors.1 last thing the new board has a removable BIOS chip mine is hard wired. hope this makes sense? thanx again
Eamonn.

For 12 pounds you cant go that far wrong...

The only problem will be with onboard components that your old system had that the new one might not have.

I would not worry about the Tiger Direct Board...

I only gave you those as a reference...

Give us an update when you know more

to Thong Ispector, hi again its Eamonn(typing this myself), sorry no
contact over the last week but someone nicked my sisters username and
password, somehow stopped her getting on line for than a couple of
mins or so,sorted now, anyway ive now got a jetway 830CNULTRA MB,
downloaded the manual and have put every connector according to the
manual, but when i press power the CPU fan comes on for a fraction of
a second ,then nothing ! this is the 2nd board that this has happened to so it must be me doing something wrong, the CPU fan connnector is not on sys fan, also there is an AGP port, but i cant see any AGP chip on board and no graphic card, totally at a loss at what to do next,been like this for 4 days now, any advice again please.
my CPU is 2.1 GHz ,there are only 3 jumpers on the MB, CMOS, keyboard
power on, and the third is something to do with clock speed and
bandwidth, the 1st 2 jumpers are easy to put in right but i couldnt
follow instructions for 3rd. ta again Eamonn.

The default setting (no jumper) should work.

Is your CPU fan plugged into the motherboard CPU fan connector.

If it is connected directly to the power supply this board will shut down.

Did you apply thermal grease to the face of the cpu when you installed it...
(Use sparingly)

You have a socket A Duron CPU?
2100+ ?

Do you get any beeps or just instant power down...

Is the power switch on the front of your case momentary or an on off switch.?

Hi Thong Ispector, yes my CPU fan is on the MB CPU fan slot,not sys fan or from PSU.
I have a socketA Duron, but i dont know what "2100+" means. On the CPU is a black label with the following written on it :
AMD Duron
DHD16000L T839285842438
MIUMB 04055 1999 AMD : there is also a number in gold letters :27648 .Also on the bar code written in pen is :1.6D . i know the speed is is 2.1GHz via control panel/system/general,when it was working but have no documentation regarding the CPU, hope i haven't confused you, yes the power is instantanious and the HDD LED lights up for a fraction of a second. as for thermal grease i haven't used any, but when i removed the CPU it was as dry as a bone, so i dont know if any was used in the 1st place, could it evapourate after a year ? what there is, is a small triangular copper plate affixed to the chip by a pink rubbery substance. I know thermal grease is recomended, but how does the CPU know its been greased as it on too short a time to get hot? I have since checked power switch and thats OK. Still baffled but i appreciate your help and advice, ta again Eamonn.
ps the AGP is onboard in a SiS chip.

The CPU can reach high temps in a few seconds in not properly cooled.

One thing does come to mind.

Does your fan have two wires or three wires...

Your motherboard should have three connectors...

If your cpu fan only has two it probably is not getting feedback to the motherboard indicating a fan is running. (Buy a new cpu fan with three wires)

Yes, by all means, clean the heat sink and cpu carefully and apply a new layer of thermal grease. (Use the grease sparringly)

To Thong Ispector, yes my fan has 3 wires and i will get some thermal grease
and give it a go.The only thing that is bothering me is the voltage applied when i power on is in milli seconds rather than seconds, is that enough for it to heat up? i will get back to you after i have used the thermal grease wether it's successfull or not.thanx again Eamonn.
ps do i just put some grease on the copper plate covering the chip or smear the whole CPU?

I usually just put a thin coating on the copper contact spread thin and the same on the heat sink, then a tiny drop right in the middle as I put the two together.

Double check before doing this that you didnt bend any pins on the cpu when you installed it.. And that it is turned the correct way... notch to notch etc...

Since it only stays on for a millisecond I tend to think the motherboard is not seeing your cpu fan spin up.

Sorry I am running out of options here...

You are sure the system never got power without the heatsink in place...

To Thong Ispector, put the grese on like you said, guess what? no difference ! i even stripped it down completely using the manual, instruction by instruction, put it all back, added just a smoll drop of grease, again the same. You say in last post about powering on with heatsink off, tried that, same, but the fans deffinetly rotated for less time ? i always wear an earthing strap while working, the only time the CPU was handled unprotected was when the guy in the shop swapped the CPU from 1 MB to another, could there be a problem there?
thanx again Eamonn.

I said... You sure the CPU NEVER got power...
Powering up your CPU even the shortest time without a heatsink can damage it.
This whole problem seems heat/fan related...
A heatsink that is off center or at an angle or not locking down correctly. A heatsink/fan that has a bad speed sensor that isnt sending info back to the motherboard.. Something like that. I would try a different heatsink/fan and if that does not work take it back to the place where you bought it.

I would think that the guy that sold it to you would have powered it up just to show you it worked.

To Thong Ispector, put the grese on like you said, guess what? no difference ! i even stripped it down completely using the manual, instruction by instruction, put it all back, added just a smoll drop of grease, again the same. You say in last post about powering on with heatsink off, tried that, same, but the fans deffinetly rotated for less time ? i always wear an earthing strap while working, the only time the CPU was handled unprotected was when the guy in the shop swapped the CPU from 1 MB to another, could there be a problem there?
thanx again Eamonn.

To Thong Ispector, Ive mailed the guy who built my PC 3 times before i got an answer, when i did all he said was check the PSU voltages after switch on, wich i did, powered up, fan span, shut down, as usual. I then removed the ATX power connecter and measured the voltage on all 20 pins, pin4 @ 3V (soft power), pin19 @ 5V (for soft logic), all other pins are 0V. Ive now mailed him 3 times again with these results, they mean nothing to me except that for some reason all other voltage Potentials were at 0V, still waiting for a reply. This is the guy when i was having probs, crashing, internet cut off,BIOS errors, low CMOS battery, sys clock kept ressetting to May 2003 etc, mailed me and said my PC is not doing anything it shouldn't !!!! .The CMOS battery was fine by the way. As he hand built it for cheap Ive got no legal recourse here. But how do you test the ATK 20 pin plug unless the whole system is powered up ?
thanx again Eamonn.

I dont know how to test one of those other than what you have done.
One of the few good things about being a packrat is all of the extra power supplies and assorted parts I have around.
You might check to see if there is a computer user group in your area.
You can find some free help and access to free pieces and parts.

Your old board spowered up right? it didnt have a display but the cpu fan spun up and lights came on etc?

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