New motherboard will not POST - May have ruined processer

could be either I'm afraid..

even a motherboard need a CPU to post..

That's what I was afraid of, I wasn't sure if a mobo could POST without a CPU. Unless someone replies with a solution I'll upgrade like I was planning to later, I'll post (no pun intended) what happens when its done.

Try reseatting the ram.
Try with 1 stick at a time

I just 'fixed' a rig with the same symptoms. Seems the second ram channel died. Would still boot with 2 sticks installed, but not 3 or 4.

Try checking the power supply it could be not working right.

next i would take out the ram and test with one stick at a time.
next i would reseat the video card.

CT

I'd try without either RAM or Video, if you get beeps, that better than not..

"the processor came off with it before I could unlatch it" I have found this is usually caused by cheap thermal grease, i suggest using arctic silver 5 or Zalman zm-stg1.

Here my troubleshooting procedure :
with a new motherboard : verify if all mounting standoffs correspond with the holes in the mobo !!
Or test the mobo ouside the case, on a wooden  (non conductive) surface
clean the system from dust, then  test with the minimum setup - disconnect also all peripherals and network cables :
connect only  motherboard + cpu + 1 ram stick, video card, power supply
verify that the 4-pin cpu Aux power plug is connected
on boot, do you have a display?
if NO it is one of the connected, swap ram, Power supply, video card or monitor - leaving only motherboard and cpu
if Yes, add devices till the problem shows

additional tests and things to try :
boot without ram, it should beep; (also, without video card)
try bios default settings,(if possible) or clear the bios by removing AC and bios battery

in my experience, with new parts : always bad mobo, i never had 1 bad processor out of the box !
(but test first with the procedure above, to be sure it is not another part...)

In this case, pulling a heatsink off and having the cpu come off before unlatching it and then having problems booting could mean the cpu is damaged, especially if the cpu has pins. Unfortunately, if you never tested the motherboard nor got it running at least once, then it might be the motherboard. No way to easily tell.

" in my experience, with new parts : always bad mobo, i never had 1 bad processor out of the box ! (but test first with the procedure above, to be sure it is not another part...)"

That has also been my experience, but the processor is about one year old and it was incorrectly removed.

nobus, I tried all those but the power supply, I think I have a working PSU around somewhere. I'll try that when I get home from work.

even by removing it from the socket without opening the latch, there should be no damage, if no pins are damaged.
the only way to destroy it is by handling  : ESD  can damage it

Daniel-B,
I would like to know what is your mobo model to start with. (some motherboard require a small plugin speaker in order to hear the post)
- in most dead system, the PSU was in fault.
- i also found that bad ribbons can cause a post freeze, try to dismount everything, only leave mobo/CPU and PSU.

Francois_IT: It is a JetWay JHA06-GT-LF (AMD2/+ ATX)

This mobo has a Debug port (the 2 LED diget directly on the motherboard)
Quick question.....
when powering-up, do you see anything displayed on the port? any LED lit on the motherboard? if yes, what is the code, what led is lit (refer to your user manual for the led)?

The output was FF, although the manual did not appear to have the codes documented. I'll check again when I get home.

On the online documentation (their site no longer exists with the document, google has cached it though) it says that the code FF means "boot". Thats all the documentation they give to it. FF shows up a few more times in the document, but with little more explanation than that.

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:v7BmvtHRQiwJ:download.jetway.com.tw/download/DEBUG-PORT-LIST.pdf+JetWay+debug+port+list&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

here is Jetway debug code page:
http://download.jetway.com.tw/download/DEBUG-PORT-LIST.pdf
Unfortunatly, i cannot see the page (network restriction) but from memory, FF is a standard code for pass (no issue found by POST)
I'm starting to point finger to the Video card (or monitor) possibilities:
- onboard GPU disabled by bios
- Monitor defective (or cable unpluged/damaged)

so... at this point, here is some more question:
- Did you verify that monitor is set to the right port? (some monitor has setting to detect VGA/DVI/HDMI ... some are not automatic) <-- refer to your monitor user manual.
- Does your drive seems to be active when booting (like it would when loading the OS).

I'll investigate my monitor, the monitor does work since it is hooked up to my other computer in the meantime, but it is possible that it is not reading the input right.

And my drive does not appear to be active, it stays at one very consistent hum.

P.S. for the post beep, it's probably a setting in the bios as well to be enabled.... since you have no dosplay, it's hard to find at this moment.

Hmmm, i was looking at some pictore of your board and noticed that you also need to connect a 4 pin molex (the power socket used on old IDE drive) just by the PCIe.... it need to be pluged...  that might be the issue... but this is a wild guess.....

My father did the exact same thing a couple of weeks ago, and his CPU was damaged by it.
When I tried another CPU everything worked fine :)

Francois_IT: I do have that plugged in. What I do not is the eight-pin power port next to the CPU because my PSU has no such connector.

here a thought try clearing the bios using the jumper and conecting the montor to the onboard video and see if the sytem boots.

CT

I'll add that to the things I'll try when I get home.

I have SATA power connectors, the PSU is one month old and 650 watts.

Yes, you need to give it power for the cpu it is over by the onboard video and the cpu. Generally it will take two molex to the adapter. it called 4-Pin Molex to 8-Pin EPS-12V. The adapter looks like this   http://www.ajenta.com/shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=4&=SID

Sometime the motherboard comes with the cable in the box.

CT

I got a budget board form a Taiwanese brand; it didn't come with one. I'll grab one on my way home.

>What I do not is the eight-pin power port next to the CPU because my PSU has no such connector.

That is important information - the eight-pin connector provides more current than a 4-pin connector: http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html#eps8  You may not be supplying enough current to start the system.

and is your power supply beefy enough? (if you are running from an older 250 W PS ) you may need a bigger one.
here a power calculator : http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine      

btw - i suggested the 4-pin connector in my troubleshooting post earlier..

It was the eight pin connector, I bought a adapter and it works ($18 for that little thing...). Windows XP is loaded on and everything. I was told by someone that it was not absolutely necessary with my model, guess he was wrong.

Thanks for the help.