I started getting things together for the big upgrade last night. Put the heatsink on the CPU, unpacked the power supply, copied configuration files to the my home directory. I’ve put together a Debian network install image on a USB stick as well. I even tried doing a test, with seemingly mixed results.
On an ATX power supply, one can jumper pins 15 and 16 together as a means of testing the supply. That worked, but when I plugged it into the motherboard, I didn’t get anything except a little indicator LED. Otherwise, no BIOS, no display, no fans. Nothing.
I wasn’t too worried because I figure that the motherboard needs to be mounted in the tower in order for the grounds to be correct. Mind you, I’m only guessing at that. I did some additional web searching which generally seemed to support my thoughts.
Since I was thinking about it, I decided to double check that my DDR2 memory was compatible with the motherboard. The motherboard manual didn’t list the memory manufacturer on it’s list, but there was an updated list on the web. So I checked it out. Same deal.
Well, I figured it should work since it’s labeled as 800MHz DDR2 memory, and that’s what the motherboard specifies. Further poking around revealed that it won’t. Turns out the timing is incompatible. So I’ve got to return it and get new memory. Crud.
So that project get’s to wait a little longer.