Happy New Year!! Last week, I posted in the "Upgrading and Buying" forum about the new motherboard my wife got for me for Christmas.

I got the memory and CPU from a local shop. Got a 128MB DIMM stack and a Pentium III 600. Also had to purchase a new ATX case since the existing system I was taking stuff out of was an AT case.

After checking that the new mobo was working, I proceeded to install it into the new case. I put the hard drives, CD-ROM, and floppy drive in as well. I left out the cards since I wanted to put them one at a time like I read at another tech help site.

I then flipped the switch and Lord and Behold, the PC booted up beautifully!! Went right into WIN 98 and installed all the drivers for the new mobo. After allowing all that, I shut down and rebooted and this baby was a screamer!! I then proceeded to shut down and reinstalled each of the cards in one at a time. Of course, I shut down and unplugged each time. Since I was putting the same cards in as before, I was not going to have to reinstall the drivers.

I had just installed my last card, a Linksys NIC card, I noticed the lights on the keyboard was flashing. I got worried and tried to TAB and the keyboard was not working. I still had mouse control. I opened notepad and discovered I could not type at all! I shut down the system and let it rest. Then rebooted. The keyboard lights continued to flash. I also heard (faintly) constant beeping. Called around and someone told me that it sounded like the keyboard controller on the mobo failed. ARGGG!!

So I had to remove the mobo and pack it back up. I took it back to Best Buy where my wife got the thing. They fussed about swapping it out, but finally did so. I took the new mobo home and put it in. This time?
N O T H I N G!! An out-of-box failure!! Who would have figured?? So the next day, I took it to ANOTHER Best Buy and got yet a third mobo!! This time, I decided to spend some money and take it to the PC shop where I got the memory, CPU, and case. Before leaving the shop, the tech hooked it up to my new case and it fired right up. I should get it all back by Tuesday or Wednesday.

BTW, the mobo is a Tyan Trinity S1854 which is rated to be a pretty good mobo. What is the chances of having two bad mobos in a row. I grounded myself both times and was very careful about handling the thing. This would have been the fourth computer I upgraded in this fashion. I never had any trouble until this.

Any theories out there??

Thanks
John in Auburn, Ga