I have an MSI K7N2 Delta mobo; I recently got some spare parts off a cousin and added a 512mb stick of RAM (I already had a 512mb stick in there), an extra 40GB HD set in the slave position (already had a 40GB hd set in master), and, most significantly, replaced my AMD Athlon XP 1800+ 1.5 GHz CPU with an AMD Athlon XP 3000+ CPU.
According to research, everything should be compatible; the K7N2 mobo accepts up to 3000+, and I don't see a prob with adding another HD. However, when I started up the computer, after the regular BIOS information across the screen (always goes very fast, hard to read) the screen goes blank and nothing happens. I've waited for several minutes in continuation of this. The heatsink and fan are spinning fine (I did apply thermal paste in a hopefully correct manner), and I even think I hear the hard drive spinning. But nothing happens on the screen. Monitor light stays green, no flashing. Diagnostic lights in back are all green, and the single BIOS beep at the beginning says all normal.
In troubleshooting, I disconnected the slave HD. Same problem. The mobo must be OK because the BIOS is fine (I even went into the settings menu and looked around with no prob).
Possible causes that I haven't investigated yet:
- There was a single bent pin on the CPU I put in. I got it straight, but I don't know if that makes it work again. It inserted fine.
- Perhaps adding the RAM upset the mobo.
- I notice in the brief POST startup screen, the stats scrolling down say that the CPU is 1.7 GHz, which I believe is the speed of my OLD cpu.

Is there something you have to do after a hardware upgrade of this magnitude, such as flash the BIOS or do something to the CMOS? I am pretty inexperienced with this; but my friend didn't mention a need for any tweaking after the physical hardware install.

Any help, advice, etc would be REALLY appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Nevermind! Turns out, I'd - *giggle* I'd put the RAM in backwards. Yeeaahhh, I'm a n00b. >.<'

New semi-problem far less urgent. In My Computer, CPU speed is still displayed as 1.75 GHz when I know that it must be at least 2.1 GHz, being an Athlon XP 3000+. System can't find any "drivers" for it either. What gives?

Recommend you open your Device Manager
Click on View ... Show hidden devices

Click on and Delete (with the Delete key) any devices that have a ? or ! in front of them.
If the Device Manager has an "Other" device category, open it and Delete any devices in the "Other" category.
Now, reboot.

The reboot will force Windows to refind the deleted devices and hopefully see them for what they are.
After rebooting, give Windows time to locate and properly install the deleted devices.

Go to the Device Manager and verify that all your devices are listed correctly.

Next, suggest you go to DriverAgent.com Fix Your Driver Problems Instantly with DriverAgent.

Run the SCAN...the scan is FREE.
After the scan is done, click on the IE Page at the top of your IE window, then click on Save As...
You want to save the report in the .mht format.
Save the scan report to your desktop (that way it will be easier to find).

Attach the driver report to your next reply.

To attach files to a reply, look under the Message text window, you'll see a button that says Manage Attachments.
Click on the button. Now click on the browse button and browse to your desktop to select the previously saved file.

the cpu speed will be set in the bios you will have the fsb set incorrectly. The xp 3000 is a skt A cpu iirc and also iirc is a barton core and will need a fsb of 400 chances are you have it set to 333 . Depending on your mobo it may be a jumper to set it correctly

It most definately is not a driver issue if you ask me

Zinglebarb, the highest option for CPU FSB Clock is 200. Before it had been set at 100FSB. I Google'd my problem and there was another person who'd had the same issue, and he set it at 200FSB, so I tried that and - voila! My CPU is clocking at the proper 2100MHz. (at least, I think that's the proper speed. I coulda sworn it was something like 2180, but I'm not going to complain.)

I notice that if I set the System Performance to "manual", I can adjust the CPU FSB clock in 1-mhz increments all the way up to 233. Should I leave it at 200 - e.g. would putting it any higher risk hurting the comp?

As mentioned before, I am a real newbie to this sort of thing, so I have some worries. What exactly is the FSB, and what does setting it higher do? I know it stands for "front side bus" but that means nothing to me. My main concern is that setting it to 200MHz is "overclocking" and will hurt the stability of my computer and even maybe burn out the CPU. I do have a decent cooling fan and heatsink with properly applied thermal paste, but I'm just cautious when it comes to this sort of thing and would like to be reassurred I didn't just risk my CPU's life.

But so far, everything seems to be running OK. Computer recognizes cpu as a 3000+ and doesn't seem to be overheating too badly. Thanks SO much for all the help, everyone. I'll post again if I have any problems.

Thankyou for posting back and letting us know how it all went.