Unforunately it isnt that easy: I tried that and dont get any beeps at all
under any circumstances. (But I cant figure out if that is because the
contact to the speaker is loose or not)

"jakdedert" wrote in message
.. .
Start at the beginning: mobo and p.s. hooked up with only processor
installed. Listen for beeps. If you get them, add in memory--beeps
again,
add video card...and so on until the process fails. That's where your
problem lies.

jak

"My father's son" wrote in message
...
The Compaq really isnt in contention at the moment

Its purchase was probably a misake and it was probably intended for some
old
workstation but coincidentally has the same plug to a motherbaord.

I think you are right about the PS There probably isnt a lot wrong
with it as it CAN give the correct voltages so i assume it can give them
under proper circumstnaces and through the proper pinouts

But I have now excluded the mobo, the memory, the PS, the processor and
the
video card

This is getting really baffling and the guys at the ASUS boards couldn't
asssit in telling me what jumper settings I might have got wrong. But
it
also raises the possiblity that the SOyo mobo wasnt broken in any way
and
it
didnt have any particualr jumper settings

Baffled



"larrymoencurly" wrote in message
om...
"My father's son" wrote in message
...

To turn on a PSU without a mobo, connect its pin 14 (green wire,
Power
On) to a black wire, like pin 13 or 15 next to it. Some PSUs also
need a load of 20 ohms or less (use 10 watt resistor -- could get
hot
otherwise) between red and black wires for the +5V.

Yes, I was able to test the Soyo PS with this method but cannot
interpret
the results: The PS DOES seem able to give out 3.3 volts, 5 volts
and
12
volts. But some (one?) of the pins which should give out 12 volts
only
gives out 10 and a 5 volt one only gives out 3 volts.

I've found that the voltages will often be out of tolerance when a PSU
is tested without the mobo because some PSUs need rails to be loaded
with at least 1 amp, and I have a PSU that needs far more than that
and when loaded with just a 466 MHz Celeron the +12V rail will be so
low that the HD won't even spin. The Key Mouse website once listed a
minimum current of 5A for the +5V rail of one of its PSUs.

It's possible that the +5V wire that measures at only +3V is actually
a signal
line, like the Power-On signal (grey on standard ATX PSUs). One way
to find out is by connecting it to a known good +5V wire through a
1K-2K resistor (do NOT connect it directly to +5V!!!), and if it
increases to +5V then you know it's a signal output rather than a
voltage supply line.

Have you tried www.support.compaq.com to find the Compaq's pin
specifications?
Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be nearly as easy to use as Gateway's
online help.