But!.. If the CPU wont work.. Uhm. I can still flash the bios? I also heard theres problems with RAM due to old BIOS(I realized I should have posted this in general homebuilt, sorry) can I still flash the bios to solve the problem?
OK. I've been through hell with my upgrade in the past 3wks with this same old issue & was able to resolve this living nitemare.
Here goes...
1- With the CPU in & the RAM out, turn the system on, don't worry about the BIOS version yet.
2- You should get beeping. This is the motherboard telling ya it's ALIVE!!!! & well & telling you that there isn't any RAM installed. This is GOOD.
3- If you put the RAM back in & you get nothing you have the same problem I had. the RAM is incompatible. SEND it back!
In my case I have OCZ RAM & I called OCZ. They e-mailed me a UPS shipping label. I sent OCZ the new RAM instead of sending it back to ZIPZOOMFLY.COM (cuz they wanted to charge me a restocking fee for returning the RAM). OCZ, as well as many others, are discovering that they have some sort of timing issue with CONROE CPU's & are gladly swapping your new & faulty RAM with freshly re-FLASHED RAM.
Mine came back after 2.5 weeks (the wait was unbearable). In the meantime, since I'm an impatient S.O.B so I went to the local FRY guy & bought two sticks, 512MB each of 5300 BUFFALLO DDR2-667 RAM just to get the system going. Each stick cost me $55.
4- Get you new BIOS update handy on either a Floppy disk or a FLASH Drive (even better).
5- Once the RAM issue is out of the way you turn on your newly rusting rig & reflash the BIOS either from the FLOPPY or USB FLASH drive (if you have one). You DO NEED to have the CPU installed & RAM for this to happen. You don't need your Hard drives connected to do this if you don't want to for the bios update process.
I hope all this helps.
PS: I returned my ASUS P5B & am happy with my GIGABYTE DQ6 Mobo.