"Hmm. Well thanks for all your patience. I guess us "Intel folks" are just spoiled. We expect plug-and-play everything, drivers that work, and documentation written in English."
Well, even if you were going from your bx chipset to another platform you still should'nt just replace the motherboard and hope. Now, maybe if going from one bx to another....maybe....
"Personally I think it's an interesting balance. Over the past week I've learned first-hand the differences between Athlon and Pentium. One side with ease-of-use, reliability, good driver support, documentation written in English, low speeds, and high prices. "
LOL, even some intel boards are made overseas ( tiawan etc.) and have crappy instructions. THAT all depends on the company you got it from.
The other side with high speeds, even higher cpu temps, low prices, crappy drivers, worthless chipset support, incredibly difficult and involved installation
Yes, I agree there is a bit more to an install on a via board, not that much more but more none the less. However, you must see that by making certain assumptions without first consulting your manual you made this even worse on yourself.
"Teaching myself how to build these systems over the years, I've made a lot of mistakes as you might imagine. However, never has the penalty for cutting a few corners been so severe and costly in terms of time and lost data. But, I'm not giving up. "
Well, if the corner you cut with the power supply is the issue, then all the above does not apply. Everything you did was for nothing. Yor retailor should have told you that you needed such a ps for one. There is however a chance that the motherboard is bad, it happens, quite a bit lately I am afraid. This is not an amd problem but again a problem with quality control at Iwill, Asus, Abit or however and is not limited to Via chipset either.
lets see what happens when you get the new power supply and then we can for once definatly see if in fact the motherboard is bad. but please, make no assumptions and follow my instrauctions exactly ok?
A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!