ok, so this is what happened. the cpu over heated, she also blew out. i suspected it was the cpu and mobo that died. so i bought new cpu and mobo. she still didnt start up. so i got a new PSU. now, she still wont start up. now im starting to think that the psu blew out the new mobo and cpu that i have. or the memory is dead. now, the computer doesnt beep at al. tho i took oout everthing but the vid card and 1 stick of ram, and nothing happened. so i took out the other stick of ram, and she started to beep again. now im starting to think that when i got the new mobo and cpu that the old PSU blew them up again OR that the ram is dead. what do you guys think?? should i get new memory and see if it works, or just get new mobo-cpu-memory AGAIN ? please let me know

I think you should get someone to look at the machine that knows how to diagnose problems. You have done all the diagnostics yourself without any success - but not a word about symptoms. What makes you thing the CPU overheated in the first place? Pentium 4s have mechanisms to stop them from over heating to destruction. An overheated CPU should not take the motherboard out although a faulty power supply could. It could be memory, but then you make no mention of the hard disk which could also be the problem. But then again, it might be the video card. Without some symptoms, any diagnostics is going to be guesswork. It doesn't work is not a symptom. Stuart

sorry, i have alerady established that the cpu over heated and died. she was running at 216C, and just gave in. there was discoloring all over the surrounding motherboad. but i think the failure trickled up. and took everything out with it. ormaybe just the PSU went dead, and killed everything with it. who knows. now as for my symptoms, the computer starts ups. hard drives are click'n, fans are spining. but thats about it. the monitor wont go on and show me an bios info. and i know that the video card is working just fine. i have cleared the cmos memory. and like i said above, i first thought it was cpu-mobo problem. i replaced. didnt work. thought it was PSU. got new PSU still wont start up. now im at the point where i think its either the memory or that the old-dead psu killed my new stuff.

216C!!! I am not surprised it died at that temperature. Thats twice the boiling point of water and near the melting point of the solder that holds the whole thing together. At those kind of temperature there is no telling what else might have died. Most CPU are rated at a maximum temperature of around 90C. If you managed to get it up to that temperature then there is something grossly wrong. Have you got a proper heat-sink and fan installed with the fan connected to the right motherboard header. Without both nothing will work. Stuart

well, its funny story. When i saw her get'n that hot the first thing i did was freak out. then i did everything i could think of. and i just thought it was the censor act'n up. and at the very moment she died. i mean at the very second, i knew what was wrong. the heatsink and fan were cloged with dust. cuting off al flow of air. its one of those things that i just forgot to check. but b4 we get off topic, can any one confirm my PSU theory? or provide another reason for my non-start-up action

Sorry, but I have to take issue your "burn out" diagnosis & also with the 216C temp reading. 216C = 421F, I'm fairly certain that didn't happen. And as Stuart said, it is virtually impossible to overheat a P4 to destruction. That's because of it's built-in thermal protection circuitry. The protection works in 2 stages. The 1st thing that happens is the CPU will "throttle back" in an attempt to cool itself, but if the temp continues to rise & it reaches the "trigger temp", the CPU shutdowns completely. Randomly replacing parts is not what I call troubleshooting, it's called "guessing". You've already bought a new board, CPU, & PSU & it still doesn't work, so you apparently haven't hit on the problem yet. Keep buying parts...eventually you'll replace the right one...LOL Asus A7N8X-X 1800+ @ 8.5 x 200MHz 768MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7 Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB WinME/WinXP Pro

When you removed the ram, the computer started beeping. These annoying beeps indicate that there is no ram. This also indicates that the cpu and motherboard are working. If you had more than one stick of ram, try with the other(s). It is possible that whatever caused this extraordinary situation took out every component of the computer.