Motherboards Can't boot, won't boot

Trying to put together a desktop for the gf. It's an uphill battle.

I can't get the core components to work:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 - 3.16 GHz Dual-Core Processor
4 GIGABYTE (4 X 1 GB) OCZ PLATINUM REVISION 2 DDR2-800 PC2-6400 240 PIN RAM
PC Motherboard Asus P5K-VM Rev:1.02G Intel P4 Socket 775 Computer Mainboard WBP

The first mobo I tried (same model) I got a bios message but it wouldn't accept any keyboard inputs - I tried 3 different ps2 keyboards and all the same story. I really hope it wasn't just a dodgy ps2 port because I busted the pins when I tried to swap the cpu.

So new mobo and same cpu, the machine just spins the cpu fan up to maximum and sits there, no video output. Are there any easy mistakes I could have made? Possibly mobo was DOA?

Any help would be hugely appreciated, it's been a month since her birthday and I feel like I've spent money on a pile of broken electronics



edit: I should mention that a couple of the pins were very slightly bent on arrival and there was a bit of dust in the socket. I pushed them back into line and carefully tried to push out as much of the dust out as possible. Photo of how it arrived: http://i.imgur.com/colXw9w.jpg

 

Can't see how the cooler connects but it may be screwed in too tight?

 

Got to ask why would you buy such old tech anyway 2nd hand stuff is cheap especially in the MP here, How much did that set up cost you?

 

Is that motherboard a OEM as you have a front panel off a case with it?

May not support the CPU or may need a bios upgrade.

Got a old p4 to try?

 

try using unplugging the keyboard and booting

 

My first guess would be the bios doesn't support the cpu. When I first put my current system together I had the same problem and found updating the bios solved it.

If it's an oem system board perhaps it has some kind of case tampering sensor which needs to be connected to the original case for operation, this is a wild guess though ! don't even know why I said it.

 

Bios supports the cpu from bios 0704 onwards according to the cpu list on the asus site.
Where did you get the board? Do you have anything you chuck in that is older or know of anyone with old tech that you could borrow to BIOS flash. That is the most likely guess from me.

Edit - All my stuff from that era was amd I'm afraid, so I can't help.

 

I could probably find you out an older cpu which is on the 'from 0304 bios' list on asus's website to test on, sure I'll have something kicking around