[insertfunds]

Hey all. Need a little help before I go swapping more hardware around.

Start is (short version), doing a PC upgrade to the following hardware
- Motherboard GA-M16PM-S2
- AMD 4000+ dual CPU (no issue)
- 2GB (2 1x GB) DDR2 667
- GeForce 8500GT (512MB GDDR2)
- 550 Watt PSU
- 250 GB SATA HDD

Ok so I get home put all the hardware in the case should work fine right. Wrong, no display, so triple checked all the connections were correct and they were. Removed the GeForce card and could then get a display. So I contact shop and arrange ti go swap the graphics card. Get back home plug in new graphics card and still no display, yes no display on both onboard or graphics card I tested both.

So while reading the specs I noticed it needed a PSU of at least 450 watts that is when I went out today and got the 550 watt PSU. Tested with the graphics card and still no display without the card and I get a display off the onboard graphics though :(

Ok fine I'll fix that later I thought. So I installed Windows XP all installed ok on the HDD. Install the drivers for the onboard graphic, NIC etc etc.. Ok sweet it's running.... well so I thought. When to check the NIC settings was detected OK from my router. Not so lucky :( I keep getting a 169.254.x.x IP address and couldn't get it to get a IP address from my router.

Just playing it safe I thought I'll install Windows 2000 to see if the NIC works then. Once again still no luck the NIC was not getting a IP address from the router. Same story IP address was 169.254.x.x no matter what I did, release, renew the IP address and nothing, no luck at all.

Also to ensure it wasn't a power issue causing any of these problems I have tested from 3 different power sockets in the place (missus not happy with extension leads all over the place).

The only thing I forgot/haven't done yet is run a version of Knoppix to see what that does with the NIC. Also I had a second NIC in the PCI slot on the motherboard and Windows XP & 2000 and neither O/S's detecting any unknown PCI devices.

I'm fresh out of idea people. I'm starting to lean towards the motherboard is faulty. But would like some second thoughts on that.

Thanks in advance for any help
:)

[Emrys88]

The display problem:

Have you download\installed the latest drives for the graphics card.?

NIC problem:

I assume you are clicking the "Obtain Ip addess automatically" option?

[Krlll]

Yes you must get drivers for your card,also you might have to change settings in the BIOS so that the graphics card is used instead of onboard graphics.