Asus P4C800-E DLX won't boot!

Hi all,

I'm an old hat at overclocking, but mostly I browse the forums only
when I need some specific info. This is one of those times. I've
built 10-15 computers of my own, the last being an AMD Athlon64 3200+
which is still rockin' hard after a year and a half. Previous to that,
I still have 4 of my P4 systems, all successfully overclocked to
almost 50%.

System 0 - Abit BP6 w/2x400MHz CPU's oc'ed to 600Mhz (retired)
System 1 - Abit BE7-RAID w/P4 1.8a oc'ed to 2.6GHz
System 2 - Abit IT7-Max w/P4 1.6a oc'ed to 2.4GHz
System 3 - Abit IT7-Max w/P4 2.0a oc'ed to 2.8GHz
System 4 - Abit IT7-Max2 2.0 w/P4 1.6a oc'ed to 2.4GHz

As you can see, I found a good bunch of "a" spec processors
that overclock very well.

System 5 - still trying to get this system up and running and losing
patience fast!

Asus P4C800-E Deluxe rev 2.00
CPU 1 - P4 Mobile P4 1.6/3.06 SL726
CPU 2 - P4 2.4C SL6WF
CPU 3 - P4 3.0C SL6WU
ZALMAN CNPS 7000-Cu
2x512 Crucial Ballistix PC-4000 RAM
eVGA 6800GS 256MB AGP video card
200GB Seagate
100GB WD
NEC ND-3500A DVD burner
Power supply: 380W Antec True380S

Basically I can't even get this board to post. I bought my first
P4C800-E DLX 2.00 on eBay (seller said he was parting out a killer
system and the mobo worked flawlessly) and the 3.06 mobile P4 to see
how far it could overclock. Well, it would POST and actually install
the OS, but I could never get it to hold anything other than 1.6GHz.
It would always say "Overclocking failed" and stop. The
only thing I could do was hit F2 (or was it F1?) to load defaults and
continue on. If I changed the FSB, it would always force me to revert
back to stock settings.

So, I bought another P4C800-E DLX 2.00. Everything else is the same.
Now, NONE of the CPU's I have will even post. Not even the 3.06 that
I KNOW works good. The system turns on but that's it. I've tried the
DVI and VGA connectors on my video card, nothing. Tried resetting the
CMOS, nothing. Tried known good 300W power supply, nothing. Once, and
only once, did I get the female voice to tell me something, but it
was so noisy in here, I couldn't make out what it was saying.

I am leery about pulling a CPU from my other P4 systems because all of
the HSF setups I used are not stock Intel units. They are the kind
that bolt onto the motherboard and I would have to pull the entire
motherboard out just to yank the CPU. Not only that, but none of them
support 800MHz FSB CPU's, so I can't test anything other than on this
motherboard. Is it possible to overtighten the two screws on the
Zalman HSF setup?

Does anyone have ANY suggestions? I am at my wits end here. I am ready
to ditch this setup and go with a brand new P4 775 setup or maybe
another AMD setup. Only thing is, I have a brand new AGP video card
and most new mobo's are using PCI-E.

I've searched quite extensively, but all I'm trying to do is get this
machine to at least POST.

Thank you,
:Christian:.

UPDATE:

OK, I pulled one of the memory chips, thinking it may boot (I read it
somewhere that troubleshooting should be done with one RAM module).
Anyways, it at least POSTs now. However, I have noticed a couple of
things:

1. It won't boot with a RAM module in either both of the blue slots or
both of the black slots, which is a requirement for running in
dual-channel mode.

2. It will boot with one module in a blue slot and one in a black
slot, allowing me to have 1GB RAM, but not in dual-channel mode.

3. It always gives me an error on bootup "Overclocking failed,
press F1 to continue, F2 to run setup". This is with my 2.4C
CPU. BIOS settings for CPU are on defaults. I changed the RAM
settings to manual - they are set at 2.5/4/4/8 (defaults according to
Crucial). However, if I change it to read from SPD, I still get the
"overclocking failed" error msg.

4. mobo has 1018 BIOS.

Would an upgraded BIOS help me out any? I have 1023 and 1024 (beta)
available here and can flash in a jiffy.

.:Christian:.