Motherboard, CPU, RAM, or power?

[altheya]

My computer (Asus MB, AMD 2500 Barton, 512meg PC3200) recently died. When pressing the power button, it begins the startup process, then "stalls" (for lack of better word) and shuts off. The few times it goes more than 10 seconds, it goes into the bios screen telling me the CPU was set to the wrong speed, and tells me to fix it. However, it does the same thing without the CPU chip in it (doesn't get as far as the bios screen though, just stalls at a random time between 1/2 second and 3 seconds. The LED on the motherboard comes on and stays on, with or without the CPU, it only slickers when it stalls.
Am I correct in my thinking that it is the CPU chip?

 

[altheya]

Update- I cleared the cmos and now it stays on without the CPU chip in it.

 

[Leonidas]

im not sure, try moving the jumper things and checking that, otherwise try unplugging a few of your optical drives incase the system is just pulling too much juice for your power supply, it can happen with smaller power supplies... and get online and order a cheapass socket A processor and try it in the slot, you can find em dirt cheap just to test. good luck

 

[Demalii]

yea you should try another cpu in there, because it could be the mobo to, ya never know. The reason it keeps asking to set your cpu speed, is probably because it doesn't see the chip, therefore it's asking you to set the speed manually, etc.. and since you can't save the bios, it'll keep going back to that. And the led should be on showing that power is good on the mobo.

 

[Nubius]

Try the above suggestions. I once had a board that the battery for the CMOS wasn't being held in properly so basically my computer could never retain information and I had to clear the CMOS everytime I wanted to boot up. so basically the mobo was useless. Pull out just the motherboard and put it somewhere where it won't conduct electricity. Plug in only one RAM stick, the CPU, Vidcard and keyboard....see it starts up...if it doesn't your only option is to start swapping out parts until you find a problem. If you can't swap out parts then......that makes troubleshooting kinda difficult :/