Ok guys, I have good news and I have bad news...
- The good news is I got a replacement motherboard.
- The bad news is that my computer doesn't boot. It turns on, but no video, no POST beep, nothing...
I installed everything back in, my RAM, video card, processor, etc, but when I press the power button, the fans, processor, hard drive and all that stuff turn on, but I don't get any video. The screen is black. ALTHOUGH, I did get one screen. It's the one where it has the energy star thing on and a list of the components you have in your computer (the one where it does the memory test), and everything looked ok, except that it said my processor was an Athlon 1700 (it's a 2600 XP.) That's the only video I got.
Then, I decided to install an MSI D-Bracket 2 because it has 4 LED's on it that show you what the computer is doing during bootup. I turned on the computer, and it hung at "Memory Detection Test: Testing onoard memory size. The D-LED will hang if the momory module is damaged or not installed properly." So, I took out the dual channel stick, and restarted. It then hung at "Testing Base and Extended Memory: Testing base memory from 240k to 640k and extended memory above 1MB using various patterns." ........
But........
Aside from the memory issue indicated by the D-Bracket, is the video issue. I popped in my dads old GeForce 2 card, and the same thing happened. No video. The actual tube turned on (i heard it "fizz", but it didn't display anything; the green LED just kept blinking on and off." So, it can't be the video card's problem.
I don't know..... tomorrow, i'm going to install my memory sticks into my dads computer and see if it's the RAM. If it isn't, then it's obviously the used "replacement" motherboard. I have quotations around "replacement" because it smells like my old one; a burnt dust smell. I'm going to go check the S/N and PIN of the replacement and compare them to my old one (numbers should be in my RMA email to MSI.)
But yea, I'll let you all know how my RAM turns out tomorrow. If the RAM is ok, I'm sending the "replacement" back to MSI for a WORKING replacement.