Just make sure you smooth it out evenly also.Dont lick your finger after!

Hmmm, Artic Silver in Cool Mint flavor. Might be something to that idea.

Yeah, figured he knew about smoothing the goop, was not sure about the finger. I thought it was frosting,what did I know.  I stay a lot cooler now though.!

Check the RAM, is is all seated properly? Try one stick at a time. What post beeps are you getting? Recheck all your connections also.

Damn, that's a real bummer, I was sure it was AM2 backwards compatible.  Is there any way you could box it up again and see if you can do an exchange for an AM2+ socket board.  Like tell them it hasn't been used or anything and there was a mix up with the purchase due to the CPU coming from another source overseas, and only when it arrived did you know that you needed the AM2+ board.  It's worth a try... and apart from the shipping cost factor, I only have AM3 and AM3+ boards here anyway, so I'm not much use there, unfortunately.

You're right, kona, the Phenom II 920 x4 is an AM2+ socket CPU... and I can't see anywhere that it's backwards compatible.  So sorry about that, mate, I really thought the mobo you got would do the job, but obviously not.

Damn, damn, sod and bugger it.

AM2 and AM2+ are compatible as long as you're using DDR2 Ram.

They will work in either case...a AM2+ CPU will work in a AM2 motherboard and a AM2 CPU will work in a AM2+ motherboard...as long as the Ram is DDR2.

You could have a DOA motherboard or something connected wrong. Are all the power supply connectors seated correctly?

Do you get any form of life like lights or anything to indicate the psu is working? Do you have a voltmeter?Actually you should hear the dvd if the psu is working?I would think you would get no beeps if the board was dead.Checked all the jumpers that came on the board?Tried booting from a dvd?

Sorry Kona, I guess I should read better. I see your posts now. From all I have read, you are correct, the mobo and cpu are not compatible.

They will fit in the socket, but that is it 9 times out of ten sounds like.

I am not sure if I can help further or not financially right now. I wonder if you have checked the return  section at 3btech, they may do cod on returns or send a pre paid label to return and swap for a compatible board.

ASRock ALiveNF6P-VSTA Socket AM2+ Mainboard w/ nVidia geForce Video Onboard, DDR2, SATA 300 � Refurbished

This is what we should have got perhaps.

I have a 3gig intel I believe, would fit the board, but would not compare to the dual core. I would check on exchange of the mobo, let me know, I am not ditching the project yet.You can check on that exchange online, no phones.

Um, no, not according to the AMD site... the Phenom II 920 x4 was not forward compatible to AM2+. It works the other way around, an AM2+ CPU will run in an AM2 board, though.  I have a similar issue here, where my nephew put a Phenom II x6 1100T, which is a socket AM3 on an AM3+ socket board. It just wouldn't run/boot.  I simply swapped the mobo for a socket AM3 one and now it runs like a dream.  I also put a AMD FX4600 x4 on his AM3+ board and it runs okay.  In essence, then, the AM3+ CPU runs on a AM3 board but it seems the same is not true in reverse

Oh, that's strange!  When I had issues with it, my tech guy said that he had to remove one pin that appeared to be burred, otherwise it wouldnt seat cleanly. Hmmm, maybe he cleaned it up an put it back again.  I dunno, I just know that the CPU ran well when I last had it installed, which incidentally was on an AM2+ socket board, a Gigabye GA-MA770-DS3 that's now in my sister's machine, which she just brought back for some minor maintenance.

If that is the case then an exchange or refund would be in order, so yeah, check that out as it could well be your lifeline to a workingPC.

That's a quad core, actually, so it would be best to see if we can get that running before thinking of going back to the old board an 3gig Intels.

Um, while they were on the same invoice, surely they are separate items and only the board needs to go back?

I dunno... not having a good week here, either.  That frackin' Murphy has a lot to answer for, him and his damned law.

Oh well, next week has to be better and pessimism has been flushed away with tha bad.

Did you hook up the second power connection, if you have an old power supply it would must likely require an adapter ?