So I recently received my Abit NF7-S motherboard, Athlon XP 1700 CPU, and 512MB PC2700 RAM, along with a CPU fan/heatsink, etc. Began the process of installing last night, and before installing my peripherals, the PC would POST, CPU temps were nominal, etc. Then I put in a few hard drives, my video capture card, etc. and it wouldn't POST. No video, no BIOS beeps, but the LEDs on the motherboard are lit, all the fans go on, etc. So I figure I might have too many things connected, so I unplug everything, and I get the same results. Tried again tonight with a brand new power supply/case (not that those were at fault, but I needed a new one anyway) and still no luck.

So what the hell happened? I was taking care to avoid static electricity, I didn't cross any power connectors on the motherboard... Is there anything else I cna do to diagnose the problem? Is it possible it's the CPU or RAM that's failed somehow? How can I tell exactly what's gone wrong? I don't have any other compatible RAM or CPU I can swap in, unfortunately, or I'd try those.

This kinda sucks. I was really looking forward to getting this system together, and now it's clear something's broken. And chances are it's my fault, I just don't know what I did. I've built a dozen computers in my lifetime and never had these kind of problems... Just the way my luck's been recently.

So... ideas?