Not getting power from the powered up? Meaning bad CPU or bad motherboard CPU socket? It could be either one. I've had blown caps on a mobo that would make the mobo unstable -- it wouldn't post at all but everything would run and power up, then after fiddling with it, it would run the latest and greatest games for weeks.
Likewise, when upping your bus and memory frequencies too high it will eventually refuse to post, but i could get a computer to post by installing a much smaller and different memory module. It would get the pc to post, but also lower all the bus and frequencies so far that an amd3000+ would register as 1600mhz instead of 2.2ghz. So, I would have to up the bus and frequencies to the correct setting then put the prefered 1-2gb ram back in to return to normal.
So independant portions of the mobo can cause headache confusing conditions, but unless you beat the absolutely bloody hell out of a cpu, or simply get a dead unit, it's unlikely it's your cpu when it's brand new. But simply installing the core 2 style of cpus with their messed up cooling mounting designs might just mess your hold mounting area of the motherboard.
Kind of makes me wish there was a handy way to tell if it was a bad cpu socket or a bad cpu. The cpu i just got yesterday, the board i've had for probably 3-4 months waiting for this damn cpu to come out sine feb. when it was announced to be out in march or there abouts.
