C90S CPU compatibility and boot-up issues

I've just built a c90s with the 512MB 8600, 2GB of A-DATA ram, a common 250Gb laptop drive, no wifi (yet), and an E6420.

A while back, when I had mistakenly installed an incompatible processor (the Q6600), I tried booting with the battery removed but AC power connected, because the Asus website recommended this if the display was nonfunctional (which seemed to be the case; I'd power it on and it would have every appearance of simply idling with a blank screen, and not even any visible backlight). When I pressed the power button there was a short pause in which nothing happened, then the power light blinked once and died. For some reason, the power supply's LED also died simultaneously (although in reality it dimmed down slowly beginning then, as power supplies tend to). Replacing the battery and removing the power supply did not fix this, nor did booting with both the battery and the power supply connected, although in this case the battery charge LED is on until I try to boot it, at which point it dies simultaneously with the power LED.

Now that I've installed the E6420, a processor that many websites offer in combination with c90s, and which many people here seem to implicitly report functional, the problem remains. Asus tech support tells me that the processor is incompatible. What's going on here? My only guess is that I somehow fried the mobo, and Asus's techs are mistaken about the functionality of their own hardware.

 

Addendum: BTOTECH, who I purchased the barebones from, states that the BIOS supports the E6420. Asus must be mistaken. So, what else could be causing my system to fail in this manner?

 

I would say see if one of your friends has a e6600 or something else that works and see if the problem is not in your motherboard/socket...


then go from there

 

I'm the only one I know with a recent intel processor that's compatible. In lieu of any other options, I'm thinking I should send the barebones to asus and see what they make of it. That'd tell me if the barebones itself is the problem, anyway.