Brian, The good news is that it is nearly impossible to screw something up by improperly seating an LGA1150 CPU. I've seen someone manage to do it, but that was a very special case. The pins are built into the socket, not the CPU, and they sit nearly horizontally, so the only way to bend a pin is to scrape the socket horizontally somehow. As far as seating goes, it is possible to seat the socket improperly, but it should be obvious, if you take a second look. You're looking for this: http://www.geforce.cn/sites/default/files-editorial/attachments/installation-11.png Note the two bumps that line up precisely, and allow the CPU to just fall into place. Also, often you will see a matching arrow, either somewhere on the motherboard, or on top of the metal piece that flips down over the top of the CPU. Another indicator can be that sometimes a manufacturer will make the socket square in all but one corner. The corner that the arrow should line up with may be chopped off at an angle, like seen here: http://media.bestofmicro.com/L/J/399943/original/03fig15.jpg Something very strange I have seen before is that sometimes if you get a motherboard that has been sitting in stock for a while, it may have an old BIOS revision. The manufacturer's page may list your CPU as supported, but if you dig through documentation, you may find that it is only supported after a certain BIOS revision. Of course, you can't find out which revision is on your motherboard without first putting in a supported CPU, which I'm guessing you don't just have lying around. Maybe if you're lucky there's some label on the box where they recorded the revision during the manufacturing process. That could at least point you in the right direction. One other thing to note, often the CPU fan will turn on, but rev down to a reasonable speed. If the fan is blowing full blast and doesn't rev down while the computer is booting up, that's usually a sign that something is wrong. I hope that helps. - Justin On Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 5:52 PM, Brian Wood <woodbrian77 at gmail.com> wrote: > I got all the parts now and am trying to build the system. > When I power it on I get code "00" on a led. According to > the motherboard debug info, that means: > Please check if the CPU is installed correctly and then > clear CMOS. > > I thought that the two notches on the cpu were lined up > with the two things on the motherboard. I tried lining up > the gold triangle on the cpu with something on the > motherboard but I didn't see a similar triangle on the > motherboard. Now I'm hoping I haven't messed up > the cpu or the motherboard. What to try next? One bit of > good news was that the cpu fan was on the whole time. > > I've removed the heat sink and am looking at the cpu > and it looks to me like those notches are lined up right. > I wasn't sure if I was putting the memory in the right > slot. I put it in the slot furthest from the cpu/socket. > I read the motherboard manual on the memory, but > still wasn't sure. > > Someone may ask me to take a picture, but I don't > have a cell phone contract for that. Tia. Please reply > to me directly. > > -- > Brian > Ebenezer Enterprises - In G-d we trust. > http://webEbenezer.net > > > > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >