I have put in a new hard-drive - Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 80GB hard disk. i have checked the IDE cable, power cable and jumper settings (set to MASTER as only 1 hard drive). when i turn the pc on, all that appears is a blank screen - the American Megatrends screen doesnt even appear indicating BIOS hasnt started up. There is power to the system, the fans is moving, the CD drive door opens, therefore there must be power to the HD (also indicated by the HD light). What makes it worse is that when i put back the original hard drive (which was a 30GB fujitsu), it still doesnt start-up. can anyone explain??

disconnect the cables from drive, reseat all other cables to drives & motherboard & repower system. if posts reconnect cables to drive as is possible ide cable was in reverse as pin1 on pin 40 instead of pin 1

david

thanks for the response.

i did as you suggested but still no luck.

i disconnected the hard drive, checked all the other cables connecting drives to motherboard. when the system is turned on, still the same problem.

i reconnected the ide cable to the drive. i know the pins are definately in the right place (matching the connector to the pins (i.e. only 1 way it can plug in) and also the red line on the cable is alligned with pin 1).

i have a nasty feeling the motherboard has given up. but the internal lights (red, greed, red, red leds) are still on. fan is still on. etc.

any suggestions???

neaman