Had to shut down a advanced server 2000 to carry out some maintenance (replacing network cables that had been wired incorrectly). changed the cables and rebooted, got a cmos error so went into setup and loaded default settings, saved and rebooted but then nothing. no boot. The cdrom kept clicking away for osme reason, unplugged all non essential drives but still nothing. Motherbaord has a readout on it, kept changing rapidly displaying numbers and letters. Thats where i am now, any one got any ideas? PSU is fine.

More happened to that server than replacing cables. Sounds like there was a short which set the cmos back to blank. Normally you don't choose "default" in cmos but configure the time, date, detect the drives, confirm boot order and modify onboard items like usb/serial/lan to what you need them to be set at [use or not use]. cdrom clicking away may have been the system looking for bootable media. If your main drive was partitioned and the OS was on the second partition, disconnecting the other drives was a MAJOR mistake and would explain nonbooting. Hook everything up, properly configure the bios and get the manual so you can read the error codes on the mainboard. Give a person a fish, they eat for a day. Suggest they internet search and they learn a skill for a lifetime.

The only drives unplugged were floppy cdrom and tape. both hard drives were left as they were. Neither of the drives are partitioned c: holds the os and d: is purely for data storage.

any beeps? (if not, is there a system speaker????)