Basically, last week while I was on my computer the HDD made a rather nasty click/crack sound and my computer reset itself. Since then it just booted up and went to the 'Disk Read Error' message. So I just thought I can format and inatall Windows again, but no. Due to problems abel to boot, I decided the likely problem was a faulty HDD, and as I was going to upgrade anyway it didn't bother me getting a new one. The problem is now this though. I have hooked up my new HDD into my system, but when I turn it on the system just doesn't boot. It powers up, every fan is spinning, every light is on, I can hear the HDD and DVD drive working, but there is no display, keyboard/mouse doesn't work. So it just turns on, but there is no display, no mouse/keyboard and no boot beep that you usually get, it just sits there on idle until I decided to turn it off again.

I have a feeling its the motherboard? Or something along those lines, but any advise would be appreciated. I have checked all the cables/connectors, ram and reset the battery but nothing has worked thus far. I'm currently unable to test anyother parts, i.e. replacement ram, graphics card etc, so I can't tell that they're not faulty, other than that they power up.

Thanks for any help.

Hello, and Welcome to D-A-L.

Is the old hard disk still in the machine (and connected)?

Are the disks EIDE or SATA?

If EIDE, are both disks on the same cable?

If yes, then check the disk jumpers. Make sure that they're not both set to Master or both set to Slave.

If you're using CS (Cable Select), you must use an 80 conductor/40 Pin cable and not a 40 conductor/40 Pin cable. The disk considered to be the Master should be on the end of the data cable, and the Slave on the middle connector.

You mentioned that you checked all cables etc. Double check them again, especially the video cables (and card if you're not using onboard graphics).

Did you take precautions against E.S.D. - Electro Static Discharge?