I have a 40gig HD, 3.0 ghz pent 4 processor (800mhz 1mb cache), 512 DDR ram (400mhz), Geforce FX 5200 (256mb) 420 watt power supply... So far ive tryed a lot, 3 different monitors, 3 different video cards. I have NO DISPLAY AT ALL, screen is blank, says its in power saver mode. no clue what to do, please help, thanks

does the mobo use onboard gfx? if so plug into that first

if not take everthing out aparnt from
hdd, mobo, 1 stick of ram, cpu, psu, gfx card if it then doesn't boot

new mobo TBPFH

you can try to boot the mobo out of the case in the eventuality where u could have a bad contact under the board.

you can try to boot the computer w/o rams as well if you dont even have a post code beep ( assuming your pc speaker is plug in ) then it might be a dead motherboard

wolfien-

hmm, none of that worked you think it might be power supply?

Yeah it could be ,you say no display at all ,does it post, do the fans run ,does the harddrive spin!!??

ok, everything runs...im not exactly sure about the harddrive though :\ but i think it is

Ok, Ive figured out this much, when the harddrive is connected to motherboard it doesnt run, same for the CD drive, when I dissconect them they run fine, just not connected to motherboard :\ I am pretty sure that it is the motherboard, is it that they arnt compatable or is it the motherboard being screwed up?

I never saw any incompatibility issue with cd or hd on a motherboard...
it COULD be the jumper.. make sure your HD is set on master.. and try maybe using a different ide port for your CD. ( master as well on the second ide )
Don't use cable select thing.. It might screw up things...

If you have the posibility to test the power supply either on another computer or with a powersupply tester.

Well, if you could, could you tell me how to do all that stuff in a more detailed way? lol im anoob

Building a computer .
http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/

Configuring the CdRom and HD.
http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/step/13/