I recently went out of town on business and took my desktop with me, I never really had any problems until I got home...

The first thing i noticed was when i turned it on i got an Intel screen (mobo manufacturer), and nothing else, the HD light would stay on and never blink, but the comp wouldn't go to windows. I thought it might be booting slow for some reason so i gave it like an hour but nothing happened. After a dozen or so resets it finally went to windows.

Next problem, now that we're in windows, the video card i installed 4 months ago isnt working, and its running on the onboard vcard with a generic driver. The computer wouldn't detect my good card, i fooled with that for 5 hours or so, removing all trace of ATI programs and drivers from my comp and trying to reinstall it from scratch (hardware and software), using the CD and also the new CAT drivers and software on the site, but an error message would come up during install saying there were no components to install the software for, and shutting down the setup. i checked the device manager and noticed my VGA controller wasn't working properly and there was no way to install or update the drivers.

next day i notice that DX9 wont work with the generic drivers on the onboard card, so i update those and get DX9 working for the time being. a couple hours later i shut down my comp for something and the worst of the problems start.

the computer won't boot up at all, when i turn on the power the power light comes on and the CD drive flashes a bit to show that its working, but the HD light stays off, doesnt blink at all, when i turn off the power the HD light blinks as it goes off. i get no display on the monitor at all black screen...

ive tried removing everything not needed for boot up (everything other than a stick of ram and the display), nothing, i tried booting without the hard drive and nothing, i replaced the BIOS battery...

anyway sorry for the long post, thanks in advance

It may be a problem within windows..you said that it comes up with the initial POST but didn't make it to windows most of the time when you tried to boot it. This may be a faulty windows install...Maybe the windows installation you have began to malfunction somehow...not allowing it to boot properly and not allowing it to recognize some hardware on your system. I would first try a reinstall of windows and see if you can get the computer booting properly before you try to mess with the vid card problem. If windows does install correctly and boots correctly try to reinstall the card. If the card still isnt recognized pick another one up cheap or borrow a friends..yours may have simply died. If it refuses to recognize the other video card it may be a dead slot on your mobo. If windows does not work after reinstallation or will not install correctly you may have a faulty hard drive and have to start with a fresh one. Sorry for this reply being so long but these are just a few of the things that come to mind.

As lomg as your post is, so could the answer be because it sounds like allot of things. It sounds like a bad hard drive and bad video card. I realize the system is new but so what.
You need to boot to cd and try the XP repair first....so we know it isn't software.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
then the other thing since you traveled with it would be to reseat all the cables and plugs because something may have come loose in your travels. The other thing it sounds like is hardware XP does not like...but again that could be a case of reseating soemthing too.

i'm not worried about the vcard problem now, but i cant reinstall windows, i dont think its getting past POST, the intel screen i was talking about was normal, now it doesnt do anything, all you see is the blue power light and hear the fans. HD powerlight doesn't light at all so i don't think its doing anything, im thinking its either my HD or power supply

heh thanks rich we posted at the same time

but i've already tried reseating all of the cables, that was one of the first things i tried.

about the hardware, in a little over four months this is the first time ive had a problem with any hardware issue with this particular PC, if thats what it is.

i'd love to try a repair for format my HD, but there is no display, and it won't boot from a cd

Well it has to be psu first, then video card then hard drive...and of course ram corrupted could be causing all of this but not as likely now.

Rich M
www.kickenhardware.net

depend on all posts above, the first thing came to my mind was: Most likly the MoBo has been damaged during your traveling.