devosc wrote:
Well, in my attempt to determine where / what the problem was I think I blew my my motherboard.... wahey!...
Tough break, but consider that the problem may have been the board all along. Chip speeds in the GHz seem to be a lot harder on MBs than older chips. In the last year I've had 4 boards fail (2-FIC, 1-Asus, 1-generic) all with symptoms similar to your's. It starts out with random crashes and sometimes data corruption on the HD. Then it progresses to crashes during startup and the board loses it's ability to "see" the attached drives. Try new cables and test the drive in another box if you can, but in the end it's usually MB failure.
ahh...
[$52.53] Motherboard SOYO KT600: http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-KT600V2&show=p
I don't have any experience with SOYO.
[$70.04] Memory 512MB: http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=D512M266KI
Chances are your RAM wasn't damaged unless you handled it. If it's compatible with the new board plug it in and test it. You may get lucky.
[$82.40] Ahtlon XP-220 CPU + Heat Sink & Fan: http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=XP-2200BX [$28.32] Mid-Tower Case & 350W Power Supply: http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=CA-ST103KU
Check the specs on the Athlon chip. AMD is pretty specific about which cases can support their chips. Good luck Jeff