Unfortunately:

Lights are on but nobodies home, and in fact there is no bus arriving (geddit?)

If you can't get the m/board to communicate with screen there is not much more with which we can help.


One last fling - does the PC emit beeps as it boots?

it never did any beeps on booting unless if there was a problem and it dosen't do any beeps at all

Beeps might have indicated various problems, RAM being the favourite (swap it, re-seat it).

Move the RAM around a bit, use only one stick, take out all daughter cards - except the PCI VGA card.

I have no further input - sorry -

However there is maybe somebody in the forum who does have an answer....

i think i'm just gonna buy a new Motherboard. thanks for the help

quick question, can i mix and match CPU's if they are the same socket and FSB speed?

Your CPU would have to match the new mainboards compatability list.