I'm tired, exhausted and frustrated but i'll try my best to be as clear and concise as possibe.

Couple days ago i went to my PC and started to plug the usb cable of my external HD into the USB front panel (antec p160 case). Suddenly the PC froze. i thought nothing off it and pushed the reset button.

nothing happened. =/

Concerned a bit, i pushed in the power button for a couple seconds... and still nothing. I quickly reached behind and turned it off via the PSU. I put it back on, and i got no image on my monitor. i turned it on and off for about two times afterwards and i got a messaging saying something about my cmos date needing setting. i felt a little relief as i went to update the date..but i realised the PC froze up. Since then i have been unable to get back to that screen (still no image on the monitor; the monitor is working, btw). I should add that i could power on the PC with the power button...but i couldnt reset and power if off (had to do it via PSU).

What i did so far:

Took the cmos battery out for about 15 mins. replaced but no changes.

I took all the wires out (the HD led, power, reset etc) and plugged back in the power and reset only. I could now reset and power off again(got to hold it down rather than pushing it once; usually you could push power once during the bios screen and it would shut off instantly.)

i've scanned the mobo for any exploded capacitors or anything of the like and found nothing. took out the memory and plugged them back in.. nada. Case didn't come with a case speaker (Dammit!)

i use an Asus p4c800 e-deluxe mobo if memory serves; no vga port and I cant seem to get the s-video thing to work for me, so i can't tell if it's a problem with my vid card(i hope not -__-)

Any suggestions guys (and gals)?

I disconnected everything except the cpu, memory, vid card and the power/reset leads and still nothing.

well,a few changes:

sometimes pushing the power button doesn't turn it off (currently working)
sometimes pushing the reset button doesn't reset the Pc (currently not working)

Welcome to PCHF Ephemeris

Seems like you have tried a lot of things to get this working. My suggestion would be to put your components into a new case and try that (it sounds like you got a cheap one if it didn't even come with an internal speaker :roll: )

It may be that your power/reset button is broken and it's possible (and I don't quite know how) that this was caused by you putting the USB cable into the connectors on the front of the PC. Borrow a case and try it....

We will tackle the gfx card problem if we get a positive result from the case swap out.