Hi,
I recently purchased a new power supply Antec Earthwatts 380w (my old one was faulty) once I installed it, nothing came to screen when all the plugs were in, when I looked back on the manual it said in most of the steps to keep my power cable plugged in while doing all this (I guess it was to earth it) everything appeared to be working other then the screen (ie. lights, CPU fan, hard disk, CD drive etc), then I went back to my old PSU and plugged that in and it didnt work either!

Could I have 'short circuitted' my motherboard just by not keeping it connected? If so is their a way I can fix this?

Please help, I dont have enough cash to get this repaired.

Thanks, Elliot.

Does your monitor show ANY sign of life at all? A glowing power button?

Cos my old crappy PC does this sometimes, the PC will turn on but the LED on monitor goes orange (instead of green) and wont display anything.

I dont know why it does it but its probably linked to the CPU somehow, the only way i can *fix* it is to really jam the power cable into the PC power socket while kinda twisting it about to make sure it gets a good connection lol... Then turn it Off / On. I have to do this frequently

There thats my technical explination, probably wont help but i tried lol

You don't need to keep any cables connected to your motherboard when upgrading/cleaning,... I would just clear the CMOS, either by removing the battery for 3 mins (while powered off) and then replacing it, or using the jumpers if your motherboard has that option.
However it's highly unlikely that you have damaged your motherboard.

You sure you have everything plugged in firmly (and correctly) also?

rlilewis: yes, the power LEDS at the front of the computer stay on / blink. hmm
Darklord: Say what? I can just take out the battery? Can I put the same one back in (I dont have another CR2032 battery)? I dont think my motherboard has 'jumpers' Their may still be hope
Thanks!
Elliot.

Ok just tried replacing it with the same 1 (I only have one with me at the moment) and nothing hapened, Il buy a new one tommorow. Thanks.

Yea, by removing the battery, it deletes all your custom settings and returns the motherboard to default/factory settings.

Do you have an extra video card?

Buying a new motherboard battery won't change anything though, it's like that battery you have in your alarm, it just makes sure the settings stay the same, but it doesn't matter that much if there is a battery or not.

It's very likely it's your video card