I finally borke down and bought a 6800 GT video card. All excited I unplug my machine, open the case, ground myself and swap it in. Nothing. While waiting for a response from PNY I throw it in my backup machine, Works fine there. I replace the old video card in my main machine. Still nothing. I notice that the fan on my old card (2tr old 5200) was frozen. Upon the advice of the PNY tech I tried resetting cmos. nothing - not a beep. I pulled out the mother board onto a pizza box plugged in just the power and shorted to power jumpers . THe CPU fan starts - nothing else, again not a beep even without video card or memory .
I guess the mother board is shot? Are there any other tests I can do?

If the video card and RAM were installed when you started with the MB on the pizza box and there was no display, then make sure the video card is fully seated. Sometimes it needs a healthy push to properly seat.
Also, check that the power supply's main connector is securely attached to the MB.

If that's ok, then either the MB, CPU, or power supply may be the cause.
Swapping out is the easiest way to determine which one is bad.

weird
I tried 3 different video cards last night. I was getting NO responce from the MB whatever I did except the power light on the board and the CPU fan starting when I shorted the power jumpers.
I was getting seriously depressed. - bought video card I couldn't afford and lost my pc in the process

Today however is different.
This morning I through a stick of memory in, tossed on my trusty ti 4200 and powered it up. Wonder of wonders - it posted and yelled at me for not having a floppy or keyboard. Glad to see the old boy again, I didn't take it personally.
Eventually I have it all back together including the new video card and it appears to be running stabley(how do you spell that?) . All I can figure is that the computer fairies saw my fretful tossing and turning and took pity on me. It is amazing how much better I am feeling right now thatn I was 24 hours ago.

Stably speaking, why is it frustration makes one feel ill anyway? All the stress and confusion take a toll on our feelings of well being and I swear it feels as if we have a fever and are all pooped out, tired, worn etc.

Glad to see you managed to get it all up and running though, now that is just like a feel good drug isn't it? ;) Take a Happy Pill and call me in the morning...

Yep, glad to hear that you got your system up and running again.

Yes, a VERY good feeling that weight lifting off of my chest. Not to run too deep with this but this short conversation has thinking about how people use substances to avoid feeling overwelmed and frustrated. I can see how that quickly can turn into a very slippery, distructive slope as problems only get worse as they are hidden away. What complicated beasts we humans are...