bootup issue

Are you able to "waggle the wires" inside the machine? Take care to switch it off at the wall and on the back of the machine. Also take care to touch the metal sides of the case to try to get rid of some of the static charge on your fingers. It sounds a lot like either the wide plug at the back of your drives carrying data, or perhaps the smaller power plug might have become loose either from the back of the drives or from the connection to the mbord. Be extremely careful not to let any static charges touch the mbord - the drives are a bit more robust but the mbord isn't. Take care not to breathe in the dust that somehow always accumulates - i don't think its dangerous but it makes me choke - so i have a glug of water if i breathe it in. Actually getting rid of the dust can be a good plan. I usually make sure nothing is loose inside the machine and then carefully use a hoover without getting the noozle tooo close of course because it's probably either plastic or metal and carries a charge that might damage the mbord.

Err, none of the above is useful if you have a laptop of course.

Good luck and take care, regards from
Tom :)

As the metal parts of the case should be earthed by the power supply it's a good trick to deliberately keep tapping the sides when you're rummaging around inside the case in order to reduce the static build up that happens on skin to help protect us from stuff.