MSI K8N Neo Platinum IDE detect problems

[imported_Driller]

I recently built a new system with
MSI K8N Neo Platinum mobo wih the vVidia chipset
Athlon 64 3200+
Two new HDD -- WDD 80gB and 120gB
New round IDE cables, floppy cable
1 gB Corair ram
New Antec P160 case, reused old Thermaltake 420 PSU
reused old eVga nVidia GeForce MX440 AGP video card
reused old Sony CDRW and Mitsui DVD/CD, floppy, monitor
reused old Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse combo

Built the system but it would not power up. Found the case power switch was bad,
substituted switch from old case to check out system. Booted up, installed WinXP
Check all drives, graphics, etc. rma case and got a new one

Hooked system up with new case, powers up ok but will not detect IDE
The BIOS now shows its splash screen, but very difficult to get it to post or go to BIOS settings; hit or miss
Got into BIOS and turned off splash screens. Now will post as far as detect IDE and sttops there
Got back into BIOS; will not auto-detect drives. Tried all the following without success:
going down to only one HDD.. the one I know is good. only kybd, nouse, monitor, the one hdd
Pulled IDE cable, inpsected, replaced
replaced IDE round cable with old flat one that I had used in the previous pc; was working previously
replaced PSU with new Antect unit
tried on CD(with boot CD in place) plus HDD.
swapped to different hdd
(verified working hdd, cdrom, cables in other box)
Still no soap
The mobo worked previously before swapping out case, and is working now to id the chip, load the bios etc. just will not detect the ide hdd, no matter what I do. frustrated and out of ideas

I've been seeing discussions on the mobo that failure after working once is less than 2% chance...
I've also seen things suggested like moving the cpu cooler 180 deg., changing memory slots, etc. but my problem does not seem to be related to those things...

Should I rma the mobo? Or dump the CMOS using the jBIT1 jumper? Other ideas?
Help?

 

[imported_Driller]

Just an update for everyone..
after verifying the hdd, cable, psu
I cleared the CMOS and it dropped back to ver 1.1 but still could not detect the hdd
disassembled
found mbo no visible defects
cpu has one slightly discolored pin near the edge, possible burnt
a very small amnount of squeeze out on the thermal grease supplied with my Volcano cooler, but no excess ever went on anything.. only maybe 0.1mm "squeezeout" barely visible.
BUT
As reported on other folks.. extracted the cooler by lifting straight up, no tilt, no twist.
CPU came out of the zif connector with the cooler. No damage, all pins on, none bent.
but pretty scary. was able to remove the cpu from the cooler by simply sliding sidewise very gently. Seems the grease had quite a "suction" on the chip as it must have been a perfect (no air) fit??

Anyway..
RMA both mobo and cpu back to Newegg... asked if they would replace the Neo with a Neo2 but don't hold out much hope for that. Sounds like from this forum and others, many folks are seeing similar problems...