BIOS not Loading

[cxviper993]

I wasn't sure where to post this but I figured this was the place.  I'd be glad to get some assistance.

I have an Athlon 3200+, Windows XP SP2, 768 MB RAM (DDR 333), 80 Gig SATA HDD, and a DVD Writer

So here's what happened, I use this machine as a media center, its hooked up to my tv.  I got these two old hard drives back from my friend asking me if I could have a look at them, so I open up the case on that computer and plug the two hard drives in, they're an 80 and a 60 gig and they connect through IDE.  I plug them in but the computer won't start up.  As in, I get the BIOS Image, you know that screen for the motherboard that you get, whatever picture it is, but I can't get into the BIOS and it won't go any further.  Just hangs.

So I unplug the drives, and it still hangs.  Finally I also unplug the IDE Cable itself, and for some reason BIOS loads and the system boots up.  Okay fine, so I figured I'll just put the cable in and plug the drives in while in Windows.  When I plug in the cable suddenly the system shuts off and since then I've been getting that Mobo image screen hanging and the computer hasn't loaded since.   

I unplugged almost all other cables, the SATA cables and such.  I've reset the BIOS twice and nothing seems to work.  I just wanna know whats going on because I just built the computer and I don't want it to go down after only 2 months just because I wanted to plug a few drives in.

Thanks for all the help.

[ChristPerson4]

you REALLY shouldn't mess with the insides of a computer while it's on, as you've probably already guessed. you MAY have fried the motherboard and you MAY have to buy a new one. i say MAY because i am not into hardware as much as software and can't really tell you for sure. i'm just guessing here. But it's an educated guess so don't completely blow it off. it might also help to give more info, like motherboard version etc. Hope you get it fixed.